New England Patriots 2019 first-round pick N’Keal Harry got off to a hot start in his Patriots preseason debut, but he’s barely been seen since.
Harry caught two passes for 36 yards in Week 1 of the preseason against the Detroit Lions. On his second reception, Harry suffered an injury and didn’t see the field in the Patriots’ final three preseason games. Harry actually was heading into that game against the Lions with an injury suffered in joint practices in Detroit. It’s unknown what exact ailments Harry is suffering from, but both injuries seemed to be of the lower-body variety.
“He’s definitely getting better,” Patriots head coach Bill Belichick said Sunday morning in a conference call. “I mean, all of our injured players are getting better. All of the guys who have been dealing with things are getting better. Where exactly they are — some of them didn’t play in the game on (Thursday), we didn’t practice on Friday. We didn’t practice yesterday. So for those guys we haven’t seen on the field in a couple days, we’ll see where they’re at.”
The Patriots are expected to place at least one player on injured reserve Sunday after 4 p.m. ET for further roster maneuvering. If the Patriots feel Harry’s injury could keep him out a few more weeks, then perhaps they could place him on IR. He would not be eligible to return until after Week 8.
“The whole receiver situation has been challenging all through camp with the limited availability of certain players,” Belichick said. “I’d say most of the players have been limited at one point or another. So we’ve had to use the information that we have and try to do the best we can with it. We’ll just have to see how it goes.”
The Patriots cut Demaryius Thomas on Saturday but could bring him back Sunday or Monday if they do place Harry on injured reserve. They currently also have Julian Edelman, Josh Gordon, Phillip Dorsett, Jakobi Meyers and Gunner Olszewski on their wide receiver depth chart.
The Patriots have plenty of bodies at the position, and if they make a 1-for-1 swap with Thomas for Harry, their depth wouldn’t suffer from moving the rookie to IR.
