Everyone relax. Our long regional nightmare is over.
Hyperbole intended...but yes, The N’Keal Harry Experiment/Debacle/Tenure in New England, however you choose to frame it, is over.
He has been dealt away to the Chicago Bears, a team that is wide receiver desperate, where he will get a fresh start on his professional career. A professional career that, if we’re being modest, hasn’t exactly been a smashing success to date. Especially given that Harry was a first round draft pick.
Harry has been sent, after three unremarkable, criticism, injury, doubt and error-filled seasons, away from a team that had high hopes for him to be the next great target of Tom Brady. Instead, Harry became a punchline and punching bag for Bill Belichick’s inability to draft wide receivers the last two decades. The Patriots were so ready to move on from Harry they took but a 7th round pick two years from now for him - better than releasing him outright, or as my dad used to say, “A sharp stick in the eye!” - and even replaced him basically this offseason with a more experienced veteran version of what the Patriots hoped he would one day become.
The day N’Keal Harry delivered on his pro potential never arrived. But the day he was sent elsewhere has. And it’s time for all of us, from media to fan and in-between, to move on as well.
Yes, there will always be the plethora of Pro Bowl caliber receivers taken after Harry in the receiver rich 2019 draft to remind us what could have been.
Present company included, there has been great lament as to what Deebo Samuel, who practically picked out his uniform number after his pre-draft visit in 2019, or AJ Brown, a lifelong Pats fan up until the 2019 draft, could have been in Foxboro. But there’s no crying over spilled GOAT’s milk now. Shaking an angry digital fist online, yelling about how much better Terry McLaurin would look in Pats color rush won’t help Kendrick Bourne, DeVante Parker or Nelson Agholor reach new heights in Foxborough this season.
Getting upset over a lack of production, not to mention drops or penalties or turnovers, even punts fielded off the side of his helmet, won’t be good for the sports soul any time soon, if ever. You might think mocking Harry’s greatest contribution to the team being an extra lineman for run blocking in Buffalo is clever or helps you deal with the frustration his play caused. But come on now - he actually did that one thing well! Plus, we’re supposed to be some of the happiest fans in football, remember? (link - https://www.audacy.com/weei/sports/patriots/patriots-have-2nd-happiest-fanbase-in-nfl-survey-says) Stewing over what was and now what’s to be isn’t the best look here.
There’s no denying that the Harry pick, which allegedly was Belichick going rogue vs. the big boards and his own personnel department’s advice, was a cataclysmic whiff. And trying to make it work here, or getting more for him, wasn’t gonna happen. Sometimes you turn a hundred dollars into a handful of dirty gum-covered dimes and dirty pennies found in your car’s cup holder. Still better than nothing!
Cut your losses, folks. Hovering over the mess that remains of his Pats stint will potentially stunt any growth or at least renewed appreciation for fans of the direction of this team. Or so we try and remind ourselves as we further shed the negativity that surrounded N’Keal Harry’s time with the Patriots.
So get it out now, if you have to. Have at it within the first day of his trade. It’s understandable.
Then take solace that it’s over. He’s gone. HE GONE! Along with everything that disappointed everyone, including himself, for those three remarkably unremarkable season. This is truly now the new New England...and we’re moving on, too. To the 2022 season. To whoever else catches passes for the Pats. To new jabs and jokes. Whatever. Just anyone or anything aside from N’Keal Harry.