Reggie Gilliam describes his game a tenacious and physical at the fullback position. It\u2019s one of the main reasons the New England Patriots prioritized the fullback on Day 1 of free agency, as the sides agreed to a three-year, $12 million contract.<\/p>\n
When Gilliam arrived at Gillette Stadium shortly after to sign his contract, his new head coach, Mike Vrabel, was still talking about the level of violence he would bring.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love that,\u201d Gilliam said. \u201cThat\u2019s what he\u2019s been preaching to me since I walked in the door here, is like, \u2018We love your style of play and we love what you bring physicality-wise.\u2019 And I talked to Thomas Brown, the tight end coach, and he echoed the same thing with Julian Hill and me.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Patriots privatized building up the trenches and adding physicality in free agency. That included signing offensive guard Alijah Vera-Tucker, in addition to Hill, who was a primary blocking tight end to start his career in Miami.<\/p>\n
\u201cViolence is not something that you can just turn on. It\u2019s got to be who you are. I was raised like that,\u201d Hill said. \u201cCoach Embry in Miami, who was my tight ends coach there, took me to [another level]. He coached George Kittle \u2014 one of the nastiest run blockers in the game. He coached a lot of greats. He instilled that in me. So, it\u2019s got to be who you are. And that\u2019s who I am.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hill will now fill in next to Hunter Henry as the top in-line option in the Patriots\u2019 tight ends room, where he is expected to continue bringing that physical play style. The Patriots also believe the 25-year old has more to offer as a pass catcher, even if he doesn\u2019t need the football in his hands to make an impact.<\/p>\n
\u201cI appreciate the game. I play the game the right way. It\u2019s not pretty,\u201d Hill said. \u201cI\u2019m not the guy that\u2019s always catching the touchdowns, getting all the balls thrown to him. I\u2019m a guy that\u2019s going to work to do his job and do his job the right way \u2014 support his teammates, love on his teammates, hold guys accountable, hold myself accountable. Walk into that fire, man. If there\u2019s a guy pushing up on Drake Maye, I\u2019m going to be the first one there.\u201d<\/p>\n
The additions of Gilliam and Hill\u2019s violent play style \u2014 along with the self-described tenacious Vera-Tucker \u2014 project to help Maye as New England\u2019s offense becomes more well-rounded.<\/p>\n
Last season, New England\u2019s run game ranked 24th in rush EPA forcing the team was forced to debut a six-offensive line package down the stretch. That should not be the case entering 2026.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there were points in the season where we didn\u2019t run the ball as well as we would have liked last year for a variety of reasons,\u201d Executive Vice President of Player Personnel Eliot Wolf said. \u201cI think adding the fullback, a guard, and a tight end who\u2019s primarily been a blocker in his career certainly was intentional. Trying to get some toughness and some identity guys for Coach Vrabel in that offense.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reggie Gilliam describes his game a tenacious and physical at the fullback position. It\u2019s one of the main…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":819692,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2050],"tags":[7,1167,249,52113,57412,2326,2094,6,208],"class_list":{"0":"post-819691","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-england-patriots","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-new-england","10":"tag-new-england-patriots","11":"tag-new-england-patriots-first-read","12":"tag-new-england-patriots-free-agency","13":"tag-newengland","14":"tag-newenglandpatriots","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-patriots"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116251794759437910","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=819691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819691\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/819692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=819691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=819691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=819691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}