FOXBOROUGH -- Patriots first-round pick N'Keal Harry has been practicing for two full weeks and is eligible to play in his first game Sunday night against the Ravens.
But, will he?
The rookie doesn't have to be activated to the active roster until next Tuesday and even if he's activated to the roster, he still could be inactive for the game.
As of now, the Patriots have 52 players on the active roster, so it seems likely he would be activated Saturday afternoon, but then comes the question will play Sunday?
The wide receivers room has a depth chart of Julian Edelman, Mohamed Sanu, Phillip Dorsett, Jakobi Meyers, Gunner Olszewski and Harry. It doesn't really make much sense to have six active receivers for a game, so someone would have to be the odd-man out.
When reading into Tom Brady's comments Friday, it seems like Harry's debut might not come this week.
“He’s missed a lot of football. Missed a lot of training camp. Missed eight regular-season games," Brady said when asked what it's been like to have him on the practice field. "He just has to try and work at it every day. It is going to be up to him to put the effort in, and everyone is there to help him, but you have to go out there and you have to do it and earn it, earn the trust of your teammates and coaches and stuff. It’s good to have him out there.”
Brady was also asked about Sanu and a report that he pushed the team behind the scenes to trade for him, and within that answer he had some interesting comments on rookie receivers.
“I think everybody liked Mohamad. Everybody liked him. That’s why he’s here. It is great to have him. I am excited for him," he said. "The more we work together the better it is going to be. It is hard to be on the same page within a week, so we’re just going to try and communicate through things and talk through them. There’s a lot of things that come up within a game, practice, pass game, things that he’s done, things that we’ve done.
"Football is a game about anticipation, so the good part is he’s a veteran player. You know how to play football. It’s not like a rookie that they don’t quite — they don’t know what the real expectation is. He’s been apart of some great offenses, so it is really about incorporating him into what we do and really the terminology so that he can play fast and we can play with anticipation together and he’s running the routes where I expect him to be so I can play with anticipation. Then you gain trust and you gain confidence. Then you gain confidence and you can go out and execute really well.
"It is hard to skip anything in that process. It’s just the reality of football. If you try and think it is going to come together in a day or two, those are probably unrealistic expectations, but every time we go out there we’re trying to be a little bit better and lead to better execution.”
The deadline for Harry to be activated to the roster for this week is Saturday at 4 p.m.
Related
