Shelby Harris #93 of the Cleveland Browns
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Shelby Harris #93 of the Cleveland Browns
Over the last three years, the Cleveland Browns have certainly gotten their money’s worth from veteran defensive lineman Shelby Harris. He’s hardly one of the big names on the team’s defensive front, but he has been a consistent contributor in the rotation and a more-than-serviceable starter when need be. Operating on a good value two-year, $9 million contract, Harris has started 18 games in the past two years, and 25 games since first joining the Browns in 2023.
But with the Browns giving more snaps to last year’s No. 5 overall pick, Mason Graham, and signing 27-year-old Kalia Davis from the 49ers, it appears Cleveland is moving on from Harris, who will turn 35 in August. The Browns might be done with Harris, but Harris is not quite done with the NFL.
He intends to play again in 2026, and had a meeting on Tuesday to discuss that possibility.
From NFL Network insider Mike Garafolo: “Veteran DLShelby Harris is visiting the#Giants today, sources say. The 11-year veteran, still going strong after playing all 17 games for the#Browns last season, is an option for John Harbaugh & Co. to add experience up front on defense.”
Shelby Harris Will Be Missed
Harris will be missed by the Browns on a couple of fronts. For one, he is a respected and popular veteran who was nicknamed, “Unc” by younger players.
For another thing, Harris is a shrewd special teams front man, and pulled off one of the highlight plays of the 2025 season back in Week 3, when he blocked a Brandon McManus field-goal attempt in the final minute to set up a Browns game-winner over the Packers, their best win of the season.
He estimated it was his seventh blocked field-goal of his career, though there are no firm stats on field-goal blocks. But he’s well-versed in the technique.
“You gotta look where they’re kicking the ball, you know what I mean?” Harris said. “Is the ball going to be tailing to the left, is it going to be tailing to the right? Depending on that, you got to think they’re going to try to make it through the middle, so depending on what side of the line you’re on, that determines really what hand needs to get up to block it too. Everything could be perfect, and you still don’t get it. It’s just… everything worked out perfect.”
Browns Defensive Front the Team Strength
Assuming Harris does, in fact, leave the Browns and sign elsewhere, the bulk of the line should be back again next year. New Browns defensive coordinator Mike Rutenberg, when he met the team’s media this month, kept pointing back to the defensive line as the heart of the D.
Said Rutenberg: “Keep attacking, keep getting downhill. Keep attacking, keep getting downhill,” he said. “Like you said, not only Myles Garrett, you’ve got great players across the front. Maliek (Collins), Alex (Wright), Isaiah (McGuire), Mason Graham. I could keep going across the front, and the backers behind them who were involved with Carson (Schwesinger) … and the safeties behind them with Grant (Delpit) and Rocket (Ronnie Hickman), everybody’s involved, but it’s always going to go back to the front.”