Bill Belichick: Rodney Harrison is the ‘best safety I’ve ever coached’

Bill Belichick: Rodney Harrison is the ‘best safety I’ve ever coached’

There is no question that longtime New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick has coached some incredible safeties in his tenure, but one safety stands out from the rest of them in his view: Rodney Harrison.

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The 15-year veteran Rodney Harrison has been named as a finalist for the 2024 NFL Hall of Fame class, but being named as the best safety ever coached by future Hall of Fame head coach Bill Belichick is a true honor to his talent.

“Best safety I’ve coached,” he said. “There’s a couple other ones that I’ve coached that are in the Hall of Fame. Fantastic player, person. Great competitor. Could do it all. One of the most versatile players I’ve ever coached. Could cover. He really could play corner. He was a great blitzer. He was a great tackler. Was really, really hard to block in the running game, as a blitzer, kickoff coverage, things like that.

“He was very explosive. He was 220 pounds, whatever he was, but he was a thumper. He could– he was a contact player but ran well. Very instinctive. Did a great job at disguising coverages. Worked well with his teammates you know with Eugene [Wilson], some different safeties we had back there throughout his career. Just, he was just a heck of a football player. One of the best I’ve ever coached. He’d certainly be on my All-Time team without question. Behind [Lawrence] Taylor, but, I mean he would certainly be. He’d be right up there. Tremendous player.”

Across his career, Harrison has totaled 907 solo tackles in his career. The two-time Super Bowl champion has picked off quarterbacks 34 times, forced 15 fumbles, deflected 78 passes, and scored three touchdowns. Harrison played 15 years in the NFL–nine with the San Diego Chargers and six with Bill Belichick and the Patriots.

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“Great practice player too,” Belichick said. “Made everybody else on the team better. If you practiced against him you got better, or you got embarrassed. One of the two. And he brought a level of competitiveness, intensity, focus, and brought a higher level of practice to the team which helped everybody.

“There’s a lot of things that don’t ever show up in the stats or anything like that, but. Tremendous, tremendous respect for what he did as a player, what he brought to our team, how much he meant to our team, and what we lost when we lost him. We lost a great, great player Monday through Monday. It wasn’t just on Sunday. What he brought to the team every day of the week, every day he walked into the building, every time he stepped on the field was all positive. It was impressive.”

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