2022 NFL Draft: Todd McShay reveals latest intel on former Alabama linebacker Christian Harris

ESPN’s NFL Draft analyst Todd McShay is still scratching his head regarding how far Alabama linebacker Christian Harris, who is supposed to be a second-fourth round selection, is supposed to fall when draft days rolls around in late April.

“I mean, he’s an undersized linebacker I get it six-foot-and-a-half, 226 pounds at the Combine probably plays around 230 or 235,” McShay said of Harris. “But, he ran the second fastest 40 time of all the linebackers with a 4.44 and had his best game in the national championship; his last game in that loss to Georgia. He was all over the field.”

Harris posted seven total tackles, three sacks and one forced fumble against the Bulldogs in Alabama’s 33-18 national championship loss in January. One the season he compiled 45 solo tackles (79 total), 5.5 sacks and two forced fumbles.

“He got better as his career progressed. He flies around the field — he is a missile,” McShay said. “He crushed the run, he can cover and he can get up to the quarterback a little bit as you see with the five-and-a-half sacks in 15 games last season.”

As McShay noted, Harris only got better has his career progressed. He put together a 63-tackle season during his true freshman campaign before jumping up to 79 his sophomore and juniors years which ranked fifth on the team last season.

So, why wasn’t he that Alpha Dog the quarterback of the defense like all the great linebackers coming out of Alabama with Nick Saban have been? According to McShay, the knock on Harris is the lack of football IQ, noting he is a click late diagnosing players and teams are worried that it will cause him more problems in the league than it did at Alabama.

Fellow NFL Draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah has Harris being selected in the second round, 39th overall to the Chicago Bears, while others have him going anywhere from 36-78, which would see Harris going anywhere in the mid second round, to the late third.

Coming out of high school, Harris was the No. 129 overall recruit in the Class of 2019, according to the On3 Consensus, as well as the No. 16 linebacker and No. 6 player in Louisiana. Being undersized for an SEC linebacker never created any problems on the field for the former Crimson Tide star, either and he’s been a player teams have to game plan around in every level he’s competed at throughout his career and doesn’t expect that to change at the next.