LeGarrette Blount re-signs with the Patriots

LaGarrette Blount is back!

Not with the Pittsburgh Steelers, the team that cut the running back Tuesday after he walked out on them during the previous night’s game because he was unhappy with his number of carries.

But Blount has signed with New England, the team he left via free agency during the off-season to join the Steelers, the Patriots announced Wednesday.

Multiple media reports say the deal is two years for the verteran’s minimum salary.

Blount rushed for 1,007 yards as an undrafted rookie for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2010, but his production went down the next two seasons and he was traded to New England.

He came on strong for the Patriots at the end of the 2013 season, rushing for a career-high 189 yards in the regular-season finale against the Buffalo Bills and following that with a 166-yard, four-touchdown effort against the Indianapolis Colts in the playoffs.

After signing what is said to have been a two-year, $3.85-million deal with Pittsburgh, Blount was arrested and charged with misdemeanor marijuana possession during the preseason. Fellow Steelers running back Le’Veon Bell faces the same charge, as well as a DUI charge for the same incident.

Blount had one standout game for the Steelers -- 118 yards and a touchdown in 10 carries against the Carolina Panthers in Week 3 -- but Bell emerged as the primary running back on the team.

A week after gaining no yards on five carries against the New York Jets, Blount didn’t get any carries Monday night during a 27-24 victory over the Tennessee Titans, a game in which Bell rushed for 204 yards and a touchdown in 33 carries.

Blount is said to have angrily left the field before the end of the game and to have spent very little time in the locker room afterward. Less than a day later, he was off the team.

“At least one player thought they should leave [Blount] in Nashville,” Ed Bouchette of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported. “Blount has been an internal problem for at least a month for the Steelers and sources told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that he is dragging down star halfback Le’Veon Bell.”

Playing time could also be an issue for Blount as a member of the Patriots, who already have three running backs -- Stevan Ridley, Jonas Gray and Shane Vereen -- with more than 300 yards this season. Gray, in particular, could be a rising star after his 199-yard, four-touchdown game Sunday night against the Colts.

All three running backs, however, are free agents after this season (Gray restricted, Ridley and Vereen unrestricted), which could be good news for Blount next year ... if he can stay on the team that long.

Twitter: @chewkiii