Patriots RB Lamar Miller making late push for carries

Lamar Miller is late to the Patriots’ backfield party.

After signing at the dawn of training camp, Miller was immediately shelved on the Physically Unable to Play list and kept away from the field. Slowly in the facility, he worked himself back into shape over three weeks, while Damien Harris took all the primary running back carries in training camp. Then, Sony Michel returned to action, leaving Miller alone on the PUP list and far behind his new teammates.

But having practiced this week, the former Dolphin and Texan has now arrived. And he’s pushing to be the life of the party.

Despite his newness, Miller is the most proven rusher in the Pats’ backfield, with two 1,000-yard seasons under his belt and a Pro Bowl honor from 2018. That year, he averaged 4.6 yards per carry. As a team, the Patriots averaged almost a full yard less last season.

Now recovered from an ACL tear he suffered last summer, Miller said he feels he’s back to his old form.

“(The ACL) feels good. Everything feels good,” he told reporters Tuesday. “I’m just out there trying to get better every day. Just continuing to get back in the groove, get better as a player to do anything to help my team win.”

Miller feels good enough, he said, that he believes he could play as soon as Thursday, when the Pats would have played their final preseason game. Whether he’s truly in game shape, however, is known only to his coaches and teammates. Miller’s transition to New England has at least been eased by his experience in Houston, where former Patriots assistant and current Texans coach Bill O’Brien runs a similar system.

And the conditioning test Miller said he was put through upon arrival, a rare, rigorous one — even by NFL standards.

“Since I’ve been in the league, I’ve never ran that much,” Miller said. “It was just different for me. They make sure you’re in top, great shape. That’s something I haven’t experienced.”

Miller said what drew him to the Patriots was their history of winning. If the Pats are to continue winning in 2020, their revamped run game figures to play a central role. It is possible Miller doesn’t survive Saturday’s roster cuts. But considering the Patriots could have released him all along, but instead left him on PUP, it appears the 29-year-old will factor, somehow, into their regular-season plans.

“I’ve been in the league for eight years. You can see why they’re a winning organization,” Miller said. “They work, they do a lot of things differently, and I’m happy to be a part of it.”

Older, stronger Wise

Defensive end Deatrich Wise was one of the Pats’ top defensive playmakers in camp, applying steady pressure off the edge and occasionally inside. He added upwards of 10 pounds of weight this offseason to prepare himself for the season and the various positions he’ll play across the defensive front.

As Wise’s on-field role projects to increase, his place in the locker room figures to grow, as well. The fourth-year lineman confirmed as much Tuesday, when asked about his leadership this season.

“For sure. With all the young players that our team has now acquired, I feel like me being a fourth-year player, I definitely have shown my leadership in my actions and the way I speak,” Wise said. “I am not as big of a ra-ra guy as others on the team, I am more of bringing people to the side, talk to them, help them out on little things and then watch them do what they do.

“My leadership is more personal, but also through my example on the field and my energy.”

Newton back at practice

After a one-day, excused absence, Cam Newton returned to participate in a padded practice Tuesday.

He was the only player to return after missing Monday’s session.

Running back Damien Harris, left tackle Isaiah Wynn and center David Andrews have now missed consecutive practices. The other players absent Tuesday were cornerbacks J.C. Jackson and Michael Jackson and defensive linemen Beau Allen, Nick Thurman and Michael Barnett.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/2YXoYFE