There's nothing wrong with Michel. He wasn't used much as a pass catcher in college; the hands will come to him. They're trying to put him in space and he had a nice 12 yard run when he finally got a clean lane outside the tackles, but too often those plays are getting blown up in the backfield. Contra the poster above who thinks a running back should be "running away from contact" and apparently expects every back to be Barry Sanders, I actually liked the plays where Michel was able to plow ahead into the defense and take an extra two or three yards after he got hit. It's the NFL, running backs can't outrun everyone anymore. (One might wonder how well Sanders would do in a league where linebackers are increasingly as fast as running backs, unless they play for the Patriots).
The more concerning play was when he could have cut into a hole and instead chose to jump outside, looking for the big play. It got stuffed for two yards instead of the five it should have been, and Trent Brown got flagged for holding to boot. But all rookies do that **** because they could do it in college for a big gain. Not in the pros, everyone's too fast.
Johnson looked good because he got to run through holes that you could fit a truck through. Frank Ragnow looks like a special player. Isaiah Wynn is even better. Alas...
In any case, the only problem with Michel was using a 1st rounder on a running back when there were far more glaring holes to fill and it was an extremely deep running back draft. And the fact that they keep trying to get him going, even in situations where it's not necessarily warranted. That said, I expect the latter is because they don't have any receivers who can get open, so they're trying to manufacture yards any way they can. The big thing is that teams can shove two guys on Gronk every down, which means they have a safety near the line, which makes it more difficult to run. Hopefully Gordon and Edelman will alter that situation, because right now teams are playing 8 men in the box against the Patriots and they can't do anything about it.
