The Buffalo Bills led the league in rushing last season with LeSean McCoy at the helm, but the loss of his sidekick Mike Gillislee could have a significant impact on that.
McCoy is a workhorse and a pretty darn fantastic running back who can do it all: run, catch and block. But at some point, Shady has to take a few snaps off, and the Buffalo Bills will be expected to move the ball down the field. This is where the loss of Mike Gillislee will become apparent.
Buffalo lost Gillislee to New England over the offseason when they declined to match the restricted free agent offer sheet the Patriots gave him. The compensation for the Bills running back was a fifth-round pick in April’s draft.
Gillislee rushed for 580 yards with eight touchdowns in 100 rushing attempts last season with the Buffalo Bills. Those are fairly good numbers for a good backup in the NFL. But where he will be missed most is his big-play explosiveness. 43.3% of Gillislee’s yardage came off a long run. His ability to flip the field like that and his craftiness to break off long runs like that was third in the league to only Isiah Crowell and McCoy.
According to Pro Football Focus, 10% of Gillislee’s rushing attempts were 15+ yard rushes, which equated to 251 yards on those carries. That kind of production from a backup is tough to replace.
With the departure of Gillislee, the Bills depth in the backfield is not nearly as strong as last season.
Behind McCoy, the Bills are rolling the dice on 2016 fifth-round pick Jonathan Williams as their backup in 2017. Followed by offseason additions, Joe Banyard and Mike Tolbert, who neither of which, however, are expected to do much damage in the run game.
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Williams was a highly regarded running back while playing in college for the Arkansas Razorbacks. Unfortunately for Williams, that success did not continue into the NFL in his rookie year. The ex-Razorback only had 27 carries last season and failed to eclipse the 100-yard mark. Williams rushed for just 94 yards last season, 20 of which came on one play.
Granted, Williams is only going into his sophomore year. And that’s when running backs accustom themselves to the league, so it’s far too soon to write him off as a bust.
Who knows, maybe all Williams needs is more repetitions and a bigger role to succeed, kind of like what Gillislee did last year.
Regardless of Williams’ potential, the Buffalo Bills lack players that can make explosive plays in the backfield and flip the field like McCoy and Gillislee. Whether or not new Head Coach Sean McDermott will find a way to turn Williams or Tolbert into a threat on the football field remains to be seen.
Although, you can count on a lot of eyes being glued to Williams throughout training camp.
But with the lack of depth from the running back position behind McCoy in Buffalo now, betting for them to repeat as the league’s rushing leaders again would be very unwise.
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Do you think Gillislee’s absense will have a major impact? Leave your thoughts in the comments below!