Zeke to Foxboro: 1 year, up to $6 million
- Thread starter RedOctober3829
- Start date
Same since his YPC was down to 3.8 last year and he stopped catching passes. But he could rebound a bit and help out.
and with our current OLine that should be a welcome addition. That and giving Rham a rest once in a while.
3.8 ypc, but still had almost 900 yards and 12 TDs last year so he's not completely washed up. You could do a lot worse with a tandem than Rham/Zeke.
Getting Rham off the field, especially in some short yardage situations and passing downs, will be valuable.
I am not so sure he's washed. He's on the back nine but this isn't Stephen Jackson in 2015. I think he can be a real asset beyond spelling Rham. He's a pro. And we haven't seen him in a true back-up role. I am thinking more like later career Frank Gore; steady, unspectacular but reliable play.
Well worth the one year deal at that money. Helps the depth immensely. Provides some helpful things for the offense. He knows what he's doing.
Yep. Us resident Cowboys fans will tell you Zeke was Emmitt 2.0 in picking up the blitz and he’s still very good in short yardage and goalline. He no longer has the burst to rip off 50-80 yard plays but for relatively cheap, this is a good deal for the Patriots.
He's washed as a STARTING RB but should have plenty in the tank as a backup and short yardage guy who can also block and catch passes. Great pickup for only 3 mil base salary, which presumably went down (to 3 mil) b/c the Pats took their time signing him.
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My first impression of this signing is LaGarrette Blount 2.0.
Zeke is a bit of a meme because he was cashing huge checks from Jerry and was lapped by Pollard before his time finished, but he still fills a particular role, and should be fine as the situational power back.
Zeke is a bit of a meme because he was cashing huge checks from Jerry and was lapped by Pollard before his time finished, but he still fills a particular role, and should be fine as the situational power back.
It looks like the four years before last year, he had 60 to 90 pass targets a year, but the number dropped way down. I don't really follow the Cowboys, but is that a personnel issue? Was Pollard just more of a third down back, or is Zeke cooked as a receiver and route runner?
Pollard became the primary receiving back. Zeke can still catch the ball I’m sure but he just doesn’t have the explosive big play ability he used to.
But Zeke still does a bunch of things that Belichick would like. He doesn’t fumble, he’s elite at picking up the blitz, he’s good in short yardage, and he plays through a lot of injuries.
Being an Ohio State fan, I wanted Zeke to be drafted by the Pats so this is kind of fun for me. He seems washed, though.
I was diving a little deeper and it seems as if Zeke is way more cooked as a receiver than I previously thought. He's ranked in the bottom 3 for yards per target among running backs every year since 2020. His hands are still good and he can pass protect, but I think at this point it'd be a big surprise if he amounted to anything more than a complementary short yardage back who's going to flank Mac in shotgun on third down.
As long as he doesn’t cough up the ball, I’m psyched. Zeke is/was always fun to watch. The East is wide open.
For second place maybe. I hope the Pats do well, but is there any particular reason to think the Bills are going to fall on their faces in the regular season?
Yes, I was thinking a receiving 3rd-down back, such as Fournette (if he got in shape) was a bigger need than what Zeke provides.
I live in upstate NY so most of my buddies are Bills and Jets fans, and they’re the tv market teams so I watch most of the games for both, somewhat against my will.
I’d like to see the Bills win one Lombardi for all of the suffering they’ve gone through. And Josh is young so it seems kinda dumb to say, but I think there’s a good chance they missed their window to win. The offense wasn’t as good without Daboll. Gabe Davis proved to be the JAG initially assumed. They improved at RB and TE but their receiver group after Diggs is not good. I like Josh but he’s still prone to streaks of really dumb turnovers and hero ball. The offensive line is questionable and could easily end up in the bottom third. Yeah, still the favorite to win the East and rightfully so. But if you gave my even odds I’d take the field of Jets/Dolphins/Pats over the Bills.
Chad Graff is a moron btw, maybe the worst local writer of any Athletic NFL beat.....
Short yardage was good for Zeke because he had a very good O-line, it was bad for Rham at least in part because he didn't.
I have a lot of Bills fans friends and most of them say that game against KC hurts as bad as any of their losses outside maybe SB XXV.
You had a feeling that if Buffalo got out of KC with a win and were back hosting CIN in the AFCCG, they were going all the way that year. Maybe that’s not fair to CIN or LAR, but Josh Allen was playing utterly out of his mind at that point. It took a miracle 13 seconds and winning a coin toss to stop him.
But what are the chances Cook would choose the Pats over the Jets for the same (or even similar) $? Clearly for this season the Jets are a more desirable option.
We'll never know what BB preferred or what offers Cook had, but a lot of times people see contracts and say "why didn't we do X instead of Y"?
But the truth is, many times it's not Y vs. X. It's Y versus nothing. Players can only pick 1 team.
The Bills haven’t missed their window. They’re going to be Super Bowl contenders as long as Allen plays at a high level.
which is (fortunately for New England) only going to be only like four years because they mistakenly believe that big quarterbacks don’t wear down running the balls having apparently never seen what happened to cam Newton and Andre Luck.
LGBT left and became a contributor on a championship team in Philly. I don’t think Zeke is that good.
They wanted James Robinson for this role if he was healthy, but he wasn’t — by all accounts, he looked cooked in the Giants’ first preseason game, and he’s unlikely to make their roster. Good on BB for moving off Robinson quickly, and for getting a guy with some upside to replace him, but I’d be lying if I said I was optimistic. Rham can’t take every carry, and as you say Zeke fits a role, but I’ll be pleasantly surprised if he’s more than a warm body.
Well yeah. That’s my point. The Mahomes window is much longer. He’s learned how to take less injury risk after the QB sneak injury spooked him. He’s a better passer, more creative, and better vision than Josh. If Andy isn’t retiring from a heart condition, they could have 6-8 more years as I think they are less reliant on having Tyreek, Kelce, etc. Josh will always be in the mix but I think Luck is a much better comparison. The window is open but peaked and closing.
I feel for the fans. I started texting all of them on the Gabe TD congrats and they all responded 13 seconds was too long. I flash-backed to my entire pre 2004 childhood. They were right.
Mahomes is aaron Rodgers, if Rodgers were a good teammate and had a hof caliber coach. They'll be at the top of the conference for the next decade, no doubt.
I’ve detested him since he lifted up the girls shirt riding with him on the parade float, just seems a gross scumbag.
https://x.com/rapsheet/status/1691418676518346753?s=46&t=IVL2VrlFgLlpc3mjGGto8Q
Zeke is flying to Foxboro today, signing, then heading to GB with the team and should practice right away.
Zeke is flying to Foxboro today, signing, then heading to GB with the team and should practice right away.
The real window the Bills wanted was the one for bilking NY out of billions for a new stadium and fortunately from that POV they succeeded there.