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Usually, players join the New England Patriots and revitalize their careers but for one former Pats wide receiver, the opposite appears to be the case.
The N’Keal Harry experiment mercifully came to an end before the start of the 2022 season. Harry was traded to the Chicago Bears for a seventh-round draft pick.
With the wide receiver being a first-round selection in the 2019 NFL draft, it’s safe to say that Harry’s time in New England won’t be looked at fondly in the memories of Patriots fans.
Harry only played in 33 games for the Pats in three seasons and the wide receiver tallied 57 receptions for 598 yards and 4 touchdowns per Pro Football Reference.
How Has N’Keal Harry Performed in Chicago?
Now with the Bears, Harry has been once again mediocre on the field. The wide receiver has only appeared in four games due to injury issues and has recorded 4 receptions for 44 yards and 1 touchdown entering Week 13.
But against the Green Bay Packers on Sunday, December 4, Harry made a statement by making what at least one NFL reporter, Doug Kyed, called “one of the catches of the year.”
Good lord, N’Keal Harry made one of the catches of the year.
The catch was Harry’s lone catch of the game.
Are Patriots Wide Receivers Frustrated?
After New England’s loss to the Bills in Week 13, emotions seemed to be running high. Mac Jones was seen throwing a fit on the sidelines while players in the locker room also expressed their frustration. This included multiple Patriots wide receivers.
“When we came into this game, that’s what our game plan was right at the start,” DeVante Parker said. “Throw short, quick tosses. Get it out there … Get the ball out quicker.
“Yeah,” Parker added when asked if it was frustrating not throwing the ball deeper. “It is because throwing deep sparks our offense, whoever’s making a play. Once we hit deep passes, our whole offense comes alive. That’s a big part of our offense.”
Kendrick Bourne also touched upon the lack of deep balls from New England’s passing game against the Bills.
“That’s funny how we were able to move it the last drive,” Bourne said. “I was just saying, ‘We need to do that the whole time.’ I don’t know. That’s frustrating. We need to be urgent all the time. Especially after the half. I think we should’ve been more attacking, things like that. But I just gotta play.
“It’s hard,” Bourne added. “It goes into the aspect of it, you go to the sideline you’re just like, ‘man.’ You can’t not believe in your abilities, you know we’re all here for a reason. It’s just frustrating as a man, you know what I mean? We’re all men in here and we all want to contribute, but it’s just hard because it’s 11 men. One person can’t mess up, it’ll mess up the whole thing. It’s just about being mentally strong every single play, every single second of the game. It gets frustrating, it’s just a part of the NFL.”
Running back Rhamondre Stevenson also touched upon the struggles of the offensive unit as a whole.
“We know what we’re doing wrong and we know what we need to do to start winning and progress in the right direction,” Stevenson said. “It’s a little frustrating but we all know what we’ve got to do. So we’ve just got another week of working on it and trying to be better next game.”