NFL.com Identifies Patriots’ ‘Player To Root For’ During 2019 Season

There will be a whole bunch of new faces around Gillette Stadium this year.

The New England Patriots’ wave of newcomers will include both offseason acquisitions and soon-to-be-rookies picked up through the NFL draft. And given the way New England’s roster is shaping up, a good chunk of these first-year Patriots will have the opportunity to be impact players from Week 1.

One of these players is N’Keal Harry, the first wide receiver taken in the first round by the Patriots in the Bill Belichick era. NFL.com writer Adam Rank is excited about what Harry is poised to bring to the table and believes he’ll be a player who’s easy to support.

“I’m not one of those people who hates the Patriots just for the sake of it. I can appreciate them as a football team, and I love that they drafted Harry, who spent time in St. Vincent as a young child before moving with his grandmother to Arizona, then eventually played for Arizona State,” Rank wrote in his column of players to root for during the 2019 season. “He’s going to be making plays for the Patriots this year. Like they needed it, but still.”

Harry is in line to be high on New England’s wide receiver depth chart in the upcoming campaign. In fact, former NFL wide receiver Nate Burleson believes the 21-year-old will legitimately compete with Julian Edelman for the billing of Tom Brady’s go-to target.

If Harry lives up to his high expectations, you can expect him to be a fan favorite in Foxboro for years to come.