Damien Harris felt as though Buffalo brought out the best in him as a New England Patriots running back, so what could the Bills do for him if he was a member of their team?

He’s going to find out in 2023 after signing with Buffalo as an NFL free agent.

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“I always said that playing against the Bills always brought out the best in me as a competitor and a player,” Harris said. “And from the outside looking in, as an opponent, if I felt that way, then I knew if I was able to join this organization, it can just take it to a new height. …

“When I saw the Buffalo Bills on the schedule, I knew I had to be at my best in order to have success against a team like this, so now that I’m here I feel no different. I feel like I have to be at my best to help this organization continue to move forward.”

Harris recorded more than 100 rushing yards in three of his four regular-season appearances against Buffalo.

In the sixth game of his NFL career, Harris ran for 102 yards and one touchdown on 16 carries in New England’s 24-21 loss to the Bills on Nov. 1, 2020.

In 2021, Harris ran for 111 yards and one touchdown on 10 carries in the Patriots’ 14-10 victory over Buffalo on Dec. 6 and 103 yards and three touchdowns on 18 carries in a 33-21 loss on Dec. 26.

In the 18 seasons before Harris joined New England as a third-round draft pick in 2019, the Patriots had 18 winning seasons, won the AFC East 16 times, won six Super Bowls and lost three other times in the NFL championship game.

During that same span, Buffalo had three winning seasons, went to the playoffs once and didn’t win a division crown.

But in the past four seasons, New England has been to the playoffs twice, captured the AFC East title once, failed to win a postseason game and posted two losing records. The Bills have won 47 regular-season games, reached the postseason all four years and won the AFC East each of the past three seasons.

“There’s a lot of reasons why I chose here,” Harris said. “Obviously, this is a great organization from top to bottom, from ownership to the management to the coaching, the players, the entire staff. I feel like the transition into a great organization, it’s obviously just so appealing. The trajectory of this organization, kind of the momentum that this team is building is all appealing. It’s all something that I wanted to be a part of and something that I can come in and help.”

Harris led Alabama in rushing in each of his final three college seasons, accumulating 2,913 yards and 22 touchdowns on 431 carries as he averaged 6.79 yards per rushing attempt from 2016 through 2018.

In the NFL, Harris has run for 2,094 yards and 20 touchdowns on 449 carries in 38 games. He barely played as a rookie and missed six games with injuries in both the 2020 and 2022 seasons. In 2021, Harris ran for 929 yards and 15 touchdowns on 202 carries.

Harris comes to work with coach Sean McDermott in Buffalo after four seasons with Nick Saban at Alabama and four seasons with Bill Belichick at New England.

“I feel like I should be able to write a book with all the knowledge that I’ve gained from those two,” Harris said. “I would say just the things that I’ve taken from both of them is how to be a professional and how to conduct yourself in a professional manner from the way you show up every day ready to work, the mentality that you have, the way you affect others and then, obviously, the way you prepare and the way you perform. Professionalism, I feel like it covers so much ground and so many different things that that word is kind of what resonates with me.

“I feel like with coach Saban at Alabama, he started to introduce me to what it means to be a professional and how to become a professional. And then once I got to New England, one thing that coach Belichick was great at teaching was how to maintain that level of professionalism. That way you can maintain success throughout your career, so I want to be a pro’s pro. I want to do everything the right way, I want to positively affect my teammates, I want to be a positive light in the locker room and the organization, and I want to help us win. To me, that’s what being a pro is because everybody’s got a job. My job is to come in here and be a pro football player and do that to the best of my ability.”

Reports indicated Harris signed a one-year contract with a base value of $1.7 million to join the Bills, and he’s looking forward to giving Buffalo fans – known as the Bills Mafia – something to cheer about.

“I can finally say it now, but I love Bills Mafia,” Harris said. “The energy, the enthusiasm, the tables on fire, everything that comes with it, I’ve loved it since I came to the league just because I love sports towns and communities that really rally behind their teams, and I don’t know if anybody does that more than Buffalo fans here in Buffalo. I love you guys and am excited just to be a part and, hopefully, give you guys some more reasons to jump through some more tables on fire.”

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.