To an extent, it's true what they say about the NFL Draft: it really can be a bit of a crapshoot.
So-called "can't miss" prospects like Trevor Lawrence, Andrew Luck, or Myles Garrett don't come around every season. When they do, injuries, bad fits, or poor attitude have proven capable of derailing even the most promising careers.
So on its face, the fact that the Patriots missed on 2019 first-round receiver N'Keal Harry is just life in the NFL. No team hits on 100 percent of its draft picks, not even the lauded Baltimore Ravens.
But that doesn't mean Bill Belichick should be let off the hook for this.
Obviously, highlight videos and college film, which too often doesn't get viewed in the All-22 format, won't tell you everything about a player's performance and certainly won't give you all the information about someone's intangibles and mental makeup.
However, one thing was quite clear about Harry from watching him in college even as he put up back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons before entering the draft: he was a one-trick pony -- and a slow one at that.
His game consisted largely of boxing out significantly smaller defenders, pulling down contested catches, and simply bullying people with superior size and not much else.
Occasionally, you'd see Harry win a route at the line of scrimmage with footwork against a corner who was expecting a fade route or a physical fight at the line. He also could bounce off a tackler or two and move with the ball in his hands.
But his route tree was limited and far from polished, and he struggled to separate and run away from people even against lesser competition. His 10-yard and 20-yard testing splits and agility drills were poor coming out of the draft as well.
So why draft a first-round receiver who essentially had only one notable trait -- being big -- with a lot of other "meh" to less-than-ideal qualities?
If you wanted to take a shot on a big-bodied receiver who could win down the field but needed seasoning elsewhere, why not take D.K. Metcalf, who is also 6'4" with good size and far more upside? Metcalf, of course, fell to the second round and swiftly became one of the best young receivers in the game while Harry…did not.
Compare Metcalf and Harry's 2020 seasons -- that was the last year Harry played significantly. Metcalf ranked 15th in the NFL in yards per route run (2.10), according to Pro Football Focus. Harry, meanwhile, was 95th in the league (0.97).
To make matters worse, though, A.J. Brown (2nd, 2.67 yards/route run) and Deebo Samuel (10th, 2.26), who were also taken after Harry in 2019, were also among the NFL's best receivers as second-year players.
Even undrafted Patriots wideout Jakobi Meyers (12th, 2.24) significantly outranked Harry after just picking up the wide receiver position the season before.
Somehow, though, it all makes perfect sense. Harry was obviously a tremendous athlete in college compared to his competition. But in the NFL, he was just a big guy who couldn't run and couldn't separate from defenders using anything other than size and strength.
Metcalf, meanwhile, had great size, jumping ability, and ridiculous speed for a man his size, and he was able to use his raw athletic traits to transform himself into a better route-runner. Brown and Samuel also had more explosive, versatile athletic profiles.
Meyers, on the other hand, makes up for what he lacks in speed, size, and elite run-after-catch skills with the plain-and-simple knack for getting open and catching the football by any means necessary. Sometimes, it's just that simple.
So how is that the Patriots, with ample time to scout and make a decision on a receiver prospect in the first round or later in 2019, settled on the one guy whose only defining trait was being big?
Was this a case of Belichick relying too much on the old scouting notes, and might we finally see a change coming in the way he evaluates receivers given how much capital he just invested in the skinny but ridiculously fast and sure-handed Tyquan Thornton?
Whatever the reason, Harry failed while so many more well-rounded players at his position succeeded, and that draft bust will stick with Bill Belichick for the rest of his career.
For more reaction about the Harry trade to the Chicago Bears, check out the "1st and Foxborough" podcast.