Despite the Los Angeles Chargers having moved from San Diego, it seems that the injury bug that has plagued them for the past few seasons has also made the journey to Los Angeles. Their first-round pick, wide receiver Mike Williams has suffered an injury. Meanwhile, the New York Jets have parted ways with the longest tenured player on their team, middle linebacker David Harris.
First-round pick Williams suffers injury
With the 7th pick in the first-round of the 2017 NFL Draft, the Los Angeles Chargers selected Mike Williams to give quarterback Philip Rivers a young weapon.
However, Williams is now going to have to spend some time on the mend after suffering from a mildly herniated disk in his lower back. He will now miss the rest of the Chargers offseason program, including the mandatory minicamp in June. Luckily, his injury does not require surgery to heal. It is possible that he may have to be put on the physically unable to perform (PUP) list for the start of the team's training camp at the end of July.
Veteran David Harris is out
In a move that stunned many, the New York Jets released long-time defensive stalwart and team captain David Harris. Interestingly enough, this movie comes only a few days after they traded the former first-round pick, Calvin Pryor, to reacquire linebacker Demario Davis.
The Jets drafted Harris in the second-round of the 2007 draft and he has been a key member and the signal caller of their defense ever since.
In his ten-year career, Harris has played in 160 of a possible 166 games, starting in 153 of them. For his career, he had 1,087 total tackles, the third most in team history. His 708 solo tackles were fourth and his 379 assisted tackles were first all-time in team history.
Harris also had 35 sacks in his career, good for being eighth all-time in team history. He also had 10 forced fumbles, 4 fumble recoveries, 6 interceptions, 30 passes defended and 1 defensive touchdown. Harris made the NFL All-Rookie Team in 2007 and was selected to the AP's second-team All-Pro list in 2009.
The move clearly caught Harris off guard as he spoke to reporters following the Jets practice today and laughed fielding questions about being the lone holdover from when Eric Mangini was the Jets coach from 2006-08.
Around 20 minutes after this the news broke that he was being released by the team. Harris was cut because the two sides could not agree on a pay reduction for the non-guaranteed $6.5 million he was set to make in 2017.
