Defensive Lineman Shelby Harris

Q: Shelby, I wanted to ask you obviously about the run defense. (Head) Coach (John Harbaugh) I think said something, and I'm going to paraphrase here because I don't have the exact quote, but he mentioned pre-snap motion and how that can sometimes throw you guys off your game a little bit. Can you just expand upon that? Do you see that as being a problem? And if so, what does pre-snap motion do for the run defense?

SHELBY HARRIS: Pre-snap motion, really what it does, it can exchange gaps. It can make it where linebackers have to move, DBs have to have communication, and that's really the main thing that it does, is it forces communication between defense and it kind of shifts responsibilities. And so, when that happens, you can kind of have miscommunications, especially when you play at home and the fans are amazing, they're great, they're loud, and you can sometimes have miscommunications like that. But I truly feel that with the run defense, it's just a matter of everybody just being on the same page and just doing their job and having that one common goal every play.

Q: Do you feel though at all that sometimes the circumstances caused by pre-snap motion, that there have been communication breakdowns?

SHELBY HARRIS: Not necessarily. I just think that it's a situation where we can all communicate better and be in better positions to really help each other out. And I think it's just a matter of everybody being on the same page, once again, and just doing their job.

Q: I know you guys are on defense mainly, obviously, the quarterback situation may not particularly apply, but for you guys, as a veteran, how do you handle when there's maybe a quarterback discussion, on changing the quarterback or whatnot? How do you guys ultimately rally around whoever that quarterback is going to be when there is a discussion of who's going to start?

SHELBY HARRIS: This isn't my first time being involved in a situation like this. And I think the biggest thing that we can do as a defense is just bring our best every game, whoever's out there, and really try to do our best to just put them in situations that can help them succeed. I always believe one of the biggest ones is when you have them backed up towards their goal line, we got to keep them backed up so that the offense can usually start around the 40, 50-yard line and kind of gives us a, you could look at it as like an automatic three points. And it's just doing those things and not stress the offense too much and really just making sure that we bring our hard hats every day to really just play the best defense that we can. And that goes without QB, within the perceived QB battle or whatever you guys are trying to say. We as a defense, we look forward to trying to play the best defense that we can regardless because we chase perfection on every play. So, that has nothing to do with the offense, has nothing to do with anything they got going on. We just hold ourselves to a high standard, no matter what the situation is.

Q: And so, for these last two weeks, it seems like teams have kind of gotten out fast on you guys, obviously, last week was 34 straight points. And I think the Commanders, I think 27. So, what are you seeing these two weeks where you guys want to try to hold stronger as a defense to keep the team, keep the offenses from scoring so much early on anything?

SHELBY HARRIS: Well, I guess one of the first things would be, I would say we have to respond better to adversity. I think as a defense, one of the defining traits is after a turnover or any situation like that, can we go out there and get a stop and get the ball back to our offense. And I think that's something that we can definitely be better at. And it's something that we emphasize, and we know that the importance of those situations. And I really believe also, it's just a matter of when things are unraveling, getting us back on track and just having a hard stop. And it's just something that all the leaders of the defense have talked about. And it's a situation where we just have to take it apart ourselves and really just force the issue and end it. And it's just on us as players and it's something that I believe that we have the players to do. And it's just something that you just have to really focus in on in those moments to really just get off the field and try to help your offense in any way you can.

Q: Your opponent now, Houston, won in a must win game the other day. I'm just curious your initial thoughts on what kind of challenge (Houston Texans quarterback) C.J. Stroud and the Texans present to you guys.

SHELBY HARRIS: Well, they're a very explosive offense and everything that they do, they love the downfield attack. And when you have a quarterback like C.J. Stroud, that makes everything possible. He can make every throw. I wouldn't call it a resurgent year because I don't understand the hate that C.J. Stroud has been getting. But I see a quarterback that really is dynamic and is one of the better quarterbacks in the league. So, I have so much respect for C.J. Stroud. I was in Cleveland his rookie year when he killed us in the playoffs. And so, I know what he can do. I know he can make every throw out there. And so that Houston offense really, I think they are a budding offense and they're just waiting to explode and it's on us to really get them on the slow down.

Q: How much do you follow on a week-to-week basis what the other teams in the NFC East are doing?

SHELBY HARRIS: I would say it's something that obviously you look at because it's all about winning the division. And so, you pay attention throughout the year because you need to know where you are at in the division. And our goal from the beginning has always been to win the East. And so yeah, you definitely do check on, pay attention to the other teams in the division.

Q: I'm sure week by week, you're checking on the other teams in the division and you're happy most weeks, right? I mean, no teams in the division won the past two weeks. How much does it bolster you and your teammates that you're 3-2-1 and you are in first place and that nobody else in division is even .500, that there's no team that has 5-1 or 6-0, or even 4-2 that you're in a good spot, even though your record is what it is?

SHELBY HARRIS: The thing about the National Football League is the only thing that matters is when it is winning your division. So yeah, some divisions, you might have to be 15-2, some you can be 10-7. The idea though, is you just got to stay ahead of everyone else. You got to just keep fighting and you can't worry about everybody else. When you're playing your games, you got to go out there and do everything you can to win your games. Games are already hard enough to win in the National Football League. And you are having added pressure to yourself worrying about what other teams are doing. When I say we watch, you pay attention to other teams, that doesn't mean we actually like monitor these other teams. Our goal is to go out there and play the team we're playing. And that's our only focus. And that's always going to be the only focus, is you can't worry about anybody else in this league. You have to just be worried about yourself. And so, we go out there every week, worry about our opponent and trying to go 1-0. And so, it doesn't matter about what our record is or what their record is. At the end of the day, we just have to worry about ourselves. And just like I'm sure they are too.

Q: I'm sure that when you get back to the locker room after a game or after a practice or you get home and you check the score, you said pretty good, right? It's pretty good when the Cowboys and the Commanders and the Eagles lose, right? It only helps you.

SHELBY HARRIS: Yeah, of course. That's always going to be a positive when your division loses.

Q: (Defensive lineman) DJ Reader, he told me that he feels like one of the worst things that has happened to defensive tackle play in general has been the ascent of the pass rush impact and how much the league emphasizes it, how much the league pays for it. And just the ripple effect it has on young defensive linemen trying to learn and how to develop in terms of defending the run. And you have three young guys in the room with you, (defensive lineman) Darius Alexander, (defensive lineman) CJ Okoye, and (defensive lineman) Bobby Jamison-Travis. Can you just touch on how much the demand for defensive tackles has changed in your 13 years in the league? It has shifted a lot in your career.

SHELBY HARRIS: So, what I would say is I've been around the game change a couple different times. It went from having, bigger linebackers, I've seen the linebackers get smaller. I've seen d-tackles get smaller. I've seen a lot of that and I think a lot it's just based off of what the offenses are successful with at the time. Really in the middle of my career is really more the ascent of Kansas City and opening up the spread so everybody's worried about rushing the passer because they know that's the only thing that can stop Kansas City and these teams are throwing the ball around. But then now you saw last year with the Seattle Seahawks, you're seeing the run make a comeback. You're seeing this year with Kansas City how (Kansas City Chiefs running back) Kenneth Walker is now, pretty much almost I think other than one game had 100 yards and so the idea is that the game is going to keep evolving and so then the defense is going to evolve to the offense and then what happens is the offense goes and evolves back to the defense and so you have smaller D linemen and so what are teams going to do now? They're going to more emphasize the run. They're going to try to double team the D line, try to knock them off the ball because now teams have prioritized pass rushing D tackles and D linemen and so it's just a complete circle kind of what always happens because every team is trying to either get with the program or trying to change it up to try to get another upper hand. And so, when you're going through that process, sometimes you get caught in a bad scheme where a team's going to be able to run for 200 on you because you don't have the right guys inside and it's starting in college where now all you see is a lot of guys they just pass rush 60 times a game. It's just passes non-stop and that it does kind of boil over into the league where it takes guys a little bit of time to learn how to play the run because they don't necessarily, they're not forced to grind like that and play the runs like that in college. And it's just natural but it's just like before when you came out of college you had to really work on your pass rush before. So, it's just an ever-ending cycle but the game's always going to keep changing, it's just a matter of you know staying ahead of it.

Defensive Lineman DJ Reader

Q: I just asked (defensive lineman) Shelby (Harris) this. How much do you monitor and are you aware of what's going on in the division?

DJ READER: I'm a football fan, so I watch the league. So, I'm pretty aware every week of what's going on in every division.

Q: I mean, obviously, when you're in a different division, you're focused on the other three teams. Now you're focused on the teams in your division. And what do you make of what's going on in the division? I mean, it's never happened in history where a division has not won a game in two straight weeks.

DJ READER: Teams just trying to figure out, trying to win football games. I mean, obviously, it's nothing on purpose. But I think every team in this division is trying to find a way to win football games, but we've got to all put it together, but it gives us another week to put it together, go out there and try to win some.

Q: I mean, you're in first place, right? And there's nobody 6-0 and nobody 5-1. Nobody is even 4-2. I mean, does that help you as you maybe play well and maybe struggle and win games and lose games that, hey, we're still in first place here, there's nobody running away with this thing –

DJ READER: Yeah, I mean, obviously, you've got that in the back of your head, but you don't want to fall back on that. You don't want to sit there and think, 'Oh, well, nobody's winning. So, let's not be the ones who are winning.' You want to be the team that goes out there and takes advantage of nobody else winning. So, that's a thing we're trying to figure out. So, I think that's kind of how you've got to look at it.

Somebody's got to go take it and we should be the ones to go do that.

Q: I know Houston's where you started your career. So, I'm curious, any feelings of going back there? Just kind of any feelings or just memories or things of that nature?

DJ READER: I always enjoy going back there. I spend my offseasons there, but I always enjoy playing in that stadium. It's where I started my career at. And so, it's always good to see the owners, everybody there, the McNairs, everybody around. And some of the guys on the team, me and (Texans kicker) Ka'imi Fairbairn came in together. So, I always get to talk to him. We train together in the offseason. So, I'm used to seeing him. But it's just always a fun place to play for me. Some good food. It's cool.

Q: Very good food down there, I'll add…

DJ READER: Very good food, very good food. For sure.

Q: And my second question is, obviously, as a defense, you guys are obviously focused on your task at hand. So, when there's a situation where there's discussions about the quarterbacks and maybe changing or what could happen there, as a defense, or as a veteran, how do you try to respond to that? Or how do you feel there's more pressure on you guys to step up? How do you try to approach that?

DJ READER: I don't really think about them. I'm not going to lie to you. I don't really think about them.

I don't play offense. I'm not really one to complain or think about things that I can't do. Like I can't play quarterback. So, I know I'm not in discussion. So, I don't really think about it too much. I trust in the coaches and everybody else to figure out what it is they feel is best for the team. And they if feel like something and they're going to do good with their move. But my focus is always just get the ball back to the offense as much as possible and try to limit teams to getting points and possessions and figuring out on how I can get the offense on shorter fields and get the ball back to them.

Q: When you look at the run defense the last couple of weeks, actually over the course of the season, it's kind of been like peaks and valleys for you guys. Have you seen a particular trend, if you will, as to why some of the valleys are happening?

DJ READER: I think sometimes just a little bit of the fits on just some of the stuff, cleaning up that that type of thing. We've let some quarterback runs kind of beat us in some places. And that's always a little bit difficult, especially last week. In a rain game, it was a little bit hard but this week, let a couple quarterback runs beat us. I think it is just a discipline of play in and play out. The teams are going to keep trying to attack you in different runs. The plunge play was a play that we fit good sometimes and we didn't fit as well sometimes. So, it was just about seeing more looks and getting those fits figured out. But it's something that we could do. It's something we've done multiple times. Obviously, you see through some of the plays that we make, but sometimes a motion here or something like that might put you in a different gap. And you've just got to revert back to knowing your basics and be confident in the rest of your brothers to make sure they're going to be where they're at, so you need to be where you're at.

Q: I'm glad you brought up motion because I asked Shelby this as well with pre snap motion. You mentioned sometimes that gets guys out of their gaps and whatnot. And he mentioned communication, can you just speak to the communication? Has that been a breakdown?

DJ READER: I don't make any, so, I don't know if there's a breakdown or anything on the back end. I don't think so. I think you just move you as a player in your gap. Like if a guy's running full speed, you got a guy, whether you got a man or zone, whether both of you are working together, but you've got a guy running full speed and then kind of stopping, it can change your eyes, especially as a defender, it can kind of change your eyes for a couple seconds to figure out where you need to go. So, it's just something that you've got to focus on and figure it out. And then it's tough plays on everybody out there. I like to let people know that everyone's got tough downs. So, you've just got to learn how to survive some of those downs to figure it out. But it's nothing crazy, it's just tough downs and they happen in this league from down to down. Everybody has one, but we'll get it figured out.

Q: I know it's been a while since you've been in Houston. I'm wondering just how much you pay attention to the season like the Texans are having. And obviously Ka'imi had a big field goal to win the other day. It seems like people are talking that this team is better than its record and has obviously some momentum right now. And I'm curious your thoughts on your old team.

DJ READER: They've obviously got a good squad and they've got a lot, a lot of good players. Offensively, (they) got some really good guys at receiver, a good quarterback, my guy Dave (Texans running back David Montgomery), I don't know if he's back this week, but he's back to run the ball. (Texans running back) Woody Marks is a good back. And another guy, Jordan (Texans running back Jawhar Jordan) I believe his name is, he can run the ball a little bit. Tight ends are solid. On defense, they speak for themselves. But I think every team, as much as like we don't want to say that, we all want to say that we're better than what our record is. But the record is what you put out on tape. And that's just how it goes, but obviously everybody's got players. They've made it. They're in the NFL. These guys made it far in the playoffs last year, a good playoff run. So, they've got a lot of good players and they're trying to figure it out. And it should be a good matchup for us. I don't go too deep into it thinking about it like, 'Oh, they've just got superstars over there.' We've got good players too. That's just how the league works. Both teams have good players, and both teams are teams that are getting – trying to figure it out. So that's where we're at.