Patriots FB Reggie Gilliam compares Drake Maye to former MVP

​FOXBOROUGH — Reggie Gilliam spent the primary six years of his NFL profession serving as a human battering ram for the Buffalo Payments’ bruising operating sport.

​By extension, he’s additionally had a front-row seat to Josh Allen’s improvement as one of many NFL’s high playmakers and stars over the previous half-decade.

​Gilliam — who signed a three-year contract with the Patriots this week — believes his new quarterback is lower from an identical fabric as the previous NFL MVP.

​”He’s constructed similar to Josh,” Gilliam mentioned Thursday of Drake Maye. “Yeah, he’s a cool man. … I’m excited. He’s a younger participant. Once I acquired to Buffalo, Josh was three years in. Not totally established, however he was already, like, we knew he was going to be a man. And Drake is clearly the man right here. I’m excited to be with a younger quarterback and assist him develop.”

​Gilliam will not be a featured piece in New England’s offensive plans. However the bodily fullback ought to add a lacking component to the Patriots’ operating sport transferring ahead — serving an identical position to the one which James Develin thrived in throughout seven years in Foxborough. ​

“I like contact,” Gilliam, 28, mentioned. “I’ve all the time been like that since I used to be a child. I bear in mind taking part in within the yard with my mates. We’d play full deal with, all over, no pads, nothing. We’re decreasing our shoulders off one another.”

That physicality has been placed on show throughout Gilliam’s NFL profession, as he was usually tasked with clearing a path for the Payments’ high operating again James Prepare dinner. With Gilliam opening up operating lanes by the use of bone-crunching blocks, Prepare dinner rushed for an NFL-leading 1,621 yards on the bottom in 2025.

​Gilliam will ideally make life simpler for New England’s 1-2 punch of Rhamondre Stevenson and TreVeyon Henderson in 2026, in addition to bolster New England’s success charges on short-yardage performs. The 6-foot scrapper helped Buffalo routinely transfer the chains off “tush push” performs and different essential offensive sequences in 2025.

Maye and the Patriots’ offense had been oftentimes at their greatest final season when producing explosive performs down the sector. However Gilliam is trying ahead to giving his new workforce a bodily equalizer within the run sport transferring ahead. ​

“I like to run the ball — not simply when the ball’s in my hand — however simply operating the ball, and particularly when the opposite workforce is aware of we’re operating the ball,” Gilliam mentioned. “As a result of it’s like they’ll know what we’re doing, however they nonetheless need to cease us.

“And that’s my favourite factor — when the linebackers are coming downhill, DBs are coming, and you continue to make an awesome block, and it’s nonetheless an awesome run. There’s 9 guys within the field, and we’re nonetheless averaging 4 yards a pop. So it’s simply it has an angle about it.”

 

Conor Ryan is a employees author overlaying the Bruins, Celtics, Patriots, and Crimson Sox for Boston.com, a job he has held since 2023.