5 options for the NY Giants to replace the injured Saquon Barkley

2. Lamar Miller

Another former Pro Bowl runningback on the right side of 30, Lamar Miller suffered a torn ACL of his own in 2019 that caused him to miss the entire season. At his best, Miller has proven to be an upper-echelon, duel-threat ‘back that can be a team’s lead option.

Miller’s best year came in 2014 when he started all 16 games for the Dolphins while tallying 1,099 rushing yards on a 5.1 rushing average. After playing out his rookie deal with Miami, Miller signed a four-year, $26M free-agent contract with the Texans in 2016 and once again topped 1,000 yards in his debut campaign with the team.

He came close to surpassing 1,000 yards in each of his next two seasons with Houston while proving to be durable as he missed just two games over that span. Before he tore his ACL last year, Miller played in at least 13 games in each of his first seven seasons.

While torn ACL’s require season-ending surgery, the injury isn’t considered nearly as serious as it used to be in terms of a long-term prognosis and the Patriots liked what they saw enough out of Miller’s medicals to ink him to a contract this offseason before deciding they were stout enough at runningback without him as they released him just before the season started.

The Pats were able to get Miller to sign a one-year contract worth just over $1M, so money should not get in the way of this potential signing.

Miller has proven to be a viable recieving threat, totaling over 200 catches and 1,500 yards during his career. He’s also been a solid in pass protection which would be very welcomed considering Saquon Barkley has struggled in that area during his young career.