Nobody was happier to be on the practice field Thursday than Josh Harris.
The Chargers long snapper, who has been on Injured Reserve all season, was limited in the session, his first of the entire year.
"Today was a step in the right direction, for sure," Harris said. "It felt good to get back out there in a team capacity and feel that again."
Harris was injured in the Chargers preseason finale against the 49ers while making a routine tackle in punt coverage.
The issue, which Harris declined to go into detail about, was apparently a fluke thing. Harris was listed on the Chargers Injury Report on Thursday with a chest injury.
"Something that I feel like I've done a bunch in my career," Harris said. "Pretty harmless in a sense, but just landed on somebody in just the wrong way and suffered just kind of a freak injury."
He later added: "This is the most time I've ever missed in my career, but was dealing with something that wasn't necessarily on my potential injury bingo card."
Harris did say that the only path to a full recovery was rest and recuperation, something that was difficult to process considering his injury occurred so close to the start of the regular season.
"I feel like it's been kind of a mixed bag, you know," Harris said. "Some ups, some downs. Obviously, missing the games and not being out there, that's tough."
He later added: "It's hard. It's hard, man. Not being able to be out there with the guys is tough, just not really being able to have your hand in anything other than just kind of helping in a meeting or if guys have a question."
Harris had been a mainstay for the Chargers since signing as a free agent in 2022, playing in all 51 games while being a veteran leader in a room alongside kicker Cameron Dicker and punter JK Scott.
And while Harris said he's proud of the job those two have done so far this season alongside long snapper Rick Lovato, the 14-year veteran said he's itching to get back to game action soon.
Harris added that he's unsure if he'll play this weekend in Nashville.
"We'll keep our progression going and you know hopefully be out there sooner rather than later," Harris said.
"Hopefully most of that is behind us now and we'll be back to regularly scheduled programming soon," Harris added.
