New England Patriots: 3 Players who won’t be back in 2021
2. N’Keal Harry
Another player who could see their way out of New England this offseason and might have played his last snap in a Patriots uniform is young wide receiver N’Keal Harry.
Harry came into the 2020 season with high expectations of a player who should be able to take the next step in being a nice complimentary piece in the passing game alongside veteran wideout Julian Edelman.
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In his second season in the NFL and with the Patriots after being drafted in the first round by New England in 2019, Harry didn’t live up to those expectations and also didn’t manage to take the field for a full season for the second straight year.
The 23-year-old wide receiver played in 14 of the 16 games, which was an improvement from his rookie campaign in 2019 when he played in just seven games. But Harry didn’t necessarily impress in his 14 appearances for the Patriots in 2020.
Over the course of those 14 games, many of which came without Edelman taking the field resulting in Harry becoming one of the top receiving options by default, the wide receiver finished his sophomore year with just 33 catches for 309 yards and two touchdowns. Being targeted 57 times, Harry also tallied a catch percentage of just 57.9 percent.
It seems like it would be too soon for the organization to move on from the former first-round pick, but if the Patriots were to bring in a wide receiver or two in free agency, a fresh start for both New England and Harry might be an outcome that appears before the start of the 2021 season.
When it comes to the level of production, Jakobi Meyers ended up out-performing Harry by the end of the year and Meyers could end up taking the role of Harry moving forward on the Patriots depth chart.
Harry is set to make about $1.4 million in 2021 and $1.9 in 2022, which would make his contract movable and maybe even attractive for other teams to take a flyer on. That’s the most likely thing to take place over the course of the offseason.