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Harris Is a Hit: Named AFC Defensive POW

Updated, 4:13 p.m. ET

“The Hitman” is hot. David Harris is on a roll.

One day after we reported that Harris was named to PFW’s Midseason All-Pro Team, Harris picked up another honor today when the NFL announced that the Jets’ middle linebacker has been named the AFC Defensive Player of the Week.

Harris had a productive day at Buffalo in the Jets’ 27-11 triumph over the Bills. His leap-tip-and-grab interception took away promising field position from the Bills late in the second quarter, and he added two quarterback hits on Ryan Fitzpatrick and was in on a tackle for loss of Fred Jackson. He finished with five tackles on the game.

Still, he told reporters after today’s practice, this was an unexpected shoutout from the league.

“Rex told everybody at the meeting this morning,” Harris said. “I had no idea I was even up for it. But it just shows the overall effort of our defense as a unit. I just think we came out of the locker room fast on Sunday and jumped on them.”

This is Harris’ second career Player of the Week honor. He also took the award after the 2009 opening-day 24-7 win over the Texans at Houston, Rex Ryan’s inaugural game as Jets head coach. He was also was named the AFC Rookie of the Month for November 2007.

Harris is appreciative of the recognition but fully aware of its limits.

“It’s not going to help me play better this week,” he said. “I’m pretty sure [Patriots LG] Logan Mankins isn’t going to let up on me because I won it.”

It’s also the Jets defense’s third POW award this season and its second in the past three games. Antonio Cromartie won the title after his showing vs. Jacksonville in Game 2, and Darrelle Revis was similarly rewarded his Week 6 primetime effort against the Dolphins.

The news from “New England Week” before practice at the Atlantic Health Jets Training Complex was that the building lost power late this morning due to power-company treework that brought down a wire that took down electrical feeds in the Florham Park area and specifically to the complex. But the outage didn’t affect the team and it came back on while the players were out at today’s practice on the grass fields in the early afternoon.