Patriots’ N’Keal Harry Begs Tom Brady For No Rookie Haircut

NFL rookies often have some “hard time” during their first season with the new teams. Veterans like to give them a rookie haircut or something like this. Well, N’Keal Harry hopes that he doesn’t get that.

The Patriots first-round pick went on FOX Sports 1’s “Fair Game” with Kristine Leagy, and talked his expectations and the famous haircut.

“Let’s just say this,” Harry said. “Let’s just hope I don’t get a rookie haircut, because if I do, confidence is out the window, production might go down a little bit, so I might as well just keep the hair on the head. Think of something else.” 

Tom Brady has high expectations of the new season, and he has already shared his opinion on the rookie.

“Like any rookie, I think there’s a lot to learn, there’s a lot of things happening,” Brady said of Harry following Day 3 of Patriots minicamp. “Like all of us, we’re just working every day to try to get better. And he’s going to, I’m going to, Jules [Julian Edelman] is going to – he’s got a lot of good people in his room, lot of veterans that he can depend. We still have a long way to go and he’s going to learn every day so the more we do the better.”

“I always say when someone’s 22, in some ways it’s a disservice the way they get treated because everyone expects them to come in and just take what they did in college and replicate it in the pros. And in reality, it’s a totally different game.

“It’s really hard to get acclimated to these environments to go from an amateur to being a professional is entirely different. Like all of us who were 21 or 22 at one time, the difference when you’re older and have experience, the level of comfort, knowing exactly what the expectations are is very important. It’s just a work in progress. I think all of us are trying to learn each other, trying to learn the offense and we put all these moving parts together and it takes time to forge relationships but you do it through a lot of repetition and a lot of communication and that’s the time of year that we’re in.”

Julian Edelman spent some time teaching Harry some new things.
“Wide receiver Julian Edelman reflected on the first two years of his career during this week’s mandatory minicamp, and shared how veteran running back Fred Taylor would impart wisdom while they drove from the team hotel to Gillette Stadium in Taylor’s Range Rover. Now Edelman, 33, is taking it upon himself to be a Taylor-type presence to others, especially first-round draft choice N’Keal Harry, the 21-year-old wide receiver from Arizona State.

“I watched it unfold during Thursday’s final practice.

“The video does more justice than any words can, but Harry was running an out-breaking route off an inside release — he would run up the middle of the field, plant his left foot after about 12 yards, and explode out of his break to the sideline. On his first repetition, Harry had a few stutter-steps before planting his left foot. Edelman approached Harry to go over the finer points of the route, before Harry stepped to the line to do it again, with Edelman watching closely.

“The result was better, and Harry received positive reinforcement from quarterback Tom Brady for the improvement. Credit Edelman, who is now in the Taylor-type latter stages of his career, with the assist.”