Chris Harris: The Trade The Bears Should Have Never Made

They acquired former first round pick Adam Archuleta early in the off-season from the Washington Redskins.

Archuleta played for Lovie Smith’s former team the St. Louis Rams from 2001-2005.

Lovie likes guys that he is familiar with, so he decided to add some competition at the secondary position.

It turns out the Bears decided to go with underachiever Adam Archuleta instead of overachiever Chris Harris at free safety.

They disposed of Chris Harris by trading him to the Carolina Panthers for a measly fifth round pick.

Chris Harris came into the league in 2005 as a sixth round pick out of Louisiana-Monroe.

The Bears like drafting guys from little known schools.

But anyways Harris won the starting job in 2005 over veteran safety Mike Green.

You have to remember the Bears having Mike Green, Mike Brown and Bobby Grey, it sounded pretty cool.

So that season Harris played in 14 games, recording 58 tackles and three interceptions.

The next season he played in only eleven games, but recorded 54 tackles and two interceptions.

In four career playoff games with the Bears, Harris recorded two forced fumbles and one interception.

That interception came in Super Bowl 41 and it turned out to get the Bears no points, but still how do you trade a guy who made an interception in the Super Bowl.

The fifth round pick the Bears received from Carolina was used on injury prone corner-back Zackary Bowman out of Nebraska.

Bowman could turn out to be a good player if he stays healthy, but Chris Harris is exactly the safety the Bears need right now.

It made no sense at the time to deal him for an underachieving bum like Adam Archuleta and now it still makes no sense.

In two seasons with Carolina, Harris has recorded 167 tackles, two interceptions and 10 forced fumbles.

Harris is a fan favorite in Carolina.

It really is a shame the Bears traded away such a talented player like Chris Harris.

The best Bears newsletter on the web