WHERE ARE YOU MAKING THOSE TACKLES?

In college, they moved Harris all over the place, (BIG RED FLAG) trying to find a position he could play and use his athletic ability to help the team. But, he has NO awareness for the game and even though he makes tackles, they are all downfield. He is not a play maker, he gets caught on blocks and having played Kansas City twice last year in Denver, he was major point of emphasis of attack for our offense against their defense. If just does not react with quickness and suddenness and unless the scheme feeds him into the play, he will never make a play.

You have to determine is it the scheme or the player when scouting. Clearly in Oakland, we failed to make this determination before we made him a number one pick.

over 3 years ago KCFanatic 5 comments 1 recs |

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Holy crap, that’s absolute gold.

GREAT find.

by Direckshun on Jun 3, 2008 5:41 PM CDT reply actions

I was floored as I read it...

and evidently Mike Lombardi was with Harris in Oakland, and with Denver last year – I found it funny that they actually game-planned to run at Harris… I hope Harris is right, and he is the real deal, but I agree with Lombardi – having the most tackles doesn’t necessarily mean that you were in position all the time, it just means the ball was coming near you often :)

by KCFanatic on Jun 3, 2008 5:55 PM CDT reply actions

Great insight! Is it credible?

Who is Mike Lombardi? In my quest to determine the credibility of the author, here’s one of the links I found and the story. I was wary about the legitimacy of his opinions because of the bio presented in his blog, which reads something like, “I’ve been an executive in the NFL for 20 years and worked with [lot of big name coaches.] ” From the little I can tell, he’s legit. If so, his insight is very, very interesting. I found the recommend “button” for this post and hit it, with kudos to KCFanatic!

For those trying to understand his point, Lombardi’s responding to Nap Harris’ reply to criticism a few days ago with the fact that he led the team in tackles.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/wire?section=nfl&id=2952007

Updated: July 27, 2007, 7:16 PM ET
DENVER—The Denver Broncos have hired Mike Lombardi as personnel assistant.
Lombardi, 47, spent the previous eight seasons in the Oakland Raiders’ player personnel department. He also spent nine seasons with the Cleveland Browns, working as a scout, pro personnel director and director of player personnel.

Lombardi also worked for the Philadelphia Eagles and San Francisco 49ers after serving as defensive line coach for UNLV from 1982-83.

Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press

Disclaimers from Sunny D: With the name Lombardi, how do you NOT get work in the NFL? And is it really a good thing on the resume to have spent “the previous eight seasons in the Oakland Raiders’ player personnel department?”

by sunny D on Jun 4, 2008 1:55 AM CDT reply actions

Pardon my skepticism

But I keep wondering why a team executive would be so open about game planning info. Maybe it’s so obvious after-the-fact that saying Harris was considered the weak link (in a sense) is old news. I did find a link that listed Lombardi on the official Bronco web site:

http://www.denverbroncos.com/page.php?id=357&contentID=7479

But the current list of player personnel staff on that Bronco site does not include Lombardi. So perhaps he is no longer with them and is doing media stuff full time as an analyst. Mike, if you’re out there…feel free to respond. No disrespect. Just wanting to verify things.

by sunny D on Jun 4, 2008 2:19 AM CDT up reply actions

Lombardi's first article for SI.com

Don’t know why I’m obsessing on this guy, but here’s his first article for SI.com, in which he nails the Jake Long draft analysis before the fact. So…more credibility in my mind for his Harris analysis.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/football/nfl/04/09/mike.lombardi/index.html

by sunny D on Jun 4, 2008 2:53 AM CDT up reply actions