Packers Have Shown Interest in ‘Snacks’ Harrison

Veteran defensive tackle Damon Harrison said on Twitter that the Packers have reached out.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers, their horrendous run defense keeping them out of last year’s Super Bowl, have at least checked in on a possible big addition.

On Twitter on Tuesday, a fan told free agent defensive tackle Damon Harrison that he was “mad” the Packers hadn’t “requested your services.”

Harrison replied, “They have.”

Harrison, who will turn 32 in November, is one of the best run-stuffing defensive linemen in the NFL. An undrafted free agent in 2012 out of William Penn, an NAIA school in Oskaloosa, Iowa, he has started all but one game over the last seven seasons. Last season, the 6-foot-3, 350-pound Harrison had 49 tackles, two sacks, three tackles for losses and three passes defensed for Detroit.

Last year, of 64 interior defensive linemen to play at least 200 run-defending snaps, Harrison finished ninth in ProFootballFocus.com’s run-stop percentage, a metric that essentially measures impact tackles. He ranked No. 1 in five consecutive seasons from 2014 through 2018.

Harrison has been on the Packers’ radars for years. In 2012, former general manager Ted Thompson was at Iowa State’s pro day, an official from the Cyclones’ football operations staff told me. Asked whom Thompson might have been checking out, he listed a few players and then added it “probably was some big guy from Division III that we let test here.”

The date of Iowa State’s pro day was March 20, 2012. That was also the day the Packers hosted a rare free agent, veteran center Jeff Saturday. If ever there were a story that showed how much Thompson loved the draft but disliked free agency, that’s the one.

Green Bay has 52 players on its roster, meaning it’s a man short of being fully stocked. It could fill the spot with a practice-squad promotion once its injury situation crystallizes later this week. It also could add one of two players in town for a visit. Or, it could leave the spot open and sign a veteran such as Harrison or offensive tackle Jared Veldheer next week. Veterans on a roster for Week 1 have their salary guaranteed; veterans added after Week 1 do not have their salary guaranteed.

Defensive line is the one position ignored by general manager Brian Gutekunst this offseason. The Packers are going into the season with the same quintet as last season with Kenny Clark, Dean Lowry, Tyler Lancaster, Kingsley Keke and Montravius Adams. Adams, a third-round disappointment in 2017, might not play due to an injured ankle.