Sony Michel’s absence gave life to Damien Harris’ bid at the No. 1 spot in the New England Patriots’ backfield. And Harris has seemingly stolen Michel’s job. A former first-round pick, Michel had been the Patriots’ between-the-tackles running back since the team drafted him — until Harris’ takeover this season.
Harris has emerged in 2020, and he’s playing better than Michel, which begs the question of how Michel will fit back into the offense now that he’s healthy. Michel and Harris do the same type of work, which should make things complicated as Michel tries to find his way back on the field. But quarterback Cam Newton issued words of encouragement about Michel.
“He’s got fresh legs,” Newton said Wednesday. “And we were anticipating him and just to have so much firepower in that running back room, man. Obviously it’s devastating to hear about Burky but for us, you can’t replace a guy like that. And Sony bringing something that a lot of running backs don’t have — that may be experience, that may be beat playability, that may be just his understanding this offense, and we’re gonna need all of that here moving forward.”
The Patriots activated Michel on Saturday after a stint on injured reserve, but strangely, the team didn’t active him for game day. That didn’t seem like a good sign for him. But on Sunday, New England lost Rex Burkhead to what the running back indicated would be a season-ending injury. So that should open up some snaps for Michel, even if Burkhead was a better pass-catcher than Michel.
