N’Keal Harry is designated to return from injured reserve. Can he give the Chicago Bears receiving corps a boost?

It says something about the dismal state of the Chicago Bears offense that one of the few positive focal points of Wednesday’s media availability at Halas Hall was wide receiver N’Keal Harry’s return to practice after nearly two months away because of an ankle injury.

The Bears are desperate for a spark for quarterback Justin Fields and a passing game that has totaled just 34 completions for 471 yards in four games with two touchdowns, four interceptions and 16 sacks.

The Bears designated Harry to return from injured reserve, opening a 21-day window in which he can practice before officially returning to the roster. They also placed left guard Cody Whitehair on IR with a knee injury.

Harry, whom the Bears acquired in July from the New England Patriots for a 2024 seventh-round draft pick, could provide a boost at some point this season. But the ratio of time he missed to time logged in practices with Fields and the offense is significant.

Bears coach Matt Eberflus said Harry would do individual drills Wednesday and then work with the strength staff. Eberflus didn’t rule out a return by Sunday’s game against the Minnesota Vikings at U.S. Bank Stadium, but he also acknowledged Harry is in the beginning stages of his return.

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“We’ll see how he picks it up,” Eberflus said. “I know he’s been engaged in the meetings and engaged in the game plans as we’ve been going. That’s been great. We’ll see where it goes.”

The Bears did not make Harry available to reporters because he remains on IR.

Harry, a 2019 first-round draft pick, had 57 catches for 598 yards and four touchdowns over three seasons with the Patriots. He was battling for a place in the Bears receiving corps before suffering a left ankle injury on a hit by linebacker Nicholas Morrow during a live tackling period at an Aug. 6 training camp practice. He had tightrope surgery on the ankle a few days later and has been rehabbing since.

At 6-foot-4, 225 pounds, Harry adds a big-bodied option with a good catch radius, and the Bears are understandably interested to see what he can do in the red zone.

They were 0-for-3 in the red zone in Sunday’s 20-12 loss to the New York Giants and are tied for 23rd in the league with 50% red zone efficiency. And the Bears have gone heavier on running plays — and had more success with them — inside the 20.

One of Fields’ two touchdown passes this season came in the red zone, an 18-yarder to Equanimeous St. Brown in Week 1. The Bears have four rushing touchdowns in the red zone.

“(Harry) would of course be a good matchup for smaller DBs,” Fields said. “One on one, especially red zone, just throwing up a jump ball to him, that’s one of the things he does really well. So just being able to throw more 50-50 balls.”

Bears wide receiver Darnell Mooney added: “I’ll give it 100 out of 100 every time you throw a ball to N’Keal in the red zone.”

But there’s a lot of work to be done for Harry and Fields to get in sync. They had only about 1½ weeks of practice together in training camp.

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“Communicating with him, how he runs routes, what I’m thinking on certain leverages of DBs and stuff like that,” Fields said. “So it’s basically just reps and being on the same page as him.”

Bears general manager Ryan Poles’ offseason plan to assemble a group of receivers without a lot of past production but eager to prove themselves hasn’t resulted in much production. And the plan has been hampered by injuries.

The Bears are playing without Byron Pringle, who is on IR with a calf injury. Rookie Velus Jones Jr. made his NFL debut Sunday after missing the first three weeks with a hamstring injury, but he didn’t get a snap on offense and only returned kickoffs and punts.

Mooney leads Bears wide receivers with eight catches for 121 yards. St. Brown has four for 86 yards. No other healthy wide receiver has more than one catch.

When asked about the passing game needing a spark, Mooney — whose four catches for 94 yards against the Giants were as close to it as the Bears have gotten this season — called the development of the Bears offense “a journey” and “a process.”

“I feel like any type of a spark, just passing the ball down the field, can give confidence to the offense itself,” Mooney said. “I understand the process we have to go through with our offense and everything being new. Everybody is still learning and just trying to believe in the offense itself. It’s a process.”

At some point soon, the Bears hope Harry will be a part of that process too.