NFL: Pats: New pecking order – Running Back Routiniers on the brink of extinction?

The New England Patriots provided one of the big surprises in the first round of the drag, when the Pats Running Back chose Sony Michel. This pick is now making more waves – a new pecking order is entering the backfield in New England.

This is reported by ESPN Patriots insider Mike Reiss. According to this, Michel, Rex Burkhead and James White’s squad places are safe – behind them Gillislee, recently signed Jeremy Hill, Brandon Bolden and Undrafted Free Agent Ralph Webb will fight for one or at most two more places.

Gillislee had only signed a two-year contract for $6.4 million last year, and as a restricted free agent he cost the Pats an additional five-round draft pick. New England could fire him without a dead cap.

Gillislee had a good start to the season with four touchdowns in the first two games. In each of the first six games, he scored a total of at least ten Carries. But during the season, the 27-year-old increasingly lost snaps to Dion Lewis, among others, and was virtually out of action in the second half of the season.

Hill could take on Gillislee’s role stylistically seamlessly, but the 25-year-old ex-Bengals-RB is also anything but certain under contract: Hill signed a one-year contract for a maximum of 1.3 million dollars in Foxboro in the spring and the dead cap for the Pats is only 150,000 dollars in the event of dismissal.