Third-round draft pick Damien Harris and fourth-round choice Jarrett Stidham were once teammates together in youth football in Kentucky.
FOXBORO -- His future has reunited him with his past.
Growing up in Kentucky, running back Damien Harris and quarterback Jarrett Stidham were teammates, the running back and quarterback playing on the Richmond Youth Football League’s 49ers.
Nearly a decade-and-a-half later they are teammates again, the reunion set up when the Patriots made Harris, who ran for 3,070 yards at Alabama, and Stidham, who threw for 5,952 yards over two seasons at Auburn, third- and fourth-round selections in this year’s NFL Draft.
“It’s been great,” Harris said of the pair’s reunion in New England. “Seeing where we started, playing Little League football together, playing against each other in the Iron Bowl (the Alabama-Auburn football rivalry) and now having an opportunity to play for the Patriots, our story’s been pretty special. So it’s been good getting with him. We study, go over stuff. So it’s good. It’s good to be back together.”
Stidham recalls the way there were.
“Life comes full circle, and Damien and I were lucky enough to both get drafted by the Patriots and now we’re both here, hanging out on the weekends like old times, like we were eight years old,” the quarterback said following Wednesday’s minicamp practice on the fields located behind Gillette Stadium. “It was a long time ago, but it’s good to be here with him again.”
Where this reunion will lead the pair remains to be seen, of course.
While Stidham finds himself as one of four quarterbacks on a roster with Tom Brady, veteran backup Bryan Hoyer and another young arm in Danny Etling, the 2018 seventh-round draft pick who spent last year on the team’s practice squad, there is the possibility that he is the QB of the future on a team where the incumbent is due to turn 42 in August.
And while there was surprise in many circles when the Patriots made the 5-foot-11, 215-pound Harris the 87th overall chosen in April – why the need for another running back? – and he is currently one of six at his position in a crowded backfield, with 2018 first-round pick Sony Michel’s recurring knee problems (he missed his second straight day of practice on Wednesday for unexplained reasons) he, at the very least, serves as an insurance policy in a field that also includes holdovers James White and Rex Burkhead, Brandon Bolden in his second stint with the team (following a year in Miami) and Nick Brossette, the undrafted rookie free agent out of Louisiana State University who also missed his second straight day of practice on Wednesday.
For now, Harris, who had two 1,000-yard seasons at ’Bama, is simply concerned with taking his first steps in Foxboro.
“It’s just a great opportunity to come out here and have a bunch of guys that have experience,” said Harris. “It’s a tough program, so guys that have had success in this offense, specifically for me, and just being able to learn from those guys, see what they do (is a plus). See how they work as professionals, so it’s a good learning opportunity for me.”
Third is the word: For the second straight day, Stidham took snaps with the third offense, ahead of Etling, who at times filled a role covering punts on special teams.
Not your average Joe: With Isaiah Wynn, who is projected to start at left tackle this season, in uniform but not participating in team drills, left guard Joe Thuney continues to fill in at the position with Ted Karras plugged into Thuney’s spot with the first offense.
Wynn, who was selected in the first round of last year’s draft at 23, eight picks higher than Michel at No. 31, is still on the mend from the season-ending torn Achilles tendon he suffered last August.
Maurice has been magnificent: Maurice Harris, the former Washington Redskins wide receiver the Patriots signed as a free agent during the offseason, impressed in a major way for the second straight day.