Bedard: Rewriting history on Mike Gillislee and what that means for his future, the Patriots' backfield

Somewhere along the line, the narrative about Mike Gillislee's initial season with the Patriots got skewed. Both the running back and coach Ivan Fears have talked in recent weeks about injuries putting Gillislee behind the "8-ball"  and the reason why Gillislee — a bust in his first season after being inactive for 10 of his final 11 games, including all three postseason games — should be better in Year 2.

But that's not entirely accurate. So what does that mean for Gillislee this season?

First, let's recap Gillislee's first season with the Patriots after signing as a restricted free agent (two years, $6.4 million) from the Buffalo Bills.

At the time, Gillislee's signing was heralded as another brilliant move by the Patriots. And I'll freely admit I was totally on board as well. All the advanced metrics said Gillislee was underused in Buffalo, and it looked like the team that gave him a larger role would have a steal on their hands.

It is true Gillislee carried a hamstring injury from even before he signed with the Patriots into his tenure, and it caused him to miss some valuable on-field time with New England in OTAs and in training camp.

But to say that injury somehow hampered Gillislee early last season is rewriting history to fit a narrative (or, in this case, to understandably give a player a clean slate).

Gillislee was so affected by his preseason hamstring injury that he merely beat out Rex Burkhead, Dion Lewis and James White to grab the lead back role for the Patriots for the first five weeks of the season.

The chart below shows the snaps for each of the four backs through the first eight weeks. We kept White's snaps to just running plays because he was the third-down back and his snaps can get skewed in passing situations. It's clear that Gillislee was the lead dog.



Yes, the Patriots certainly gameplan to use backs a little bit more depending on the opponent, but that gets a little overblown (Yeah, I think this is a Burkhead game...). They almost always clearly have a pecking order when it comes to their two roles: lead back (first two downs), and passing back.

Gillislee clearly won the role early in the season, even before Burkhead kept going in and out of the lineup. He had 117 snaps in first five games of the season. Lewis was next with 64, and then Burkhead (58).

The problem was — as it usually is with the Patriots — Gillislee didn't do enough with his opportunities, and he lost his job.

His per-carry average was 3.0, 3.8 and 2.6 in the first three weeks, before he started to get in a groove with 4.1 and 4.3 through the Panthers game. Despite posting a 4.4 average against the Jets, this is when the Patriots started to turn more towards Lewis, who would out-carry Gillislee from Week 5 on. When Burkhead returned against the Falcons and Chargers, Gillislee's per-carry average dropped from 3.9 to 3.1.

Let's also keep in mind -- outside of Week 3 vs. the Texans when both Nate Solder and Marcus Cannon were out, the entire offensive line was intact. So it's not like Gillislee was ineffective due to injury issues on the line.

After that Week 8 game against the Chargers, which led into a bye week when the coaches recalibrate the roles for each player, Gillislee went to the bench and was largely unheard from the rest of the season.

"It’s something I put in the past," Gillislee said, when asked about what went wrong last season. "It went how it went, turned out how it turned out. Now I’m just focused on this year.

Gillislee was asked if he felt disappointed in what happened in 2017.

"I wouldn’t say disappointed," he replied. "I would just say I didn’t do as well as I thought I would do."

Gillislee was given every opportunity to own up to his struggles last season and to explain why fans should think Year 2 might be different. But he wouldn't take it.

"Fans are fans," he said. "All that matters is the people that’s inside of (the locker room) each and every day that see me grinding, see how I work. Like I said, I’m just focused on this year. Last year is in the past."

That's true, but it might be a harbinger of things to come for Gillislee.

He's in the final year of his deal, and will count $2.181 million against the cap. It all comes off should the Patriots trade or cut him. For the first time since 2006 (Laurence Maroney), the team drafted a back in the first round (Sony Michel) who essentially replaces Lewis, who left in free agency. If everyone stays healthy, it's difficult seeing Gillislee passing Burkhead or even Brandon Bolden for a spot on the active gameday roster due to their special teams prowess.

So where does that leave Gillislee? Since it doesn't matter when the Patriots part ways with him, Gillislee is likely here for the duration -- at least until we get closer to the season opener for injury protection, should any of the backs go down with a health issue.

Outside of that, Gillislee has his work cut out for him. And, yes, it would certainly help him to stay healthy in camp.

"Mike’s a professional player," said Fears. "He understands ... and I think he appreciates the opportunity to earn what you do. He got hurt early when he got here and that kind of put him behind the 8-ball, and he’s been fighting since then. He just fought. You have to love him for that. He never complained, he never bitched or moaned, he just fought and competed and got his chance when he got his chance. He took advantage of his opportunities when he got a chance. Once we stayed healthy, it was tough to get an opportunity. He looks good. He looks really good."