Harris and Olszewski return to Patriots practice

The clock is ticketing for running back Damien Harris and receiver Gunner Olszewski.

On Wednesday, the two players returned to Patriots practice after starting the season on injured reserve. This day marked the first in which any player who started the season on the IR could return to practice. The Patriots now have a 21-day window to activate Harris and Olszewski to the 53-man roster. If they don’t, the player will revert back to injured reserve for the season.

The [...]

The clock is ticketing for running back Damien Harris and receiver Gunner Olszewski.

On Wednesday, the two players returned to Patriots practice after starting the season on injured reserve. This day marked the first in which any player who started the season on the IR could return to practice. The Patriots now have a 21-day window to activate Harris and Olszewski to the 53-man roster. If they don’t, the player will revert back to injured reserve for the season.

The Pats still have the option to bring back defensive tackle Beau Allen and offensive tackle Yodny Cajuste. On Wednesday, head coach Bill Belichick said the team will take its time before making a decision on any of the players eligible to return. Both Harris and Olszewski could play in Kansas City this weekend, but it sounds like they need to have a good week of practice beforehand.

"We’ll see how it goes," Belichick said. "The first step would be to practice a player who’s on injured reserve and then whether he would be active or not would depend on what happened during the course of the week. Sometimes those guys, they’re not ready to play as soon as they start practicing; they need another week or two.

"If we do that, it’ll be based on that player’s individual situation and how we can evaluate the guy during the time we have to look at him, whether that’s a week, two weeks, three weeks, whatever it is. First step would be to start them in practice and that starts the clock running on the activation process. Then it becomes an evaluation as we just take it day-by-day."

This year, teams can return an unlimited number of players off injured reserve. Both Harris and Olszewski have a chance to make an impact on the offensive end.

Olszewski had a great training camp and looked improved from last season. He’s also in line to return punts. Harris was outstanding in training camp and looked like the team’s best player at his position. When the running back returns, the Patriots will have fantastic depth.

This week, Patriots running backs coach Ivan Fears said he was eager to see what Harris could do when his time comes.

"I'm really excited — excited about having Damien back if we can get him back. I think we're all kind of anxious to see what he will do when it's truly go time," Fears said.

"Everything he's shown has been outstanding. He’s having a great training camp, so it was kind of unfortunate to get a little finger injury before the opening game. But, yeah, we're all kind of on pins and needles on this one. We'd like to see where he's going to be and what he's going to do."

For every player the Patriots add from the IR, they will need to open up a space on their 53-man roster. The team currently has one spot available.

On Wednesday, the Patriots also had James White back at practice. The running back missed all of last week and the past two games due to the death of his father, Tyrone White.

The Pats were missing special-teamer Cody Davis, who left Sunday’s game with an undisclosed injury.

mdaniels@providencejournal.com

On Twitter: @MarkDanielsPJ