New England Patriots: Sony Michel will bounce back

Despite having a touchdown in his last two games, Sony Michel has been a non-factor in the New England Patriots offense.

The New England Patriots might be rolling but one of their best players from 2018 sure is struggling. Sony Michel has looked like a completely different player in 2019.

So far this season Michel has carried the ball 45 times for 108 yards, which is an average of 2.4 yards per carry. Outside of the game in Miami where he rushed for 83 yards, he hasn’t broken 15 yards from scrimmage.

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However, the sample size here is really just two games as Michel was barely part of the game plan for Sunday’s win against the Jets. Rex Burkhead had more attempts (11) than Michel did (9).

So what is the issue?

Michel started off slow last year, but that wasn’t too surprising for a rookie coming back from injury.

What’s his excuse now? He is coming off minor knee surgery over the summer in just the latest of his history of knee problems. This could be hindering him still or maybe just causing him to be cautious.

With that being said, physically, he should be healthy.

Looking at last season, he seemed to solidify his status as a premier back with a near 1,000-yard season (that he easily would have had if he didn’t miss 3 games) and 6 touchdowns.

He’s also coming off one of the greatest playoff performances of a running back in Patriots history as he ran for 336 yards on 71 attempts (4.7 yards per carry) and had 6 touchdowns in three games.

It’s a little too early to start panicking about Sony Michel. It could be that he takes a little while to build his confidence. It wasn’t until Week 4 of last season that he started to produce.

This week’s match-up against the Buffalo Bills will be a good test. They rank 19th in terms of rushing yards per attempt (4.4 yards per carry), so it might be a chance for Michel to string together a few good carries and get the ball rolling with his confidence.

Michel strikes me as a guy who’s mentality is vitally important to his on-field success. When he lacks confidence it’s almost noticeable in the way he runs, and when he’s feeling good, he’s making guys miss and ripping off 20 yard gains fair.

He’ll be back to last season’s form eventually. The question is: How long will it take?

Fantasy Implications

If you have Michel in fantasy, it might not be time to bench him just yet.

The Bills are also the third-best defense when it comes to Net Yards Gained Per Pass Attempt, which basically just means their pass defense is solid, so the Patriots, I’m sure, are game-planning with that in mind.

At the very least, expect Michel to return to his normal share of carries as I wouldn’t expect Belichick to keep him under 10 attempts two games in a row.

Michel is still the Patriots’ lead back and they will feed him. Last season, they were as close to a run-first team as they’ve been in a decade and this year should be more of the same.

Next. Patriots: 3 keys to bullying Buffalo in Week 4. dark

Expect a big game from Michel in at least one of the next three match-ups with the Bills, Redskins, and Giants up next for the Patriots.

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