Patriots Running Back Outlook: How Can Pats Help Rhamondre Stevenson?

As the March 15 start of the new NFL league year approach, we’re taking a position-by-position look at the New England Patriots roster.

Who’s returning? Who could be out the door? What are the biggest questions facing each group?

Next up: the running backs.

UNDER CONTRACT
Rhamondre Stevenson
Pierre Strong
Kevin Harris
Ty Montgomery
J.J. Taylor

IMPENDING FREE AGENTS
Damien Harris

2022 STATS
Stevenson (17 games): 210 carries, 1,040 yards, five touchdowns; 69 catches, 421 yards, one touchdown

Damien Harris (11 games): 106 carries, 462 yards, three touchdowns; 17 catches, 97 yards

Strong (15 games): 10 carries, 100 yards, one touchdown; seven catches, 42 yards

Kevin Harris (five games): 18 carries, 52 yards, one touchdown

Montgomery (one game): two carries, -2 yards; three catches, 15 yards, one touchdown

Taylor (one game): 10 carries, 9 yards; one catch, 8 yards

THREE BIG QUESTIONS
1. Will the Patriots add a traditional third-down back? Yes, Stevenson made massive strides as a pass-catcher in his second pro season. He led all Patriots players in receptions, beating out even top wideout Jakobi Meyers, and ranked fourth among all NFL running backs in that category, trailing only Austin Ekeler, Christian McCaffrey and Leonard Fournette. His 1,461 yards from scrimmage were the fourth-most by a New England player in the Bill Belichick era.

But pulling double duty as New England’s top option on early downs and third downs wore him out, leading to an uptick in drops and mistakes late in the year. (Montgomery, the Patriots’ third-down back to begin the season, suffered an injury in Week 1 and never returned.)

To get the most out of their budding backfield superstar, the Patriots need to pair Stevenson with a James White type to lighten his workload and allow him to play to his strengths. The question is where they plan to find that player.

Do they believe Strong, who garnered post-draft comparisons to White last spring, can fill that role? The speedy South Dakota State product hardly played on offense as a rookie but showed some late-season flashes. It’s not uncommon for Patriots backs to ride the bench in Year 1 before becoming valued contributors in their second season (see: White, Shane Vereen, Damien Harris).

If the Patriots don’t have that kind of confidence in Strong, then they should look elsewhere. Signing a veteran with proven pass-catching chops — like impending free agent Jerick McKinnon, who just won a Super Bowl with the Kansas City Chiefs — would be a sensible move.

It also wouldn’t be surprising to see New England draft another running back even after selecting Stevenson in 2021 and Strong and Kevin Harris last year. When the Patriots were coaching prospects at the East-West Shrine Bowl earlier this offseason, they reportedly intentionally stocked their East Team roster with scat-back types, suggesting they wanted to evaluate potential White successors.

Montgomery, who had a strong training camp last summer, could be a dark-horse option, as well, but it’s unclear the 30-year-old is health-wise after his lost season.

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2. Will Damien Harris be back? Entering last season, Harris looked like a luxury the Patriots would not be able to afford in 2023. Paying big money to veteran running backs is bad business, and Harris looked like he was on his way to a healthy pay raise after rushing for 929 yards and 15 touchdowns in 2021. There wouldn’t be much sense in paying up for him when the Patriots already had the talented and more versatile Stevenson on a cheap rookie deal.

But Harris then proceeded to slog his way through an injury-ravaged ’22 season, missing a total of six games with three separate ailments and surely hurting his market value. His inability to stay healthy was a major contributing factor to Stevenson’s outsized workload, as the coaching staff showed little faith in either of their rookie backs to fill in.

If other teams are wary about Harris’ durability, the Patriots may be able to re-sign him to a more affordable short-term deal. But Harris is a starting-caliber back when healthy and might not be interested in sticking around to play second fiddle to Stevenson.

Either way, the Patriots need a No. 2 back they can trust to avoid running Stevenson into the ground. Stevenson played 66% of offensive snaps this season, and that was with missing most of one game due to injury. No other Patriots back in the previous decade had even topped 55%.

New England’s run game overall also wasn’t especially effective despite Stevenson’s star turn, ranking 24th in yards per game and 21st in yards per carry, Football Outsiders’ DVOA and expected points added per play.

3. Will the Patriots reintroduce the fullback? They cut that position out of their offense last offseason and seemed to miss having it as an option at times, especially in short-yardage situations. Belichick long has valued the matchup problems fullbacks can create, and new coordinator Bill O’Brien often featured one in his offenses with the Houston Texans.

If the Patriots want to target a fullback in this year’s draft, one name to keep in mind is Oregon State’s Jack Colletto. Winner of the Paul Hornung Award as the most versatile player in college football — the same award Marcus Jones won the previous year — Colletto played fullback, linebacker and quarterback for the Beavers and was on New England’s Shrine Bowl team.

It is worth noting, though, that the Patriots did not utilize a fullback in O’Brien’s last season as OC in 2011, when they leaned heavily on two-tight end sets with Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez. Stevenson also has said he prefers playing without a fullback in front of him.

More positional outlooks: quarterbacks