Patriots: Lamar Miller surprise release answers many backfield questions

The Patriots surprisingly released RB Lamar Miller on Saturday.

The outlook of the New England Patriots backfield seems to change on a weekly basis.

As soon as it was shaping up to be the Damien Harris show, the training camp star went down with a hand injury that could sideline him through Week 1 of the regular season.

Not long before that, Sony Michel made a surprise appearance at practice after he was activated from the PUP list following a lengthy rehab from offseason foot surgery. That only created more questions about who would get the majority of the touches.

And don’t forget the arrival of late offseason addition Lamar Miller, who was just removed from the active/non-football injury list and cleared to return to practice. Would he be a veteran savior for the backfield? Was he blocking a Leonard Fournette or Alvin Kamara addition? Or was he just…there?

At long last, however, New England has made a roster move that clears up some of the haziness regarding the crowded backfield. In a surprising transaction, the Patriots released Miller as they scramble to trim their roster to 53 players ahead of the 4 p.m. ET deadline on Saturday.

Miller being the odd man out in New England’s backfield certainly wasn’t expected, as he rushed for 973 yards on 4.6 yards per carry in 2018 before a torn ACL forced him to miss the entirety of last season. However, the move likely says a lot about the Patriots conviction in Harris and Michel.

The 29-year-old’s axing, you would think, means that the two players will be the lead RBs for the Patriots to start the 2020 campaign, flanked by James White. It could also hint that undrafted rookie JJ Taylor will make the final roster. We haven’t heard much of the former Arizona star at camp, but that’s largely because there’s been so much talk surrounding the other members of New England’s backfield.

Over his last three seasons with the Wildcats, Taylor managed 3,002 rushing yards on an impressive 5.5 YPC to go along with 18 touchdowns.

As eager as we were to see what Miller looked like post-rehab, his surprise release answers a plethora of questions surrounding the Patriots backfield.

The situation is very much fluid, but for now, fans can expect the likes of Michel and Harris to split most of the carries, with the shifty James White working in on obvious passing downs.