Bills Lose Backup RB Mike Gillislee to Patriots, Season Declared Over

The Buffalo Bills assigned restricted free agent running back Mike Gillislee with an original round tender this offseason. Since Gillislee was drafted in the fifth round, this means any team looking to sign the running back would need to send their fifth round pick in this years draft to Buffalo.

The Bills divisional rivals, the New England Patriots, had no problem doing just that when they gave Gillislee an offer sheet for a two year, $6.4 million dollar contract which he signed. This triggered a deadline which gave the Bills five days to match the offer, or Gillislee would be a Patriot and the Bills would receive their fifth round pick.

That deadline expired today at 4p.m. and Buffalo let their backup running back go to the Patriots. Bills fans were up in arms on social media complaining about letting a player head to the Patriots for a second straight offseason. This left fans to ponder many things:

What will the Bills do at running back this season without their backup running back? How will the number one rushing attack from the past two seasons survive without a player that they picked up off the streets in 2015? How can the Bills survive with the NFL's 6th leading rusher from last season, LeSean McCoy, as their number one back? I mean it's not like McCoy was top five in yardage last year. That would have been a totally different story!

Gillislee finished third on the Bills roster last year in rushing yards behind McCoy and Tyrod Taylor. For some reason though fans seem to think his 577 yards rushing were the most important rushing yards. We should just ignore Tyrod Taylor's 580 yards and Shady McCoy's 1,267 yards. Those must have all come in garbage time!

Replacing Gillislee will be nearly impossible. Just like it was impossible to replace Karlos Williams last year, when none other than Mike Gillislee stepped up and filled in his spot. It's not like the Bills drafted a running back last year named Jonathan Williams in the fifth round who could potentially slide into the backup role.

Without their most important player Mike Gillislee, the Bills rushing attack will likely drop from first in the league to dead last in yardage. They have clearly already given up on the season by making this move.

There is no need to watch this year because I can tell you exactly how it will go. The Bills will finish 0-16 and will lose every game because they could not rush for an extra 38.5 yards which was Gillislee's average per game last year. This move will curse the franchise for years and will become known as one of the most historic offseason blunders in NFL history.