Jeremy Hill out rest of the season with torn ACL

[DaBronxPats14]

Shame, he really was buying into 'Patriot Way' and looking forward to a positive, productive season. Best of luck getting back.

 

[PatriotReign]

I've seen Gronk get the ball slapped out of his hands a few times resulting in incompletions or fumbles that were recovered by his teammates. I believe that stat is referring to fumbles lost. So I go back to what I've said before. Hold on to the ****ing ball Gronk!

If your going to blame Gronk you might as well throw some Develin's way since he blindly lowered his head and hit his own teammate.

 

[Deus Irae]

Clearly it wasn't that vital a role given that Gillislee was a healthy scratch for almost half the games last season.

To repeat:

There's nobody coming from STs to help out in a pinch this year. That option's now in Miami.

 

[primetime]

To repeat:

There's nobody coming from STs to help out in a pinch this year. That option's now in Miami.

Bolden had all of 13 carries last year and 1 the year before, all of which came in garbage time. That option was never an option that was exercised anyways.

They'll bring in a free agent or sign Ralph Webb off the practice squad and whoever it is will get a few carries here or there and may even have a good game or two. Michel, the first round pick with special talent, will be on the field next week and he and Burkhead will share the load with White pitching in and by the end of the game we'll have forgotten Jeremy Hill ever existed.

 

[ohiopatsfan]

There is another option on the Patriots' PS. That would be newly acquired TE Stephen Anderson. In his draft year, he was rated as the #1 FB prospect. At 6-2, 230, he is the same size as Hill. As much as I would love to see Webb on the active roster, Anderson might more adequately fill Hill's spot.

 

[mcmurtry86]

Bolden had all of 13 carries last year and 1 the year before, all of which came in garbage time. That option was never an option that was exercised anyways.

They'll bring in a free agent or sign Ralph Webb off the practice squad and whoever it is will get a few carries here or there and may even have a good game or two. Michel, the first round pick with special talent, will be on the field next week and he and Burkhead will share the load with White pitching in and by the end of the game we'll have forgotten Jeremy Hill ever existed.

White will share the load? SB51 game winner aside, he stinks as a runner. Michel will play Sunday? Says who?

 

[Deus Irae]

Bolden had all of 13 carries last year and 1 the year before, all of which came in garbage time. That option was never an option that was exercised anyways.

They didn't need Gillislee active once Lewis established himself, because they could have used Bolden to finish out a game if Lewis had gotten hurt. Before Lewis established himself, Gillislee was on the game day roster. Fortunately, once Lewis established himself last season, he remained healthy. This season, Michel hasn't established himself yet, and there's not a Bolden available if Michel gets hurt.

You need the option for when you need the option. You don't need to option for those times when you don't need the option. That's common sense.

 

[primetime]

White will share the load? SB51 game winner aside, he stinks as a runner. Michel will play Sunday? Says who?

The Patriots had 448 rushing attempts last season. Of those, 404 came from running backs...

Dion Lewis: 180 (10 total prior to week 5)
Mike Gillislee: 104 (all but 6 of these came before week 9)
Rex Burkhead: 64 (5 total prior to week 7)
James White: 43
Brandon Bolden: 13

If you figure they'll run about that much this year, we can assume Burkhead will at least account for the Burkhead + Gillislee amount. Michel getting 180 doesn't seem unreasonable even as he's eased back into the lineup, given that Lewis himself didn't exceed 5 carries until week 5 of last season. White's workload seems pretty safe since he's likely to get various draws and they're not averse to running him out of the backfield (contrary to what you said, he looked much improved as a runner last year). And some free agent will account for Bolden's garbage time load without a problem.

And Cordarrelle Patterson will probably actually take some carries away from these players as well since I think they'll be running two or three jet sweeps a game, so figure he'll end up with 20 or so carries on the year.

So you're looking at like a 40/40/20 split between Michel, Burkhead, and everyone else (White, Patterson, free agent).

If you told us after week 1 last season that Gillislee wouldn't play a meaningful down after week 8, people would have freaked out. But, you know.

You need the option for when you need the option. You don't need to option for those times when you don't need the option. That's common sense.

What? This doesn't make any sense. It's like calling Ebner an option at safety and Slater an option at receiver. Bolden was a special teamer and they treated him as such and even when absolutely forced into using him as a running back, they instead decided to exhume Steven Jackson's corpse and convince it to play football. It's not like they're forbidden from signing a free agent and there are plenty of more talented running backs without teams right now, so I don't know why anyone would lament Bolden's loss as a running back. (In kick coverage, it's perhaps lamentable.)

 

[Deus Irae]

What? This doesn't make any sense. It's like calling Ebner an option at safety and Slater an option at receiver. Bolden was a special teamer and they treated him as such and even when absolutely forced into using him as a running back, they instead decided to exhume Steven Jackson's corpse and convince it to play football. It's not like they're forbidden from signing a free agent and there are plenty of more talented running backs without teams right now, so I don't know why anyone would lament Bolden's loss as a running back. (In kick coverage, it's perhaps lamentable.)

It makes perfect sense. You posting impressively silly posts doesn't invalidate the sensible responses to those silly posts. And nobody's lamenting Bolden's loss as a running back.

 

[primetime]

It makes perfect sense. You posting impressively silly posts doesn't invalidate the sensible response to those silly posts. And nobody's lamenting Bolden's loss as a running back.

You're literally lamenting the loss of Bolden as a running back. That's what you've been saying in these posts, that they don't have the "option" of using him and that's a problem. It's like you're implying that just signing a different running back, the most easily replaced position in football, is verboten. You're stuck with the guys on your roster from day one. It makes no sense. But sure my dude, when the logic of your argument fails, just call the other post "silly." I bet it's a term you've heard people use to describe what's between your legs your whole life.

 

[BlueThunder]

I like him but hes too small.

Just use Develin as a battering ram when you need a tough yard or two.....I like Webb's shiftness and speed...use him to give Michel or White a breather. He makes himself small going thru the line..tough to see.....

Hate seeing Hill lost so early in the season.....really sux...

 

[DaBruinz]

Just saw that Orleans Darkwa could be an option to replace Hill as he's been in a couple of times for workouts..

 

[Wheelman]

If your going to blame Gronk you might as well throw some Develin's way since he blindly lowered his head and hit his own teammate.

I'm a little pissed with Develin too. But ultimately offensive players don't know how to tackle, although Develin does play some special teams. So yeah god damn it Develin!

 

[primetime]

Just saw that Orleans Darkwa could be an option to replace Hill as he's been in a couple of times for workouts..

He's not bad. He's got size and plays special teams. Better yards per attempt than Hill last season running behind a putrid line (to be fair to Hill, the Bengals' line was awful too).

 

[Ross12]

Really sucks ass, hopefully the team is willing to give him another 1-year deal next year after he's recovered. I really liked what a saw from him as part of a rotation. Webb next man up, or perhaps sourcing from elsewhere? I don't really want them running Burkhead too much since Michel is still out too... Next thing you know Burk's hurt again and you literally only have White at RB.

 

[PATSYLICIOUS]

Sucks, he looked really good on his carries. We’ll either need michel to suit up next week or promote webb. If burkhead gets injured we wont have a pure runner to carry the load.

We had a great game on the ground yesterday, 120 plus against a strong front. Before against those opponents we’d usually give up trying to run after the first drive.

 

[TheRainMaker]

They are actually really thin at RB right now. Burkhead is a decent between the tackles runner, but he’s not a guy you want to have many carries because he’ll get injured. White is an exceptional pass catcher but we all know he’s not the greatest between the tackles runner. He has gotten better though. Hill was able to do anything and it’s unfortunate we won’t be able to see what he could really do. I really hate this injury.

Michel needs to ice up son!

 

[hovis]

Call me crazy, but if we're only looking to replace goal line / short yardage duties, I wouldn't mind seeing Ripkowski. BB had him in a week ago, wouldn't mind seeing him line up at HB.

 

[ashley]

Too bad for Hill, he looked good in limited action

 

[mcmurtry86]

They are actually really thin at RB right now. Burkhead is a decent between the tackles runner, but he’s not a guy you want to have many carries because he’ll get injured. White is an exceptional pass catcher but we all know he’s not the greatest between the tackles runner. He has gotten better though. Hill was able to do anything and it’s unfortunate we won’t be able to see what he could really do. I really hate this injury.

Michel needs to ice up son!

Last year aside, is there any evidence Burkhead is prone to getting banged up? More so than the average RB? He had a huge workload in college and stayed healthy. He wasn't banged up a ton with the Bengals (limited workload but played a lot of ST snaps).