Buffalo Bills RB Mike Gillislee may be joining Patriots

Bill Belichick is at it again, and for the second year in a row, the Buffalo Bills may lose one of their up-and-coming players to the defending Super Bowl champion and archrival Patriots.

Tuesday, the Patriots presented a two-year, $6.4 million offer sheet to restricted free agent running back Mike Gillislee. The Bills have five days to match the offer, and if they don’t, Gillislee is gone.

On the positive side, the Patriots would owe Buffalo a fifth-round pick in the 2017 draft because the Bills gave Gillislee an original-round tender. Currently the Bills have only six picks at their disposal. Also, the Bills would get about $1.2 million in salary cap space. If the Bills were to retain Gillislee, they’d have to absorb a $4 million cap hit in 2017 which would drop them below $10 million in available cap space.

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Last year, the Bills gave Chris Hogan the lowest tender, and because Hogan was undrafted, the Patriots didn’t have to compensate the Bills at all when they signed the wide receiver to a three-year, $12 million contract, a deal that the salary cap-strapped Bills couldn’t afford to match.

Hogan went on to produce a career-high 680 receiving yards in the regular season, then tacked on 332 more in three playoff games as the Patriots rolled to the championship.

Gillislee joined the Bills late in 2015 and scored three long-distance touchdown runs. Last year, after Karlos Williams was cut, Gillislee became the backup to LeSean McCoy and he rushed for 577 yards and led the NFL with a 5.7-yard average per carry while scoring eight touchdowns.

Should Gillislee leave, the Bills would have to turn to 2016 fifth-round draft choice Jonathan Williams as McCoy’s backup, and they would probably have to choose a running back somewhere in the upcoming draft.

MAIORANA@Gannett.com