Patriots’ Tyler Gaffney wants to run like Marshawn Lynch
"The way [Lynch] ran, how he took everything personal, I'd kinda like to replicate that."
New England may see slice of “beast mode” in preseason. Patriots running back Tyler Gaffney says he models his game after Marshawn Lynch.
Lynch, who retired during the 2016 offseason, was the kind of running back that embraced physicality and contact. But Gaffney hasn’t had much contact in the last few years. He spent only a few days of training camp with the Patriots in 2015 before getting placed on IR. It was a similar story in 2014 when the Panthers placed him on IR in training camp.
“It feels good to get back into what football is based around,” Gaffney said after the Patriots’ first contact practice on Saturday.
Like Lynch has been in the NFL, Gaffney was a tenacious runner at Stanford.
“The way [Lynch] ran, how he took everything personal, I’d kinda like to replicate that. Be my own back, but the same mentality,” he said.
In his senior season, Gaffney rushed for 1,709 yards and 21 touchdowns in a year where the Cardinal made a Rose Bowl appearance. He also carried the ball 45 times in Stanford’s regular-season upset of the Oregon Ducks, led by now Titans quarterback Marcus Mariota. Gaffney finished the day with 157 yards and a touchdown.
LeGarrette Blount, an Oregon alumnus, said he watched that game.
“Obviously, he can get the job done,” Blount said Sunday. “He’s a good back. That’s why he’s here. That’s why he’s getting the chance to showcase what he can do. I like him a lot.”
With the Patriots, Gaffney has practiced with the bigger backs like Blount and also with the smaller pass-catching backs.
“I’m trying to keep up,” the 6-foot-1, 225-pound back said of playing with both groups. “[I’m] aiming to be a three-down back, if I can do it all. If they only need me for the first two downs and not third [down], or just third, as long as I can do what’s asked of me, I’ll be alright.”
Since the pads went on at training camp, Gaffney saw a handful of goal line reps with the first, second, and third teams. During the Patriots’ practice on Monday night, he worked exclusively with Jacoby Brissett and the third team. The Patriots are stocked with running backs in Blount, Dion Lewis, James White, Donald Brown, Brandon Bolden, Joey Iosefa, and D.J. Foster,
So while playing as a three-down back is ideal, running backs sometimes need to start on special teams, and work their way up in the Patriots organization. Gaffney made a heads-up play during the early days of practice by recovering an onside kick for the return team. He has also shown considerable effort as a gunner in punt coverage. And it’s not going unnoticed, as Belichick said Monday he’d seen Gaffney working hard in the kicking game.
Perhaps, Gaffney could start by going “beast mode” on special teams.
“I think he’s got the right mentality,” special teams captain Matthew Slater said. “Tyler’s eager to learn, and he really prepared himself this offseason to compete at a high level. I love his attitude and the way he’s working out there in the kicking game.”
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