The New England Patriots now have two former Cincinnati Bengals in their backfield. That’s after it was reported by Field Yates of ESPN that the defending AFC champions have signed Jeremy Hill to a contract. The details of the deal remain unknown, but Hill plugs at least part of the hole left in the team’s running game by Dion Lewis, who recently just signed with the Tennessee Titans.
Source: the Patriots are signing former Bengals RB Jeremy Hill.
— Field Yates (@FieldYates) March 16, 2018
The 25-year-old Jeremy Hill played only seven games last season, no thanks to an ankle injury that he opted to fix through surgery. That decision did not sit well with some people on the Bengals’ coaching staff, considering that Hill could have waited until the offseason to go under the knife. He finished the 2017 campaign with only 116 rushing yards with no touchdowns on 37 carries. He also caught four passes for a mere 16 receiving yards.
Hill’s lack of activity last season, however, should not overshadow his potential to contribute provided that he is healthy. Selected in the second round as the 55th pick overall in the 2014 NFL Draft by the Bengals, the former LSU Tiger had an impressive rookie season in Cincinnati, rushing for 1,124 yards and nine touchdowns in 16 games (eight starts) in his rookie year. The following year, he had 794 rushing yards and 11 touchdowns, though, his yards-per-attempt average went down from 5.1 a season before to only 3.6 in 2015. Thus far in his career, Hill has a total of 2,873 rushing yards and 29 touchdowns on 4.1 yards per attempt.
In Foxborough, Hill joins ex-Bengal Rex Burkhead in the Pats’ backfield unit that ranked 10th last season in rushing yards with 118.1 per contest.
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