Chris Harris Jr. officially retires from NFL playing career

Chris Harris Jr. is calling it a career.

After 12 seasons that included a tremendous nine-year hitch with the Denver Broncos in which he was a linchpin of the famed “No-Fly Zone” secondary that helped power the Broncos to a Super Bowl 50 win, Harris formally announced his retirement from the playing field on Tuesday.

From: @ChrisHarrisJr
To: #BroncosCountry

Thank you. 🧡 pic.twitter.com/Bm6yrRm4PU

— Denver Broncos (@Broncos) April 30, 2024

In those four seasons, Harris made four Pro Bowls and earned first- or second-team All-Pro honors, all as a member of the Broncos. He also was named to the All-Decade team for the 2010s, a distinction that is typically one that can help lead to a Pro Football Hall of Fame selection.

Whether Chris Harris Jr. makes the Hall of Fame is subject to debate, but there likely should be no quibbling with his credentials for the Broncos Ring of Fame. All of those afore-mentioned honors came with the Broncos, with which he spent the first nine seasons of his career before two campaigns with the Los Angeles Chargers and a final season with the New Orleans Saints in 2022.

He sat out the 2023 season before officially wrapping up his career Tuesday.

Harris broke into the NFL as an undrafted rookie in 2011 who fell out of the draft process because of concerns about his timed speed. But it didn’t take him long to assuage those fears as he stuck on the roster and found himself as a key part of the Broncos’ nickel defense by the end of his rookie season.

In 2012, he became a star. He started the season as the slot cornerback with Champ Bailey and Tracy Porter working the outside, but quickly assumed a dual inside-outside role after Porter struggled at times early in the season. Harris intercepted three passes — including a coast-to-coast pick-6 off Joe Flacco in Baltimore in Week 15 that helped the Broncos seal the AFC’s top seed.

In the years that followed, Harris showed the depth of his football I.Q. by handling both the outside and slot cornerback roles. That kept him on the field for every down, but also meant he had to learn two positions. It was no problem for the University of Kansas product.

Six times in a seven-season stretch from 2012 through 2018, opposing quarterbacks failed to muster even an 80.0 passer rating when throwing in his direction, per the data compiled by Pro Football Focus. The peak season for Chris Harris Jr. came in 2014, when he successfully recovered from a torn anterior cruciate ligament and allowed a mere 46.3 passer rating.

That year was a signature one for Harris in multiple ways. In December 2014, he signed a five-year contract extension, and unlike many such signees, Harris ended up playing the entire length of the deal. That year also was the launch of the “No-Fly Zone,” as the Broncos added Aqib Talib and T.J. Ward in free agency while using a first-round pick on cornerback Bradley Roby.

The following offseason, the Broncos signed free-agent safety Darian Stewart, and with that, the “No-Fly Zone” was complete. It was the NFL’s dominant secondary of the mid-2010s, with Harris serving as a perfect, steady coverage complement to the explosive and dynamic Talib.

Harris remained with the team four seasons after Super Bowl 50. Returns diminished, but Harris remained one of the league’s best cornerbacks before winding down his career elsewhere after the Broncos let him walk in free agency in 2020.