“Chris has really improved,” Packers coach Mike McCarthy said after watching Harper make several terrific catches during the June 3 open OTA practice. “I still go back to his K-State film. You talk about a very talented, powerful, young player. He looks more and more comfortable with what we’re asking him to do, and I don’t think that was the case last year when he came here. So he’s having a very good offseason.”
While part of Harper’s problem last year was having three playbooks rattling around in his head, he said he actually picked up the Packers’ offense relatively quickly. His greater issue was undoing what the 49ers had done to him, having worked him as a tight end and H-back in hopes that at 6-foot-1 and 228 pounds and with a less-than-blazing 40 time (4.55 seconds at the NFL Scouting Combine), he might be better suited for that position.
“I play receiver. I don’t play tight end, which is what San Fran really had me playing,” Harper said. “I don’t even know how to get into a three-point stance. We had to work on getting into a three-point stance. In the NFL, you shouldn’t have to work on a stance. I had to go back to like Day 1 of football. It was kind of – I don’t know. I don’t want to say it couldn’t have worked out but it was during the season and I missed camp and all the basic stuff.”
Now, that’s exactly what he’s getting in Green Bay – and exactly what he needs.
“I learned the offense and all that, but during practice, I was just thinking. I couldn’t be out there and be natural,” Harper said of last season. “That was probably the biggest thing for me. I knew the plays and I knew a lot of the stuff, [although] not as well as I know it now. I know the intricacies of our offense now, but it’s just being natural. I don’t have to think about it anymore. I can just go for it. I know exactly what everyone is doing. I can just go out there and play.
“Getting the whole offseason, it’s a different world.”
He’ll need that kind of comfort to crack the 53-man roster. After the top four, the Packers are high on rookie fifth-round pick Jared Abbrederis of Wisconsin and seventh-round pick Jeff Janis of Saginaw Valley State; while holdovers Myles White (nine receptions last season) and 2013 seventh-round pick Kevin Dorsey are in the mix, too. Even if the Packers keep six wideouts, Harper will still have to make an excellent training-camp and preseason impression to be among them. If he succeeds, he’ll get to line up against the Seahawks in the Sept. 4 regular-season opener.
“Yeah, that’ll definitely be something I use [as motivation],” Harper said.
And yet, Harper clearly doesn’t lack for confidence, as evidenced by what he told Rodgers when the two chatted during OTAs.
“[The number of receivers on the roster] pushes me, but I don’t really think about it like that,” Harper said. “Because like I said to ‘A-Rod,’ I’m not trying to beat anybody out to make the team, I’m trying to start. I’m trying to go for Jordy and Randall, I’m not trying to just play.