FOXBORO — New England isn’t the easiest place to get caught up to speed, especially as a wide receiver, but Maurice Harris seems to be handling himself just fine.
A free agent signee this offseason, Harris had a second consecutive strong day of practice on Wednesday, and while it’s tough to draw real conclusions about anything during minicamp, Harris is at least with the program already.
"I think receiver's a tough position in general,” Harris said, “but yeah, there's a lot going on and the speed of the game — it's such a great organization, you kind of have to catch up to speed and things go pretty fast, you've definitely got to be prepared, be mentally strong to have success here."
The fourth-year receiver, who plied his trade in Washington for three years before signing with the Patriots in March, made a few nice grabs throughout Wednesday’s practice, including a couple tough catches in traffic during 11-on-11s. It’s not exactly full-speed, high-octane football, but it’s all part of the process.
"I think when you're playing ball at any level, whether it's spring, fall whatever, I think the drive for an athlete and a professional player, you always want to compete,” Harris said. “So there's certain times where we'll have to slow things down to really emphasize on the teaching, but there's times to be competitive also. It just depends on what the coaches want, but I think we're all competing every day.
"I always have something to work on, each day there's always something to work on. I try not to make the same mistakes twice, go out and there just perform, control the things that I can control: effort, things like that. It's a learning process, but I enjoy it, I appreciate it."
A Cal product, Harris is the new face in Foxboro but he isn’t quite on his own, with fellow former Golden Bears Stephen Anderson and Brian Schwenke helping integrate their old college teammate to life in New England.
"It's good to get back with Steve,” said Harris. "We played college together and he's helped me a lot, things that he knows that I might not know yet, so he's help me and we've connected and gone over some things. He's doing a great job, he's a great guy.
"Brian Schwenke, he was also there when we were younger, good to see Schwenke out here doing his thing and everything's going good so far."
Harris will be competing for a roster spot at wide out, but is making a great first impression.
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