Safety Chris Harris, who was released by the Chicago Bears on Thursday, has been claimed off waivers by the Detroit Lions. Agent Albert Elias confirmed the move on Twitter this afternoon.

Harris joins the Lions after spending all of 2010 and the first part of 2011 with the Bears. He was benched following Chicago's loss to the Lions on Monday Night Football and evidently fell out of favor with the coaches, leading to him ultimately being released.

Before joining the Bears for the second time in his career (he played for them in his first two years in the NFL), Harris was a member of the Carolina Panthers from 2007 to 2009. He started in all but four games during his three years in Carolina, and he started in all 16 games last year for the Bears.

With Harris joining the Lions, there is suddenly another interesting storyline in place for the game between Detroit and Chicago on Nov. 13. In the Lions' first game after their bye week, they will take on the Bears at Soldier Field, and the game could serve not only as Harris' return to Chicago, but also his debut for the Lions.

Please give a welcome to Chris, who was nice enough to stop by Pride of Detroit before the Monday night game earlier this season. I'm sure we'll be hearing from him again now that he's a member of the Lions.

UPDATE: To make room on the roster for Harris, the Lions have placed safety Vincent Fuller on injured reserve.