N'Keal Harry has been practicing with the Patriots for two weeks now and is eligible to play in Sunday's game after being on injured reserve since the start of the season.
Although he isn't officially on the roster, there's a spot open for him following the release of Eric Tomlinson on Tuesday. If Harry isn't activated to the roster by next Tuesday, then he would revert back to IR. So, he doesn't necessarily have to be on the active roster for Sunday's game, but things seem to be trending in that direction.
With that being said, Harry certainly is behind given his time missed.
“He missed a lot of ball from training camp until just recently (getting) back on the field, so there’s a lot of things that he had to rework to get back in the flow of things,” wide receivers/special teams coach Joe Judge said on Monday. “The speed of the game, the timing of the quarterbacks, reading the coverage and making adjustments — that’s all been something he’s had to get back into. You can’t just jump back into where you left off when you miss that amount of time. So every day, he’s working on just correcting little things here and there and not repeating them the next day.”
Speaking on a conference call Tuesday, Bill Belichick said the first-round pick is trending in the right direction.
"I think N'Keal's been working hard," he said. "Even though he hasn't been able to participate in practice until recently, he's been able to do other things – train, study, watch film, keep up with the terminology and game plan adjustments that we make. And then more recently, he has been able to get on the field and primarily take scout team reps but also do other things, individual drills and some of the other competitive drills and so forth that we've done. It's definitely improving.
"It's good to have him back out there and see him working. I'd say each day, as you would expect, a little more improvement and confidence and taking things a little bit further than the day before. But he's missed a lot of time. He still has a long way to go. He's definitely trending in the right direction. We just have to evaluate where it is and what helps the team the most here."
Given the numbers at receiver, all of them cannot be active on game day, so it wouldn't be a total shock to see Harry added to the roster, but inactive for Sunday's game against the Ravens. The Patriots could use the bye week to get Harry more comfortable with the offense and then potentially get him into games beginning Nov. 17 against the Eagles.
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