Patriots RB LeGarrette Blount to Miss Rest of Season

A hip injury will hold New England Patriots RB LeGarrette Blount out for the rest of the season.

It may not be as catastrophic as losing Rob Gronkowski, Dion Lewis or Julian Edelman, but make no mistake, this one hurts. For the second time this season, the New England Patriots have lost their primary running back for the remainder of the year. This time, it’s LeGarrette Blount, who will miss the rest of the season with a hip injury.

Blount suffered the injury in the second quarter of the Patriots 27-6 win over the Houston Texans on Sunday night. Blount stayed on the ground for a significant amount of time, but was able to walk to the locker room under his own power. Blount did not return to the game, and on Tuesday it was reported that the injury will hold him out for the rest of the year.

While his performance has been sporadic, Blount has rushed for 703 yards and six touchdowns on 165 attempts this season. He is a powerful back who does a nice job of picking up the tough yardage on the ground for the Patriots. Blount played an extremely important role for the team down the stretch last season in the Patriots’ road to a Super Bowl championship.

As the season moved along, Blount’s powerful running style only gets more and more effective. This is a major loss to the Patriots’ offense, and will likely just put more pressure on quarterback Tom Brady.

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Brandon Bolden and James White are the only two backs currently on the Patriots’ active roster. White is much more a receiving back who is not much of a threat on the powerful runs. Bolden is a balanced player who will likely get the first crack at taking Blount’s carries. However, more than anything, I just expect the Patriots to throw more instead of relying on the running game.

The Patriots signed former second-round pick Montee Ball to their practice squad on Tuesday, and you have to figure he will find his way onto the active roster sooner rather than later. The Patriots also have speedy undrafted rookie Trey Williams on the practice squad, and he might get a look soon as well. New England also worked out undrafted rookie Alonzo Harris on Tuesday.

No matter how they look to replace him, the Patriots are going to miss Blount for the rest of the season. His rushes were not always the prettiest, but his physical style almost always got the job done.

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For a Patriots’ offense that was already being held together with bubblegum, the last thing they needed was to lose another important starter. However, there is no use in crying over spilled milk. It is once again time for the next man to step up and take advantage of this opportunity.

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