There's a sense of optimism surrounding the New England Patriots heading into the 2023 season, and fans had another reason to be excited on Monday afternoon when their favorite team signed Ezekiel Elliott to a one-year contract worth up to $6 million. The Patriots hadn't been shy in their interest when it came to adding another running back to their rotation, and they managed to land Elliott ahead of their second preseason contest.

The Patriots desire to add a running back makes a lot of sense. They didn't have much depth behind Rhamondre Stevenson to begin with, especially after releasing James Robinson and watching Ty Montgomery go down with a leg injury early on in training camp. Developmental prospects in Pierre Strong Jr. and Kevin Harris haven't flashed in camp early on either, so it was clear that help was needed here.

While the prospect of adding a former All-Pro running back in Elliott is nice, a deeper look into his recent production shows that this just isn't going to be an addition that moves the needle for the Patriots. And while Elliott could play a big role on offense, it is best to temper expectations for the veteran running back now that he's in New England.

Ezekiel Elliott isn't what the Patriots offense needs

This past offseason, New England made some big moves, particularly to their coaching staff, in an effort to fix their offense after their moribound 2022 campaign. The problem is that, despite the front office's best efforts, the top-end playmaking talent around third-year quarterback Mac Jones is virtually nonexistent, aside from their star running back in Stevenson.

Over the past month or so, the Patriots have been looking to make up that deficit, showing interest in star free agents DeAndre Hopkins and Dalvin Cook. New England didn't match the Tennessee Titans' aggression for Hopkins, though, and pretty clearly fell victim to the New York Jets' very high interest level in Cook, forcing them to pivot to secondary options.

One such secondary option is Elliott. Elliott had a decent season with the Dallas Cowboys in 2022 (231 CAR, 876 YDS, 12 TD) but it's hard to look at his numbers and be totally impressed. Elliott's yards per carry came in at 3.8, which was the lowest of his career, and he ended up losing the starting running back job to Tony Pollard, which is why he was available in the first place. If you take away his 12 touchdowns, Elliott's 2022 campaign doesn't look good at all.

Of course, it's worth noting that Elliott is not going to be used in a starting capacity for New England. Stevenson is the top guy after he snatched away the job from Damien Harris last year, but he does need some help in the backfield when it comes to keeping him fresh. Elliott should be able to hold his own when spelling Stevenson a break, but how much should he actually be expected to produce as he comes off the worst year of his career?

Elliott showed he could excel as a red zone running back last year, which should help considering how the Patriots 42.2 red zone conversion percentage last year was the worst mark in the NFL. But aside from maybe punching in a few touchdowns, Elliott's continually declining per carry statistics indicate that expecting much else from him would be a mistake.

New England put themselves in this tough position by striking out on Hopkins and Cook, two star players who would legitimately have helped improve the Patriots offense. Heck, we even floated the possibility of pulling off a deal with the Indianapolis Colts for Jonathan Taylor, who would have been the best option of the bunch for the Patriots.

Instead, Bill Belichick and the front office continued their concerning recent trend of trying to fix all their issues with band-aids, rather than actually trying to, you know, fix their issues. In the long-term, Elliott doesn't solve any of New England's problems, and aside from giving Stevenson some rest from time to time, he doesn't really solve any of their short-term problems either.

Who knows, maybe Elliott will shock us and end up being the perfect complement to Stevenson out of the backfield. The problem is that he appears to be declining already, and there is no proof that a lesser workload will help him produce more results on a per carry basis. This feels like another example of New England's front office cheaping out when there were better options available, and while there's hope surrounding the team, it's tough to get very excited about them when the front office doesn't see any reason to significantly invest in them.