Stephon Gilmore on locking down N'Keal Harry: 'I'm not going to make it easy on anybody'

FOXBOROUGH — The most important thing for N’Keal Harry to understand after he spent part of the last two days getting locked down by Stephon Gilmore?

It’s nothing personal.


“Anybody I go against, I try not to let them catch a pass,” Gilmore shrugged after Thursday’s minicamp session when asked about the rookie receiver. “Whether it’s him, Jules, Phil (Dorsett). Anybody. That’s my mindset. I’m not going to make it easy on him. If he makes a catch, he makes a catch. But I’m not going to make it easy on (anybody).”

Harry should consider himself in good company. After an All-Pro season where he silenced some of the best receivers in the game, he had the chance to work against Harry for much of the final two days of Patriots’ minicamp. The rookie flashed positively on Tuesday, but on Wednesday and Thursday — when Gilmore was following Harry for much of the 11-on-11 work — the youngster was silenced. By our estimates, Harry didn’t catch a single pass during the competitive 11-on-11 work on Thursday.

That being said, Gilmore still delivered a positive scouting report on Harry when things were done.

“He’s strong. He’s big strong guy,” Gilmore said of Harry. “A rookie, so he’s learning a lot. A lot thrown at him. But he’s coming out working every day and trying to get better.”

Gilmore is coming off a terrific year where he was just the seventh Patriots’ player in the Bill Belichick-Tom Brady era to finish with a Super Bowl ring, a Pro Bowl nod and an first-team All-Pro berth all in the same season. Over the last three days of minicamp, it surely looks like he’s going to build on that going into 2019. It wasn’t just Harry he went hard after — he fundamentally Velcroed himself to a series of pass catchers, and while he didn’t come away with a pick, he had multiple PBUs, and appeared more than ready to replicate his work from 2018.

“I don’t feel pressure — just come out and take it day by day,” he said when asked if he felt pressure to follow up his 2018 performance. “Each year is different — just come out here and work. Nobody is going to give you (anything). Just take that mindset and try and produce.

“I know what I can do, and my teammates and coaches put me in position to make plays, so without then, I couldn’t be in the position I am now. It’s a good thing, but you have to prove yourself every year. You have to earn your keep every year.”

He has that same belief when it comes to his teammates in the secondary. Perhaps the deepest defensive position groups for the Patriots, he says the group has put last year in the rearview mirror.

“You have to go out there and prove it,” he said of any hype the might surround the New England secondary. “Everybody can have big names and all the hype in the world, but until you go out there on Sunday and prove it — each and every Sunday, every practice — that’s what it comes down to. (There’s) a lot of talk right now. You just have to go out there and prove yourself.”