re: James Harrison would "love to be in New Orleans," according to his agent

good examination of Harrison here.

The explosive pass rusher was no more and the Steelers simply couldn’t justify spending as much of their cap room on him as they were. Not for a guy who managed just 28 combined sacks, hits, and hurries on 294 pass rushing attempts.

That doesn’t, however, mean he has nothing to offer. Indeed, with the 3-4 being in vogue and plenty of teams devoid of talent on the edge, Harrison should find a warm market if he’s prepared to be flexible.

Yr RushesDisruptions Pressure %
2008 434 65 14.98%
2009 366 59 16.12%
2010 476 79 16.60%
2011 253 43 17.00%
2012 294 28 9.52%
The table above shows a stark decline in his ability to generate pressure. From constantly being one of the league’s most productive pass rushers, he would only finish 19th out of 32 3-4 outside linebackers in our 2012 Pass Rushing Productivity rankings. A huge drop from placing in the Top 5 the four previous years.

Yr Run Snaps Stops Run Stop %
2008 385 32 8.30%
2009 361 34 9.40%
2010 369 39 10.60%
2011 295 27 9.20%
2012 307 28 9.10%

In essence, the worst case scenario with Harrison is you’ve still got a player who can operate relatively productively on early downs. The upside being that his 2012 was an aberration and not the start of a trend.

That is why a lot of teams, perhaps focused on names like Paul Kruger and Cliff Avril, might be wiser to look at a cheaper and more proven pro like Harrison.