What to make of Bill Belichick’s odd comments about N’Keal Harry

Bill Belichick’s short rant revealed his recurring message.

The New England Patriots obviously struggled in their 18-12 loss to the Denver Broncos in Week 6.

One point of emphasis that was made by Bill Belichick and the team afterwards was a lack of time on the practice field. Because of positive COVID-19 tests, the Patriots only practiced a couple of times in a two-week span. One player that was hurt by this lack of reps is N’Keal Harry, who’s improving in his second year.

Harry spent a majority of last season on the injured reserve list and only had 220 snaps on the season. He now has 266 snaps through five games this season and he’s showing flashes of potential.

Belichick was asked about Harry’s progress on Wednesday, but answered the question indirectly at first.

“As a team, we need more time on the practice field than we’ve had recently so hopefully, we’ll start getting that this week. That’ll be good for all of us,” Belichick said. “I think we all need to work on fundamentals, awareness and anticipation and things like that. That’s true of every position. Obviously, in the passing game, the quarterbacks, receivers, backs, tight ends – there’s a lot of that. We need it on defense as well and defensive recognition. That’s something that… we need a lot of work on that. I think we’ve made some gains, but we need to do more on the field and hopefully will do that this week.

“So, that’s N’Keal. That’s everybody. He’s way ahead of where he was last year because he’s been on the field and he’s been practicing. You know, there was a point and time where we strung together a lot of quality reps and we need to do that again.”

It’s clear the Patriots just simply need more reps on the field, and they hope to get them before seeing the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday.

[vertical-gallery id=96664]