Michael Irvin Says He Knows How to Fix N'Keal Harry. Here's Hoping Harry's Listening.
Last week in Los Angeles, N'Keal Harry commemorated the occasion of his 17th career game with a touchdown catch. It's his second of the year. The fourth of his career. A career which now includes just over one full season's worth of games and has a total of 38 catches on 69 targets for 333 yards and 8.76 yards per reception. Not exactly the production the Patriots were expecting when they made him the franchise's highest drafted wide receiver since Terry Glenn in 1996.
But if there's anyone in a position to settle this particular player's hash and get his career curve to unflatten, it's Michael Irvin.
The Playmaker has been making a regular visit to WEEI for years now. And when I was there he was one of my favorite interview subjects ever. Because he was funny, but also candid and insightful and never, not once, boring. In his most recent appearance he was asked about Harry. And he's uniquely qualified to talk about it since he had a similar start to his career. After getting selected with the 11th overall pick out of Miami in 1988, Irvin didn't have much in the way of production due to a combination of ineffectiveness and injury, much like Harry. Here are his numbers for his first three years:
- Total receptions: 78
- Average receptions per season: 26
- Total receiving yards: 1,445
- Receiving yards per season: 481.6
- Total touchdowns: 12
Not a perfect apples-to-apples comparison to Harry. But a close enough MacIntosh-to-Granny Smith comparison. Enough to demonstrate that Harry should heed the coaching points he laid out for him on WEEI.
"I’ll put this invitation out to N’Keal,” Irving said. “I guarantee you I will turn his whole mentality. The first week, we will run routes every day … well, first, we will train. We’re going to run … strength and conditioning … and then we’re going to run routes. We’re not running routes fresh. Anybody can catch passes fresh. Nobody wins fresh. I want you to be dead ass tired, ‘now let’s go run routes’ … I’m going to change his mentality from ‘I wanna get around these guys and not make them touch me’ to ‘Imma run right through his ass. I’m a big dude’ … I will absolutely turn N’Keal Harry, I guarantee it.”
I honestly do not believe the problem is a lack of effort on Harry's part. I just so far, in an albeit limited sample size, have yet to identify what he does well. Or even average, for that matter. The knew he wasn't fast when they drafted him, and that's fine. You can work around that. He's not a precise route runner, despite the fact the offseason was filled with videos of him at a WR training facility working at getting off the line. He's not an especially powerful blocker. He hasn't demonstrated the hands that the highlights from Arizona St. showed. He's shown the ability to win 50/50 balls, but not really much more than 50% of them. So what the hell. He might as well dedicate himself to having the best strength and conditioning at his position in the league. To have the stamina to run routes and catch passes fresh. And to change his mentality so that he's determined to run right through guy's asses like the big man that he is.
Nobody respects Bill Belichick like Irvin does. He's said many times the Lombardi Trophy should have Belichick's name on it. Football historian that Belichick is, I have no doubt the feeling is mutual. So I'd love nothing more than to see him bring Irvin in to "turn" Harry. Let The Playmaker to sink his teeth into the guy like a vampire and "turn" him into Michael Irvin, who followed up those first three seasons by topping 1,200 yards five straight years and 1,000+ in seven of the next eight while winning three Super Bowls and kicking down the door of the Hall of Fame.
Hell, I would've flown Irvin out to LA this week to start the process now. But failing that, let's hope last week in SoFi Stadium was just the beginning of the turn and tonight in SoFi will build on it. Now is as good a time as any to become The Playmaker II.