Duron Harmon among the Patriots excited to see Jamie Collins back

FOXBORO – Life comes at you fast in the NFL. For most, playing a sport you love for money is a dream come true. Of course, the business aspect of football can be cruel, unusual and unsettling for that reason.

For Duron Harmon, the business side of the game didn’t hit him until his fourth year in the league in 2016. The shocking moment came when the Patriots traded Jamie Collins. For Harmon, it was a gut check.

"For sure. He was a Pro Bowler and second team All- [...]

FOXBORO – Life comes at you fast in the NFL. For most, playing a sport you love for money is a dream come true. Of course, the business aspect of football can be cruel, unusual and unsettling for that reason.

For Duron Harmon, the business side of the game didn’t hit him until his fourth year in the league in 2016. The shocking moment came when the Patriots traded Jamie Collins. For Harmon, it was a gut check.

"For sure. He was a Pro Bowler and second team All-Pro the year before. So any time that happens, you're shocked,” Harmon said on Thursday. “And I think more so just because it's your friend. And I think that was probably one of the first real, like eye-opening experiences where I realized this is a business. 

“Because like I said, we came in together great friends, and then he's here one moment and then the next moment he's all the way in Cleveland."

As you could surmise, Harmon is among the many Patriots players ecstatic to have Collins back in Foxboro. On Wednesday, the linebacker reportedly signed a deal to come back to the Patriots after spending two months on the open mark. Thursday was expected to be Collins’ first day back in the building.

Harmon and Collins became close after coming into the league together in 2013. That year, the Patriots drafted Collins in the second round and Harmon in the third. Collins, Harmon and cornerback Logan Ryan turned into the jewels of the Patriots 2013 draft class.

When the news broke, several Patriots players shared their excitement on their social media accounts. Tom Brady cheered on Instagram, commenting “Hell yeah” with five exclamation points underneath the NFL’s post about Collins’ signing. On Twitter, Dont’a Hightower tweeted, “He’s back…” with the hashtag SmashBros.

"Great. Obviously, we know me and Jamie came in together. We're friends,” Harmon said of his reaction. “When he went to Cleveland, we stayed in contact. We kept talking. The relationship didn't break. But we all know Jamie, he's a tremendous football player, (has) athletic ability through the roof.” 

The possibilities for Collins in Foxboro are intriguing. During his time in New England (2013-midseason 2016), the linebacker wowed his teammates in practice and on Sunday’s. Collins wouldn’t hesitate to display his athletic abilities by randomly doing back flips during practice sessions. Then would come the game and this 6-foot-3, 250 pounder would run around with the speed of a safety.

Of course, Collins is coming off an offseason where he was released by the Cleveland Browns and still available come May. Expectations might be tempered, but Harmon sees a player who can help the Patriots defense.

“He's gonna come in here, do what he do and earn his spot wherever it is and play hard and try to help us win football games,” Harmon said. “For sure. Like you said, athletic ability, knows the defense, he's excited to be back, so that's always good when the excitement is there. I'm really just looking forward to seeing him out there, seeing him play with us again, building that chemistry, being teammates again and doing everything we can to make sure we got the best defense we can come the first game.”

The Patriots lost Trey Flowers, Adrian Clayborn, Malcom Brown, Danny Shelton and Eric Rowe this offseason. However, the team looks loaded at several positions. With Collins in the fold at linebacker, he creates some good competition to go with Dont’a Hightower, Kyle Van Noy, Ja’Whaun Bentley, John Simon, Elandon Roberts, Christian Sam, Calvin Munson, Terez Hall and Shilique Calhoun.

“There's depth everywhere. Secondary, linebackers, front, D-line,” Harmon said. “There's literally a lot of good players everywhere, and Bill (Belichick) always says the more good players you have on your team, the better your team will be. So (I'm) looking forward to how we can put it all together.

"There's going to be obviously a lot of competition for who's going to be out there, but it's going to make us all better in the end."