Predictably, the market for running backs with reducing tread on their tires no longer is what it once was. And so many of the available tailbacks are ending up with their tails between their legs.
The demand simply isn’t there. Peyton Hillis, who left plenty on the table last season in Cleveland, had to settle for a one-year, $2.6 million deal. Most aren’t even getting a sniff.
Fortunately for Ben Jarvus Green-Ellis (a/k/a the Guy Who Never Fumbles), two teams are interested. The Patriots, his only NFL home through four seasons, and the Bengals.
Green-Ellis dropped (not spiked, dropped) the puck at a minor-league hockey game Friday night between the Springfield Falcons and Portland Pirates. He spoke to Nick Underhill of MassLive.com about the current career uncertainty.
“It’s a different process. It’s not something that I’ve been through,” Green-Ellis said. “I don’t know what’s going to happen. I just have to sit back and wait for things to unfold.”
The good news is that negotiations are ongoing with the Patriots. “It’s not a perfect world,” Green-Ellis said as to whether he’d like to stay. “I just know that both sides are working on it and hopefully things get done.”
If it doesn’t get done in New England, it could get done in Cincinnati. That’s his only visit so far in free agency, but that’s more than many of the free-agent running backs can say they’re taking.