The Patriots are working out the NFL's 2022 rushing touchdowns leader, per CBS Sports. He hasn't played in over a year.
That's the whole report. Not a signing. A workout.
The player is Jamaal Williams, who led the league in rushing touchdowns in 2022 during a breakout season in Detroit, then spent two seasons in New Orleans. Rushing touchdowns are a role stat. Leading the league in them takes talent, and it also takes a staff that keeps handing the ball to one back at the goal line. He had both.
What New England is auditioning, then, isn't a lead back. It's a finisher.
That distinction decides how much this matters. A short-yardage specialist changes a handful of snaps a game and doesn't touch the passing game. He converts the short-yardage carry and punches in the goal-line run, or he doesn't make the roster.
The layoff is the part that gives me pause. Over a year away from live reps is a year of hits not taken, which helps, and a year without NFL speed, which doesn't. Every October workout of a veteran is a bet that the second factor is smaller than the first.
My read: this is depth insurance, and whoever signs him is buying a job description, not a comeback story. Which raises the question the workout itself doesn't answer. Is New England's current short-yardage back hurt, or is he just not good enough? Teams don't bring in a former league leader in October out of nostalgia.
Who it hurts is easy to name. Whoever currently gets the ball on short-yardage and goal-line downs should treat this week like his snap count depends on it, because it might.
I'll say it plainly. This probably ends as a workout and nothing more, because that's how most October veteran tryouts end. What would flip me is a contract followed by immediate goal-line usage. Hand him the first carry inside the five and the Patriots aren't shopping for a specialist. They're replacing someone.
