Ravens looking at James Harrison as a situational pass rusher

James Harrison has clearly played his hand wrong. The 34 year old linebacker this week turned down an opportunity to return to the Steelers for around $4.5 million in 2013, but the Steelers asking Harrison to take a paycut hurt his pride too much and he made the decision that he would be willing to accept less money elsewhere than take a paycut with the Steelers.

That’s how things are playing out and in the realm of things it’s a dumb decision by Harrison.

While agent Bill Parise has held preliminary discussions with a number of teams, including the Saints, Eagles and Ravens, a lot of these discussions have been the agent reaching out to the team, not the team reaching out to the agent.

However, the Ravens continue to emerge as a possible landing spot.

The Ravens have expressed interest in bringing Harrison in for a visit early next week, a source says, and Baltimore’s interest in Harrison is believed to be as a situational pass rusher and to compete for playing time with Courtney Upshaw.

Harrison will be lucky to get more than $2-$2.5 million from the Ravens on a one year deal and that might be an optimistic view.

One team that is looking at aging pass rushers is the New England Patriots who are reportedly bringing Dwight Freeney and John Abraham in for visits. There is nothing cooking yet between Harrison and the Patriots and that’s not a good sign for him.