Pigskin Denouement

Does everything end with a whimper?

It's been a couple of days since I heard that the star-crossed, former 1st round Patriots pick, N'Keal Harry, had been traded to the Chicago Bears for a bag of magic beans (aka, a 7th round pick, aka, future Julian Edelman). Hardly a shock, in that the inevitable rarely surprises, and yet still somewhat bittersweet. After all, I did root for the guy. Then I shrugged when I heard he'd been traded. Then I wondered how it impacted the salary cap.

It's been said that Love and Hate are two sides of the same coin, but that coin always seemed to come up Hate when it came to Harry. 

He was the disappointing second son; whenever he actually did anything good all we could say was, "Why can't he do that all the time?" Or "Where has this guy been?" Or "N'Keal Harry caught a pass! Oh wait that's Nelson Agholor." Even his successes - few that they were - were somehow disappointing.

He was the poster child for Belichick trolls. (Ignore those Lombardi Trophies, the man simply can't draft a wide receiver!) Belichick has famously moved on from his mistakes as soon as they're identified but you could make the case that didn't happen with N'Keal Harry. That he was traded now isn't as much of a story as, why wasn't he traded last year (when I'm guessing he was worth a 6th round pick)? Granted, it takes two to make a trade and what GM for the Other 31 in their right mind would do anything that might help Bill Belichick?

In retrospect, it was clearly wishful thinking (on my part, at least) that the Patriots refusal to deal the disappointing wide receiver meant there was still some hope that everything we'd been promised when he was drafted could have a fairy tale ending. 

Or at the very least, one season with 50 receptions for 800 yards and 6 TD.

But that didn't happen.

N'Keal Harry was that lover who never loved us back.

Now that we've dumped him, we're afraid he's going to lose 20 pounds and get the cover of the SI Swimsuit edition.

Sports fans be crazy like that.

Ultimately, the N'Keal Harry story begs a few questions.

What is that ineffable quality that makes up the fractional difference in human endeavor that defines greatness?

Put another way, what is it that separates DK Metcalf from N'Keal Harry?

What is it that led N'Keal Harry's loss in value from 1st round pick to 7th round compensation?

Lack of production is the symptom, not the cause. Obviously, you're lucky to get a 7th rounder at this point but we're still only guessing at the underlying cause for Harry's lack of production in New England. We may never know. Was it intelligence? Effort? Attitude? Much like the difference between ignorance and apathy, at this point, I don't know and I don't care. 

Will whatever it was that made N'Keal Harry a failure in Foxborough matter in Chicago?

Context does matter. We shouldn't forget that players who've been successful with the Patriots and left have more often than not struggled to repeat their success with their new teams. Conversely, we shouldn't be surprised if Harry puts up that 50/800/6 slash line for the Bears this season.

Okay. Yeah. That would surprise the shit out of me.