Patriots: Revisiting the LeGarrette Blount Trade With Buccaneers

LeGarrette Blount’s career looked like it was coming to a close before the Patriots acquired him.

After being drafted by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, LeGarrette Blount enjoyed a solid two seasons to kick off his NFL career. He logged 1,788 rushing yards and 11 touchdowns in his first 27 games, but then came the 2013 season, in which he started zero games and rushed for just 151 yards and two touchdowns.

That’s when our guy Bill Belichick swooped in to bring the beast of a running back to New England. He got Blount for pennies on the dollar, trading a seventh-round pick in the 2013 NFL Draft to Tampa and running back Jeff Demps. The very next year, Blount logged 772 rushing yards, averaging 5.0 yards per carry, and seven touchdowns.

Blount hit free agency the next year and was signed by the Pittsburgh Steelers, who cut him in November. Big mistake! Belichick signed him again and he recorded 281 rushing yards and three touchdowns in five games, leading the Patriots to another Super Bowl win.

But that was hardly the end. Blount returned to New England for the 2015 and 2016 seasons and helped the team win another ring in ’16. That year, he rushed for 1,161 yards and a league-leading 18 touchdowns before adding 109 yards and a TD during their Super Bowl run.

Though New England didn’t win it all in 2015, we can’t overlook Blount’s contributions that year either. He logged 703 rushing yards and six touchdowns in just 12 games on top of recording his first-ever receiving TD.

However, the relationship didn’t end well.

He earned a grand total of $2.3 million in four seasons with the Patriots and led the team in rushing twice. He finished with 2,917 rushing yards and 34 touchdowns in 49 games with the Pats, which was by far the best stint of his career.

Did Belichick and Tom Brady help with that? Certainly. But there’s no doubt he was the team’s best rusher since Corey Dillon. That’s gotta count for something, right?