Nick Harris’ time with the Seattle Seahawks was short and considering how everything turned out, perhaps the parting of the ways is for the best.
Seattle signed Harris in March with the intention of having him compete with Olu Oluwatimi for the starting center position, but the team went in a different direction and signed Connor Williams last week.
Then came the Cleveland Browns, the same team that drafted Harris in 2020 and left earlier this offseason. The Browns had second-year lineman Luke Wypler leave the first game of the season on Saturday with a broken ankle, and a day later they made a deal to bring Harris back to Ohio.
For Harris, the return to Cleveland was a welcome end to a turbulent week.
“I’m glad to have a job,” Harris said, according to the Akron Beacon Journal. “I have the opportunity to come back and just compete in a place where I feel comfortable, and it feels good to see all my teammates again and see everyone in the building. So I can’t complain at all.”
Currently, Harris is Cleveland’s backup center behind Ethan Pocic, but the team has also used him as an additional lineman and even a fullback at times, giving him plenty of playing time.
Harris was once on track to become Cleveland’s starting center, but a serious knee injury in the 2022 preseason sidelined him, so he understands Wypler’s situation all too well.
“I mean, it’s definitely tough,” Harris said. “As soon as I saw it, I let him know if there’s any way I can help him, if there’s anybody he wants to talk to about it, just let me know because like you said, I know how that feels. It’s a tough situation, so I’m sorry to see that. It sucks to see that because I know he’s worked hard and done what he needed to do out here.”
It was probably best that Harris and the Seahawks went their separate ways. Not because they were angry with each other, but simply because both sides had better chances.
