The curious case of N'Keal Harry

Aug. 11—FOXBOROUGH — N'Keal Harry was supposed to be a sign of good faith from Bill Belichick for Tom Brady.

Here he was, a first round draft pick. A weapon. A strong wide receiver.

You know, the kind of player the Green Bay Packers didn't draft for Aaron Rodgers.

And Harry was a Brady-type dude. What he lacked in speed he made up for in possessing the ball thrown his way in college. A 50-50 ball machine.

Then, something happened.

Brady didn't want him. He wouldn't throw to him. And Harry, seemingly as nice of a young man as there is, started getting nagging injuries.

His greatest play as a Patriot that rookie year happened in a December game against Kansas City. He caught a pass on the sidelines, eluded two defenders, getting both of his feet in bounds, and then dove from the 3-yard line into the end zone.

The only problem was the line judge botched the call, ruling he was out-of-bounds.

It was an example of Harry's strength and athleticism. It also was an outlier. We haven't seen anything like it again.

In 21 career games he has accumulated only 414 receiving yards. In comparison, D.K. Metcalf, drafted 32 picks after Harry, had 404 yards in the first four games of 2020.

But through the last few weeks of training camp, particularly last week, Harry has turned some heads and drawn a lot of "Wows" in drills and offense-vs.-defense scrimmages.

It could be argued the Harry has been as good as any wide receiver in training camp, up there with Nelson Agholor, trusty Jakobi Meyers and Kendrick Bourne.

"They're a couple of examples of the plays I'm supposed to make," said Harry. "(The fans) see spectacular. I see those as routine plays for me."

Yup, that's a "Wow!" quote. And there were more of them.

"This whole training camp, this whole offseason, I've had a vision," said Harry. "I'm trying to stack the days (of good practices) and attack the vision."

There is an asterisk to this training camp, starting before it, when Harry, through his agent, requested a trade.

I believe that's a no-no in the world of Bill Belichick.

At time of the request, a fifth or sixth rounder appeared to be a decent price. But over the last week, his value has to have grown. Maybe even to his current team.

Belichick was asked about Harry a few days ago and said he and his third-year wideout have had good discussions and — I'm paraphrasing here — they are on the same page.

This is an interesting development for Harry and the Patriots. He has had issues staying on the field, suffering from nagging injuries over his first two seasons.

Where have these competitive juices come from? Remember, he is only 23. Maybe it's maturity.

Maybe it's the fact that he is still listed behind Meyers, an undrafted free agent the same year when Harry entered the league but far more productive thus far, on the Patriots depth chart,

Harry was recently asked about his feelings regarding his doubters, which has been most of New England the last year.

"I could care less what doubters think," he said. "There's still a lot of people that believe in me. I want to prove them right."

You can email Bill Burt at bburt@eagletribune.com.