The New England Patriots have made quick work of trimming down their roster after the NFL Draft. They started the cuts with tight end Marshall Lang on Monday and continued the action by letting go of veteran running back Elijah Mitchell on Tuesday, per Adam Schefter.
The journeyman back spent the 2025 season on New England's practice squad, but he didn't even make it to training camp this time around. He was displaced, in part, by seventh-round draft pick Jam Miller.
While Miller may not have commanded major draft capital, he's already getting closer to making the Patriots' final roster.
Patriots release Elijah Mitchell soon after Jam Miller draft pick
TreVeyon Henderson and Rhamondre Stevenson are adequate headliners for the Patriots' backfield, but the rest of the room was thin entering the offseason. While general manager Eliot Wolf didn't use any premium assets on building running back depth, he did take a chance on Miller in the seventh round.
Initially, the young back was expected to compete with Mitchell, Terrell Jennings, and Lan Larison for a spot on the roster. Now, it seems like he's already being given a leg up.
Miller, the former Alabama back, saw his draft stock fall throughout a disappointing 2025 campaign with the Crimson Tide. He didn't make the progress that many scouts hoped to see in his final collegiate season.
Averaging under four yards per carry, he rushed for just over 500 yards and scored three times, failing to hit his statistical marks from the previous year.
Still, it's easy to see the value that he could bring to the Patriots' offense. At 5'10" and 220 pounds, he's a bowling ball of a running back. In short-yardage situations, he could do some serious damage. He even ran a 4.42-second 40-yard dash at the NFL Scouting Combine, so he's deceptively fast for his size.
The seventh-round pick likely won't displace Stevenson as a major contributor anytime soon. In the short term, he's probably nothing more than a special teams player and depth running back. But Mitchell's release makes it clear that New England's front office values Miller.
With a solid showing in training camp, he could even enter the season as the third back on the depth chart, potentially getting a few carries here and there.
A few years down the road, we could be looking at Miller as the next late-round success story to come out of New England.
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