A crowded backfield in New England has one less body this morning as the New England Patriots have traded Sony Michel to the Los Angeles Rams. New England will receive conditional 5th and 6th round draft picks in return.
Michel is a former first round (31st overall) draft pick out of Georgia. Taken in 2018, he amassed 2,292 yards on the ground in 38 games at the NFL level. While Michel has 14 rushing TDs and a Super Bowl ring to his name since breaking into the league 3 years ago, he’s coming off a largely forgettable 2020 season where he struggled to establish a role for himself with the Patriots.
These struggles, and the emergence of Damian Harris and rookie Rhamondre Stevenson ultimately made Michel expendable in Foxborough this summer. The Rams, having already lost Cam Akers for the year due to a torn Achilles, were already thin at the running back position. Expected starter Darrell Henderson, who has had his fair share of injuries over the years, recently suffered a thumb sprain which prompted McVay and Co. to explore the trade market for an insurance policy.
Expectations in Los Angeles are sky high following the acquisition of Matthew Stafford at QB, so it was unlikely that the Rams front office was going to be enamored by the thought of a Darrell Henderson led backfield all season long. While Michel may not have had the immediate success of fellow Georgia running mate Nick Chubb, he reported to Pats training camp several pounds lighter, and noticeably quicker on the field.
From a fantasy perspective this isn’t great news for those pinning their hopes on Darrell Henderson. While he’ll get the lion’s share of carries initially as Michel gets up to speed with the playbook, the dreaded running back-by-committee tag is likely on the horizon in Los Angeles.
If you can manage to get both on your roster you can afford to be patient and see how things play out in the first few weeks of the season. The Rams offense is going to be amongst the league leaders this year, so there should be plenty of red zone touches, and late game handoffs to eat up clock to go around. But expecting either to emerge as a top tier running back this year is no longer in the cards.
The obvious winner in all of this is Damian Harris. While you can never be sure about ANYTHING when it comes to a Bill Belichick offense, removing the primary threat to Harris’ touch count each game is a definite benefit. As mentioned Stevenson has looked great in training camp so far, but New England is always hesitant to thrust rookies into prominent roles right from the get go. This is Harris’ job to lose at this point.
-Kyle Skinner
Twitter: @JKyleSkinner