It would be easy for N'Keal Harry to overplay this one in his mind before he actually plays the game.
He won't.
The Bears wide receiver finally gets to make his debut for Chicago and it's against the team that traded him in July, Bill Belichick's New England Patriots. He's more interested in winning than personal scores.
"I'm excited," Harry said. "I'm trying not to get too caught up in it being the Patriots and it being my former team.
"I'm obviously excited. I'm excited to see some of my guys (former teammates) pregame. I went through a lot with some of those guys that came into my (draft) class with me."
He left those teammates before training camp in the trade of a first-round draft pick for a seventh-rounder.
However, very early in training camp an ankle injury that required surgery pushed his debut back until now.
So Harry hasn't had much time to build a connection with Justin Fields since he was able to practice last week. They've spent the week making up for lost practice time.
"Just getting out there, getting the reps, seeing the type of throws he likes to make, seeing the type of footballs I like to catch, so it's been good this week."
Fields saw an opportunity for another effective red zone receiver, and no one can complain about that considering how the Bears have played in the red zone. Harry is about 6-foot-2 1/2, 225 pounds.
"He got in a little bit last week in practice but nothing crazy, but I'm excited," Fields said. "Of course, he's a big body. He's great at the catch point. Great at jump balls. Great run blocker.
"So he's definitely going to be a weapon for the offense for sure."
Offensive coordinator Luke Getsy would like to say he knows what to expect from Harry, but can't be sure after 10 weeks away from football and with a new team and offense.
"There's a little bit of the unknown right?" Getsy said. "Because he just hasn’t been out there yet, right? Didn't get to do the preseason, didn't get to play any games yet. So it's a little bit of that unknown.
"He's getting better. Like I've told you guys before, he’s a smart player. In training camp he started giving us the flexibility of being able to put him in a bunch of different positions. Big, strong guy that we can use in a bunch of different ways. So. I'm excited to see where he can go."
While Harry hasn't played and didn't practice from early August until a few weeks ago, he does know the offense well enough to be a factor.
"The expectation is that everybody in the building knows it all," Getsy said." We're not going to hold back on anything. He's a pro. He works that way.
"It's probably, more, as much as anything, he has to make sure that he’s in game shape, right? Which is the hard part. You can’t do that until you start playing."
Harry is interested only in looking ahead to the game and not the past. It's why he's not offering up much speculation on why Belichick and the Patriots gave up on him after three seasons and 57 receptions.
"It could be a lot of different things," Harry said. "At the end of the day, I'm really not worried about any of that. I'm worried about right now, going forward, helping this team win and that's the only thing I'm worried about."
And one other thing.
"You know, I haven't popped some pads in a while man," Harry said. "So I'm excited to pop some pads on Monday night."
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