There is still a plethora of RBs available in free agency that will come cheap and will be looking for jobs soon.
Zeke Elliott
Latavius Murray
Boston Scott
Cam Akers
Rashad Penny
Kareem Hunt
Jerick McKinnon
Josh Kelley
Eno Benjamin
Marlon Mack
Matt Breida
Any of these guys would be a solid #3 or #4 even.
https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/free-agents/_/year/2024/status/available/position/rb/sort/contract_value
elittiott is going to dallas hunt and mcinnon are nice role guys
I agree, I was hoping the Pats would draft an RB late who could grow into that 3rd down RB/kick returner role, like Marshawn Lloyd out of USC or Kimani Vidal out of Troy.
Still, I think Jerick McKinnon could make a ton of sense for this roster. The Athletic wrote a
whole article about his skills as a pass blocker. With an O-line and WR corps in transition, a veteran QB who hasn't really started since 2022 (and has only started 16 games since 2019), and two rookies in the QB room, having a veteran blocker and pass catcher at RB could be incredibly useful. And ideally, I'd love to bring in a UDFA or another team's roster cut to the practice squad to shadow McKinnon this year and learn.
Edit: Oh, and I guess there's a pretty obvious Kareem Hunt connection with AVP from Cleveland, and they brought him in as a free agent after Chubb went down for the season last year. Would probably prefer McKinnon for pass protection reasons, but Hunt would make sense as well at the very least as a training camp signing.