Sony Michel's rookie season finished on the ultimate high, and not just because the first-round pick took home a Super Bowl ring in his rookie season.
The former Georgia star was arguably the MVP of the playoffs last winter in New England as the Patriots became a run-first team in January and February, with Michel carrying the ball 71 times for 336 yards (4.7 avg.) with six touchdowns in the three-game run to a Lombardi Trophy. That came after a solid regular season in which he ran209 times for 931 yards (4.5 avg.) and six scores.
But, Michel's sophomore campaign is off to a rough start. Through three games this September he leads the Patriots with 45 rushes that have accumulated a mere 108 yards (2.4 avg.), though he does has a pair of touchdowns.
The lack of production is far from solely Michel's fault. The New England offensive line has been a patchwork unit. Barely a game into replacing left tackle Trent Brown – who joined the Raiders on a $60 million deal this spring – Isaiah Wynn landed on injured reserve with a foot issue. That came after center David Andrews was lost for the year with reported blood clots in his lungs.
New England has had to use three different starting lineups in three games and late additions to the roster Marshall Newhouse and Korey Cunningham have seen significant reps at tackle, the latter when Marcus Cannon missed time to a shoulder injury.
Put it all together and there has been a lot of moving parts up front and not a lot of room for Michel to get his job done. Despite the limited production, Bill Belichick expressed confidence in his second-year lead back.
"I think he's had opportunities and he's done pretty well with those," Belichick said, going on to acknowledge issues with the blocking up front. "There's been times where he hasn't been able to get started and that's always a problem with the running game. If you can't get them through the line of scrimmage, you can gain some yards, but it's hard. There are things he can do better. Certainly we can block better and coach better so we'll try to do those and improve in every part of our offense, not just the running game but play-actions and passing game and everything else."
That improvement may become even harder now that Pro Bowl fullback James Develin has been placed on IR with a neck injury. Michel admits he spent "a lot" of time as a rookie simply following big No. 46 to production.
"Depending on the play, that was my job to follow him. He did a tremendous job. He made a lot of things easy," Michel said.
Brown is gone, Wynn is gone, Develin is gone, Andrews is gone and the memories of last season are just that, memories. Michel remains and knows he and his linemates need to get the ground game going and prove they can be productive once again.
"Different season. We just have to be able to execute. We can't rely on what happened last year," Michel said. "It's a different year. It's a different team. We're playing against different players. We just have to be able to take on the challenge and be ready to play football.
"We've been together for a while now. We've played a couple games together. So it's all about the willingness of wanting to get better."
That process continues Sunday afternoon in Buffalo against a very good Bills defense, though one that's allowing opponents 4.4 yards per carry on the ground this season.
