William Jamahl Harris (born December 19, 1995) is an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

cornerback A cornerback (CB) is a member of the defensive backfield or secondary in gridiron football. Cornerbacks cover Wide receiver, receivers most of the time, but also blitz and defend against such Play from scrimmage, offensive running plays as sweep ...

for the Detroit Lions of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

(NFL). He played college football at Boston College.

Professional career

The Detroit Lions selected Harris in the third round (81st overall) in the 2019 NFL Draft. The Detroit Lions traded their third (88th overall) and their sixth round picks (204th overall) in the 2019 NFL Draft to the

Minnesota Vikings The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. Founded in 1960 as an expansi ...

in order to move up and draft Harris. Harris was the seventh safety drafted in 2019. He was reunited with Detroit Lions' defensive coordinator

Paul Pasqualoni Paul Lucian Pasqualoni (; born August 16, 1949) is an American football coach. He most recently was the defensive line coach for the Carolina Panthers. Pasqualoni has served as the defensive coordinator of the NFL's Miami Dolphins and Detroit L ...

, who previously coached the defensive line at Boston College. On June 4, 2019, the Detroit Lions signed Harris to a four-year, $3.72 million contract with a signing bonus of $952,244. Throughout training camp, Harris competed against

Tavon Wilson Tavon Wilson (born March 19, 1990) is an American football safety who is a free agent. He played college football at the University of Illinois, and was drafted by the New England Patriots in the second round of the 2012 NFL Draft. With the Pa ...

Charles Washington Charles Washington (May 2, 1738 – September 16, 1799) was a Virginia planter and government official in several counties, who founded a town in the Shenandoah Valley which was named Charles Town in his honor shortly after his death and that o ...

, and Andrew Adams to be a primary backup safety. Head coach Matt Patricia named Harris the primary backup free safety, behind Tracy Walker III, to begin the regular season.

References

External links

Boston College Eagles bio
1995 births Living people People from Suwanee, Georgia Sportspeople from the Atlanta metropolitan area Players of American football from Georgia (U.S. state) American football safeties Boston College Eagles football players Detroit Lions players {{defensiveback-1990s-stub