Mike Gillislee has spent the past month-and-a-half waiting for a second chance in the New England Patriots’ backfield. He’ll likely get one this weekend against his former team.
Patriots running back Rex Burkhead suffered a knee injury — reportedly a sprain — during Sunday’s 27-24 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers that could sideline him for the rest of the regular season. That means New England almost certainly will be down a back Sunday when it hosts the Buffalo Bills at Gillette Stadium.
Enter Gillislee, who has been inactive for each of the Patriots’ past six games and a healthy scratch for five of them, including the team’s 23-3 victory in Buffalo three weeks ago.
There simply has been no room in the game plan for the former Bills ball-carrier, whose lack of production early in the season caused him to slip behind Dion Lewis, Burkhead and James White on the depth chart. Burkhead’s injury alters that hierarchy and should allow Gillislee to reenter the lineup for the Patriots’ Week 16 contest.
“Mike’s very consistent,” Patriots coach Bill Belichick said Monday in a conference call. “He works hard all of the time. We’ll see how it goes with Rex. I’m not sure exactly what the extent of his injury is. We’ll see how that goes. I think at this point, all of our players have been told and need to know that they need to be ready to go every week. We need everybody, and it could change from one week to the next, or somebody’s role could change within the game very quickly. We’re at that time of year.”
The Patriots swiped Gillislee, then a restricted free agent, away from the Bills this past spring, signing him to a two-year, $6.4 million contract that made him their highest-paid running back. He began the season as New England’s primary early-down back and scored four rushing touchdowns over the first two games, including three in a Week 1 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs.
But Gillislee’s 3.6 yards-per-carry clip paled in comparison to the NFL-best 5.7 yards per rush he averaged last season in Buffalo, and Patriots fans grew frustrated by his inability to break through the second level of the defense. (His longest run this season is 16 yards, and that came back in Week 1.)
After finishing with 34 yards on 11 carries in a Week 8 win over the Los Angeles Chargers, Gillilsee was benched. He has not played since.
“I’ve just been trying to find a way, you know?” Gillislee told NESN.com last week. “It’s tough, but I’m focused, and I’m healthy, and I’ve got faith. I know my work ethic, and I just go at it each and every day and just grind like it’s my last. That’s all I can do.”
Burkhead, meanwhile, missed four games earlier this season with injured ribs but had emerged as a solid co-headliner with Lewis in recent weeks.
The former Cincinnati Bengal had his best game as a Patriot in the win over the Bills, rushing 12 times for a season-high 78 yards and two touchdowns while also adding three catches for 25 yards. He also scored New England’s first touchdown Sunday — his sixth in four weeks — before leaving the game in the third quarter.
