Bears wide receiver N’Keal Harry is undergoing tightrope surgery on Thursday after suffering a high-ankle sprain on Aug. 6.
According to NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo, Harry is expected to be sidelined for around eight weeks.
The Bears have a couple of avenues they could choose: They could waive him with an injury designation or they can carry him on the initial 53-man roster and then place him on injured reserve. The latter seems the most likely as general manager Ryan Poles has remained high on Harry, trading a 2023 seventh-round pick to New England for Harry’s services.
If Harry is indeed placed on IR, when could we realistically expect him to return?
Earlier this offseason, NFL owners made some rule changes about a team’s roster. One of those included IR. The original rule was that, once placed on IR, a player was done for the season. That changed to two players being designated to return (if they sat out eight games). Then, it was shortened to three games after COVID-19.
Now, the rule states that a player must miss at least four games after landing on IR before they’re designated to return. The big change is that a team can bring back as many as eight players from IR, which could include the same player twice (they would count twice against that eight count).
Given the requirement is Harry miss at least four games, an eight-week recovery time would put his return around early October, where the Bears have games against the Vikings (Oct. 9) and Commanders (Oct. 13).
The Vikings game would be the earliest he could return from IR, which isn’t as bad as it could’ve been. We’ll see how things shake out.
