New England Patriots: 3 Players who need to step up in 2020

3. Sony Michel

One player that will need to step up and perform well for the New England Patriots during the 2020 NFL season is running back Sony Michel.

For the past few years, Michel and New England teammate James White have been a solid duo out of the backfield for Bill Belichick and company on the offensive side of the field. While White has been viewed somewhat as the primary running back in Foxborough, Michel has been a great compliment to him on the ground and in the passing game.

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But when it comes to Michel, consistency has been an issue he’s dealt with in his first two professional seasons after breaking in the NFL as a first-round draft pick in the 2018 NFL Draft.

In his first two years in the league and with New England, Michel has appeared in 29 of the possible 32 regular-season contests, providing the Patriots with a reliable player who can remain on the field week-in and week-out. Over the course of those two seasons, the 25-year old has rushed the ball more than 200 times and for over 900 yards and six touchdowns per year, while averaging a little over 70 receiving yards through the air as well.

In 2019 during his sophomore campaign, Michel dealt with some consistency issues in New England while appearing in all 16 games during the year. Michel did manage to finish the year with a career-high 247 rush attempts and seven touchdowns, along with 912 yards on the ground. He also caught for a career-high 94 yards on 12 receptions in the passing game.

But one thing that Michel did fail to accomplish last year was being able to break the 100-yard rushing mark while some weeks finishing with totals of less than 20 yards rushing and others nearing that 100-yard mark.

That will need to change in 2020 for the Patriots to not only help the running game but also help the team while it has a new quarterback leading the offense for the first time in two decades.