Danny Woodhead or Leon Washington?

[tobias funke]

Can we admit this was a really dumb move now?

Honestly this one bothers me way more than the Welker decision. We made Woody a household name and let him go for chump change. I'm normally on board with Belichick & Co. but I think they outsmarted themselves here.

 

[RayClay]

Can we admit this was a really dumb move now?

Honestly this one bothers me way more than the Welker decision. We made Woody a household name and let him go for chump change. I'm normally on board with Belichick & Co. but I think they outsmarted themselves here.

As a kick returner? Washington by a mile.

You know we have an RB named Vereen ready to come back, right?

 

[BradyBranch39]

Woodhead, since neither guy should be returning kickoffs, most of which are deep into the end zone these days anyway.

(Sidenote: I'm fine with Blount starting us at the 23 every time.)

 

[tobias funke]

As a kick returner?

As a football player.

"Kick returner" is barely a position at this point. You can tell because we intentionally put our slowest skill position player there on a regular basis.

 

[Gronk]

It'd have been nice to have Woodhead while there were some injuries early in the year here. But from where NE was thinking at the time - you've got Ridley/Bolden as bangers (added Blount later I believe), and Vereen to take on the 3rd down/receiving back role, Woodhead seemed expendable. Washington was signed to return kicks...it sucks that he hasn't, but who knew?

I'm sure if you told BB what would happen he'd pick Woodhead, but in terms of constructing a roster to play and win games the move made total sense, even if the money DW signed for was reasonable.

Edit: I think Vereen's performance in the season opener is sufficient proof that Vereen was/is ready to become Woodhead-Plus. He'll be back soon.

 

[RayClay]

As a football player.

"Kick returner" is barely a position at this point. You can tell because we intentionally put our slowest skill position player there on a regular basis.

What does one have to do with the other? I think Vereen will be better, but he needs to stay healthy.

 

[PatriotsInGA]

Obviously Woodhead. It's not even debatable considering Washington has contributed the same amount to the Pats as Bobo the fun monkey has (hint: nothing).

But you also have to consider their roles.

Leon was brought in to, presumably, return kicks. He could play some RB, but returning kicks was his speciality.

Danny is mainly a shotgun/3rd down RB. Vereen is a cheaper and younger option at this point in time. Woodhead is still a great player, but there's no reason to suggest Vereen can't do what Woodhead can. Did you see the Buffalo game? Exactly.

 

[Sticky Caulk]

What does one have to do with the other? I think Vereen will be better, but he needs to stay healthy.

I have been a huge fan of Vereen from the moment he was drafted, but he shouldn't of had any influence on the decision to let Woodhead go for a much worse player at what amounts to a miniscule discount. Woodhead should have been resigned. Washington is as good as released at this point.

 

[tobias funke]

I'm not comparing Woodhead and Vereen. I'm comparing the decision to keep Leon Washington (RB) vs. Danny Woodhead (RB). Considering the nature of injuries in the NFL, I don't see why you can't keep 2 3rd-down RBs if they have very manageable salaries.

Woodhead was younger and a heavy contributor on special teams. He knew the system extensively and was one of our best pass protecting RBs. He received 1.75m a year (for 2 years) from the Chargers, an increase of $550,000 over what we're playing Leon Washington for the season.

Apparently I'm not the only one who feels this way.

 

[Brady6]

Can we admit this was a really dumb move now?

Honestly this one bothers me way more than the Welker decision. We made Woody a household name and let him go for chump change. I'm normally on board with Belichick & Co. but I think they outsmarted themselves here.

Let me think about this for a moment.

So you want to know if I would rather have Woodhead and his 53 receptions, 652 total yards and 5 total touchdowns, or Leon Washington and his 1 total yard this season? I think I will go with Woodhead on this one.

We made a mistake letting Woodhead go and anybody who argues otherwise is not looking at things from a rational perspective this is a player on pace for 94 receptions, 105 carries, 1159 total yards and 9 touchdowns that could signed with San Diego for 2 yr./$3.50 mil.

 

[RayClay]

I have been a huge fan of Vereen from the moment he was drafted, but he shouldn't of had any influence on the decision let Woodhead go for a much worse player at what amounts to a miniscule discount. Woodhead should have been resigned.

Did I miss a press conference? Who said we let go of Woodhead because we just had to have Washington?

If they intended to us Vereen as the third down back, when were they going to use Woodhead and Ridley and Amendola and Edelman...

 

[patsfan-1982]

I would take Danny over Washington every day of the week but it is what it is, the good thing is right now all the pats have missed is his stats cause they are 7-2 I don't think he makes them 8-1 or 9-0.

so what that said Vereen will be back and as long as he can stay on the field the rest of the way the pats are set, the real kick in the nuts came when the pats found out that Hernandez is Charles manson 2.0

 

[tobias funke]

I know, it sounds like an easy thing to say in hindsight, but again I was more upset about this one than Welker.

With Welker the writing was on the wall and I think most of us had prepared ourselves for the possibility of losing him, and even talking ourselves into the idea of replacing his production.

I honestly never thought they would let Woodhead get away and was completely blindsided when he went to the Chargers. When I saw the contract numbers, I almost puked.

 

[Brady6]

As a kick returner? Washington by a mile.

Washington and his 1 kickoff return for 19 yards this season? Woodhead has more return yards this year than Washington.

You know we have an RB named Vereen ready to come back, right?

This season on its own Danny Woodhead has more total yards, more touchdowns and 2 times the receptions Shane Vereen has in his career. I am actually a big fan of Shane Vereen I think he is loaded with potential but he has been injured and missed time in each of his 3 NFL season and even if he was 100% we still could have found a way to use both of them, with Welker and Lloyd both leaving town the logic behind letting a player capable of close to a 100 reception season is crazy.

 

[Gronk]

I would take Danny over Washington every day of the week but it is what it is, the good thing is right now all the pats have missed is his stats cause they are 7-2 I don't think he makes them 8-1 or 9-0.

Besides the fact that he likely doesn't change their record (and even if he does, it doesn't make it a "bad" move), he also wouldn't have the stats because he wouldn't be on the field or getting the ball as much as he is in SD, particularly if Vereen were healthy and Hernandez were not in prison, which is what NE was expecting when they let Woodhead go.

 

[Brady6]

I would take Danny over Washington every day of the week but it is what it is, the good thing is right now all the pats have missed is his stats cause they are 7-2 I don't think he makes them 8-1 or 9-0

You really don’t? Do you think we could have 2 more touchdowns this season if we had Danny Woodhead on this team? We lost our 2 games by a combined 9 points and I for one think if we had Woodhead we could very well be 9-0 right now, his absence has been a major issue on 3rd downs and in the redzone.

 

[RayClay]

Washington and his 1 kickoff return for 19 yards this season? Woodhead has more return yards this year than Washington.



This season on its own Danny Woodhead has more total yards, more touchdowns and 2 times the receptions Shane Vereen has in his career. I am actually a big fan of Shane Vereen I think he is loaded with potential but he has been injured and missed time in each of his 3 NFL season and even if he was 100% we still could have found a way to use both of them, with Welker and Lloyd both leaving town the logic behind letting a player capable of close to a 100 reception season is crazy.

Washington has been injured this year. Would I rather have a player that's not injured, sure. I wish we had someone back when Woodhead was injured, but I wasn't calling for signing a backup 5'6" 3rd down back to the roster just in case.

There's only 53 spots on the roster and there's a salary cap. I don't believe we need to carry more running backs. Woodhead was let go because Vereen started to show something and is physically more imposing.

If Woodhead was injured and Vereen was healthy, would we even be having this discussion? Of course not.

 

[JMC00]

Would I have liked the Pats to re-sign him? Yep.

Do I understand why they decided to move on? Yep.

-Do we have any idea if the Pats made an offer to Woodhead? I know they signed Washington but I always thought that was more of a move because Bill was fed up with Demps non-committal on just playing football and that he was eventually going to move on (which he did).

 

[RayClay]

Washington 25.9 (career) 29.0 (last year)Blount 23.3 Woodhead 21.5

Since you want to compare him to the guy brought in to return kicks, there's your comparison.

 

[tobias funke]

I'm pretty sure RayClay isn't going to give up until we change the title of the thread to Danny Woodhead or Shane Vereen.