The Patriots passing attack ranked 30th last year. Since then, fans and analysts alike have been calling for the team to add impactful skill players to bolster their roster.
Despite the calls for more firepower, it appears the team could be putting one of their pass-catchers on the trading block.
NFL insider Mike Garafolo told NFL Now that the Patriots are taking calls from other teams looking to trade for N’Keal Harry, the team’s 2019 first-round draft pick (32nd overall).
From NFL Now on @nflnetwork on #Patriots WR N’Keal Harry being a potential trade target for teams as we work through free agency and the Draft. pic.twitter.com/BziqXFj83y
— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) March 10, 2021
To say Harry has underwhelmed in his first two years with the New England Patriots would be putting it kindly.
The former Arizona State product has totaled fewer catches (45) and receiving yards (414) than either Damiere Byrd or Jakobi Meyers did last year alone and has averaged just 19.7 receiving yards in his 21 career games.
The peripheral numbers don’t help him much either. Harry was one of the least efficient receivers in the league last season as measured by Pro Football Focus’s yards per route run statistic. He averaged just 0.97 yards every time he ran a pattern, which ran 164th out of all 222 receivers to get at least one target. Those numbers look even worse when you remove the outliers and are well below either Meyers’s (2.29) or Byrd’s (1.29) yards per route run, suggesting the problem wasn’t simply Cam Newton’s passing struggles.
Still, Garafolo notes another team might be willing to take a chance on Harry, who has the potential to fill out his projected role as a big-bodied red zone threat in another system. New England would carry a $2.7 million cap hit for Harry this season, the third year of his rookie deal.
Trading Harry could bring back a mid-to-late-round draft pick. But it would also increase the need for the Patriots to add another pass-catcher to an offense already thin at receiver.
Top free-agent targets include several options who hit the open market after not getting franchise-tagged by their teams, including tight ends Hunter Henry and Jonnu Smith as well as receivers Kenny Golladay and Will Fuller V.
The Patriots have also met with several wide receiver prospects entering the 2021 NFL Draft, headlined by Clemson star Amari Rodgers and dynamic Purdue wideout Rondale Moore.
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