The Bears are desperate to brighten up their dreary passing game, so even the faintest flicker of excitement is enough to spark optimism.
Their hope this week is that wide receiver N’Keal Harry can make a difference against the Vikings on Sunday. He has been out since suffering a high-ankle sprain early in the preseason and having surgery, but the Bears designated him for return from injured reserve Wednesday.
All that means is Harry is allowed to practice, and coach Matt Eberflus indicated he’d be limited at first. So there’s no guarantee he’ll be activated this week.
But if he is, the Bears will take all the help they can get.
“We’d have a big-bodied receiver that [gets] open and has good catch radius,” Eberflus said. “That’s an important thing to have [for] third down and red zone.
“He’s got a unique skillset... like a tight end. Tight ends are typically open because they’ve got smaller guys covering them. He has all that.”
Harry stands out among the Bears receivers because he’s the only one built like a linebacker. At 6-foot-4, 225 pounds, he’s bigger than middle linebacker Nick Morrow.
Unlike Darnell Mooney and Dante Pettis, who have to outrun defenders to get open, Harry has the size to force his way open no matter how tightly he’s covered.
“He would be a good matchup for smaller DBs,” quarterback Justin Fields said. “One-on-one, especially red zone, just throwing up a jump ball to him — that’s one of the things he does really well. So just being able to throw more 50-50 balls.”
That all sounds great in theory, particularly to a quarterback who ranks last in the NFL in completions, completion percentage, yards passing, touchdown passes and passer rating. But Harry’s impact is far from a certainty.
None of those assets have gotten him very far in the NFL, and the Bears were able to acquire him for the low price of a 2024 seventh-round draft pick.
The Patriots drafted Harry in the first round at No. 32 overall in 2019, and he flamed out in three seasons. His best performance was in 2020, when he caught 33 passes for 309 yards and two touchdowns. He has never put up 75 or more yards in a game.
Both sides were done with each other at that point. Harry requested a trade going into the 2021 season, and while the Patriots didn’t grant him one, he was no longer part of their plans.
He played 12 games after missing time with a preseason shoulder injury and averaged 42% of the snaps when active. He finished with 12 catches for 184 yards.
There was little doubt the Patriots would move on from Harry, and they dealt him to the Bears two weeks before training camp opened. Even with very little time to work together, Fields believed he and Harry established “a good bit” of chemistry.
The Bears also are hoping rookie Velus Jones will be part of their new look on offense.
They drafted Jones in the third round to be a multifaceted playmaker, mainly at wide receiver, but haven’t tested him out yet. He was hurt much of the preseason and missed the first three games, then made his debut as a return specialist against the Giants and muffed a punt with the game on the line.
Jones moved on from that quickly and has been working to prove he can handle a role in the offense this week.
“It’s all about making sure I’m on top of everything,” Jones said. “I’m just trying to show them they can trust me out there.”
Harry and Jones are both unknowns, but the Bears’ known quantities haven’t been giving them enough. Bringing in fresh faces can’t hurt.
