Pittsburgh Steelers tackle Ryan Harris is reportedly ending his long NFL career.
According to Cameron Wolfe of The Denver Post, Harris has decided to retire.
Harris, who signed a two year, $3.9 million contract with the Steelers a year ago, was scheduled to earn $1.9 million in 2017. The Steelers gave him a $675,000 signing bonus as part of that deal and it’s unclear at this time if they’ll attempt to recoup some of that money.
Harris’ 2016 season was cut short by a leg injury that included him having a hematoma. The Steelers placed him on their Reserve/Injured list in early October as a result of his injury. At the time Harris had dressed for four games with his last being against the Kansas City Chiefs. He played 39 total offensive snaps for the Steelers.
“It was a very scary injury, what I was going through, but this is an incredible organization,” said Harris in a February interview with Teresa Varley on steelers.com.
There was a decent chance that Harris would have ultimately been cut come the start of the 2017 regular season as the team has quite a few tackle options. In addition to starters Alejandro Villanueva and Marcus Gilbert, the Steelers appear set to enter training camp with tackles Chris Hubbard, Brian Mihalik and Jerald Hawkins, the teams fourth-round draft pick last year who missed his entire rookie season due to a shoulder injury.
Harris was originally drafted by the Denver Broncos in the third round of the 2007 NFL Draft out of Notre Dame. He has also played for the Houston Texans and Chiefs in addition to the Steelers.
