Clarification: N'Keal Harry is Designated for Return from IR

All the armchair GM's on this board keep posting that the team might bring back Develin over Harry. Folks, the Patriots have already designated Harry for return to the team and he is PRACTICING. Barring any unforeseen re-injury, he has been selected by the organization to be added to the 53 man roster within 21 days of October 15th. It's a Fait Acompli.

10/15 N'Keal Harry WR Designated for Return

(thank you to Bresna who found the official NFL transaction report listed above)

Hence, the Patriots have one more slot to designate for return and conventional wisdom is that slot is going to WYNN.

According to Reiss, Devlin isn't coming back this year due to a serious neck injury.

That is all.

It was a foregone conclusion at this point, but yeah that is great news. An Edelman-Gordon-Sanu-Dorsett-Meyers-Harry WR corps offers real depth and versatility, and I'm excited to see it. The Pats have clearly been suffering for their lack of WR depth (well, maybe suffering is the wrong word since they're still the highest-scoring team in the league, but you know what I mean), and Harry can only help. The Sanu trade did have me wondering what Harry's role might be, but even if it's just injury/relapse insurance I'm happy with that. I still don't even remotely trust Gordon to stay clean, so at a minimum there's that.

Get Wynn back too and I'll be really excited to see what this offense can do.

Yep! Instead of debating Harry vs. Develin, maybe we can debate which of the 4 tight ends will go to make room for Harry?

patchick said:

Yep! Instead of debating Harry vs. Develin, maybe we can debate which of the 4 tight ends will go to make room for Harry?

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Everyone but Watson for all I care. None of them have made me forget about Gronk or even Allen as blockers.

we will have to work out the run blocking. They experimented with tomlinson as fullback and elandon roberts. This should be settled by december.

KontradictioN said:

Everyone but Watson for all I care. None of them have made me forget about Gronk or even Allen as blockers.

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Would Allen come back for peanuts? Lol

There is no longer a designation for "I/R-Return". There is only an I/R designation and we can only bring back two players a year.

We have brought back zero players.

Develin seems to be seriously injured. Wynn seems to be able to return. Harry is practicing.

A betting man would have Wynn/Harry as the two choices, but still doesn't count out Develin 100% just yet.

Gronk is coming back.

I’m just really really hoping Wynn returns. I don’t want Marshall Newhouse being our LT in January.

Joey007 said:

I’m just really really hoping Wynn returns. I don’t want Marshall Newhouse being our LT in January.

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Newhouse will probably end up as the swing OT.

Triumph said:

Gronk is coming back.

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You’re throwing me off with these avatar changes. The crying kid was the best one.

Joey007 said:

I’m just really really hoping Wynn returns. I don’t want Marshall Newhouse being our LT in January.

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Wynn is such a big upgrade at the most needed position.

Hyped said:

There is no longer a designation for "I/R-Return". There is only an I/R designation and we can only bring back two players a year.

We have brought back zero players.

Develin seems to be seriously injured. Wynn seems to be able to return. Harry is practicing.

A betting man would have Wynn/Harry as the two choices, but still doesn't count out Develin 100% just yet.

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But by practicing, Harry is now officially one of those slots, which I think the OP was getting at.

Even if Harry doesn't see any game action for whatever reason, we only have one slot left. I'd be shocked if that didn't go to Wynn.

Yes....this was clear from the outset

what’s also clear is that develin is done for the year

You are correct that Harry practicing means he takes up one of the return slots.

You are not correct (yet) that it's fait accompli that he is going to be activated. I forget what year, might have been the first year they gave you two return slots, but the Patriots had two players come back to practice, eat up the spots, then not ever play. One might have been Shea McClellin? Can't remember the other. But coming back to practice doesn't guarantee anything yet.

Can someone point out to me to the official IR return rules? Nothing I have found says that the a player practicing after 6 weeks negates a return slot. Most websites say that a return slot is only used when a player returns to the field of play. Big difference.

I still don't even want to imagine why people think Devlin would come back after a neck injury. Seems like they all forgot about Andy Katzenmoyer who's playing career was shortened due to a neck injury.

Hyped said:

There is no longer a designation for "I/R-Return". There is only an I/R designation and we can only bring back two players a year.

We have brought back zero players.

Develin seems to be seriously injured. Wynn seems to be able to return. Harry is practicing.

A betting man would have Wynn/Harry as the two choices, but still doesn't count out Develin 100% just yet.

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This is the type of post that causes confusion for others on this board.

There is absolutely nothing to bet on with Harry - it's a done deal. Harry has already returned to practice and has hence filled one of the two slots eligible for a player to return from IR. Even if Harry re-injures himself prior to being activated to the 53 man roster from IR and never steps foot on the field*, that one slot has already been filled and is spoken for.

There is currently only one eligible slot remaining for someone to return from IR. So if you are a betting man, the only bet to make is whether WYNN takes the second slot or not.

(*Shea McClellin was put on the IR to start the season due to a concussion. He began practicing after week 6 and took one of the return from IR slots. Unfortunately, he was re-injured and was never activated to the 53 man roster. That was a situation that turned out to be a waste of one of the return from IR slots.)

bresna said:

Can someone point out me to the official IR return rules? Nothing I have found says that the a player practicing after 6 weeks negates a return slot. Most websites say that a return slot is only used when a player returns to the field of play. Big difference.

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Here's your answer -

Shea McClellin case brings fairness of 'return from IR' rule into question

"FOXBOROUGH -- As of this year, NFL teams are allowed to designate two players for return off of the injured reserve list.

A player must be designated on the first day he comes back to practice, so the chance always exists that the player suffers a setback and is unable to be moved to the active roster (a transaction that must take place within 21 days of the player's first practice).

This appears to be the case with Patriots linebacker Shea McClellin, who has practiced since mid-October, but will not be activated."

N'Keal Harry = extra Gordon Insurance plus future at WR with Jacobi Meyers on this Team. The river flows to the sea I tell ya the Patriots WR dept points up: now BB try to get a serviceable Blocking TE please.