Former Alabama Crimson Tide safety has been traded from the Jacksonville Jaguars to the Cleveland Browns for a 2021 5th round pick. The trade was first reported by Ian Rappaport and many other NFL insiders.

The Jaguars selected Harrison in the 3rd round of the 2018 NFL Draft. Since then the strong safety started in 22 of his 28 games in the black and teal, securing 103 tackles, three sacks, and three interceptions.

Harrison appears to be one of several pieces in the Jaguars fire-sale that mirrors the Miami Dolphins a year ago. On Wednesday night, the Jaguars released Leonard Fournette who was the 4th overall pick a season before Harrison's arrival in Duval County. Fournette was signed to a one year deal to play 200 miles south in Tampa with Tom Brady and the Buccaneers.

The Jaguars are widely speculated to have their eyes on Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence in next year's draft. Though, just like Miami a year ago in the "Tank for Tua" craze, a lot can happen in seven months.

Harrison has so far carved out a solid foundation of success in his first two years in the league. However, it wasn't long ago he was on the receiving end of, well, less than flattering remarks from Nick Saban concerning college players leaving early for the NFL Draft.

“Now, we have guys that have no draft grades, seventh-round grades, free-agent grades, fifth-round grades that are going out to the draft. And the person that loses in that is the player,” Saban said.“If you’re a third-round draft pick, and we had one here last year — I’m not going to say any names — goes and starts for his team, so he’s making third-round money, which is not that great. He’d be the first guy taken at his position this year, probably, and make $15-18 million more."

Harrison wasn't pleased with Saban's remarks, though Harrison himself was never specifically singled out, he was the only Alabama player selected in the third round that year. Harrison was widely regarded to have a first-round grade in the media circles prior to the 2018 NFL Draft.

A week away from the start of the NFL season, Harrison will have to compete for defensive snaps with the likes of Karl Joseph at strong safety and Andrew Sendejo at free after former LSU safety and 2nd-round pick Grant Delpit suffered a season-ending Achilles injury.

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Alabama Football 2020 Coaching Staff

 

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