Reiss doesn't consider Ridley a roster lock

Deus Irae said:

Or, to put it another way, Lacy won rookie of the year and made the Pro Bowl in his only NFL season, yet you dismissed him out of hand.

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Do you consider RBs like Lacey, Spiller, Jackson, etc. without question better than Stevan Ridley?

rochrist said:

I expect that if it had been Ridley who was the free agent and gotten that offer from the Steelers, BB would have passed on him too. He just doesn't value RBs that highly.

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We will see how much Belichick values Ridley this coming offseason.

patsinthesnow said:

Above average running ability - no receiving ability - fumbling issues.

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Are you sure about the no receiving ability, could it be that he is simply underutilized as a receiver? Last season he was targeted 12 times, he caught 10 of those passes, and had no drops.

Brady6 said:

Are you sure about the no receiving ability, could it be that he is simply underutilized as a receiver? Last season he was targeted 12 times, he caught 10 of those passes, and had no drops.

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He's only fair as a receiver. A RB needs to do a lot more than catch the ball, he needs to catch it in stride and make a play. Most catches are 2-3 yards if you get hit when you catch it. Vereen is much better than him now, but he should be able to improve. I wince remembering how they would force the ball to BJGE, who would catch it but do nothing with it since he was a bit awkward.

Ridley is not a good receiver, if he was, he would see the ball much more often. He can take a dump-off, but he isn't that great. I also suspect his pass protection is not that great.

Overall, I think Ridley is an excellent guy to carry the ball, we will see how he does this year.

I think Ridley is a lock to make the roster.. who else can be our lead back. He has great burst, power, and vision

Just watched the Saints game on NFLN and Ridley looked great early on in the game. Running hard, making people miss, and good in the screen game as well. If he could just get his fumbling issues under control he could be great.

As others have mentioned, the fact that Ridley caught 10 balls last year doesn't mean as much to me either--although I do agree with Brady6 that he could be in store for a big bounce back season.

For the sake of comparison, Bolden caught 21 balls as well, and we all know what Vereen can do. I think it's great that we've gone back to the RB dump off passes, as it was put on the backburner a bit during the time BJGE was here. I can't remember which season it was, but our RB passes were down tremendously.

primetime said:

Sample size.

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Yup, and people forget he had countless mental lapses in games, especially early on. He would stop running routes early and watch the balls sail past him when targeted. The NE running backs are more than runners in recent seasons. They are expected to be part of the passing game as well now. Bolden and Ridley must both get better in that aspect of the game, IMHO.

Ridley would be doing himself a big favor by improving his hands and becoming more of a threat that way. That makes him more valuable to BB (and any coach really), making it more likely he'll stick around . . . this is assuming he wants to stick around. Nothing I've seen in interviews or heard about suggests otherwise.

With all that said, there is clearly a difference in the running game when he is in. He was the best runner on the team last season, and I don't expect that to change much this season. He has potential to be a 20+ carry guy, but that may not even be necessary in today's NFL. If he can catch a few more passes and fumble less, and of course assuming the asking price is reasonable, I can definitely see him back in NE on a new deal.

http://espn.go.com/blog/boston/new-.../_/id/4764622/checking-the-locks-patriots-dts

I don't even know what to think anymore. Reiss doesn't consider Ridley a lock, but he puts Chris Jones in that category. He wouldn't call Ridley a lock because of possible challenges by an UDFA rookie and UDFA second year player. I wouldn't have even considered Jones a lock before they used their first round pick on a player who projects to be a vastly superior talent in Jones' role from last season.

Sciz said:

http://espn.go.com/blog/boston/new-.../_/id/4764622/checking-the-locks-patriots-dts

I don't even know what to think anymore. Reiss doesn't consider Ridley a lock, but he puts Chris Jones in that category. He wouldn't call Ridley a lock because of possible challenges by an UDFA rookie and UDFA second year player. I wouldn't have even considered Jones a lock before they used their first round pick on a player who projects to be a vastly superior talent in Jones' role from last season.

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I agree, Sciz. While I don't see anything enormously controversial about Reiss' comments, I think there are plenty of times when we don't always agree with his speculation. As is the rule of sports reporters (or possibly reporters in general), their coverage and ability to have an ear to the ground is much better than their speculative comments.

This all said, I think he seems like a great guy, and I enjoy his coverage of "our" team.

I just read that article and came here to talk, he did put Vince as a sure fire lock, although Vince is making progress it's to early to make that assumption, Vince still has a long way to go, it's very reasonable to not count him as a sure fire lock right now, I'm not going into contract talks, from a football and recovery standpoint only.

I like Reiss and usually agree with everything he writes, but I think he's leting his wishes speak in this Checking the Locks series.

Swap McFadden for Ridley? The healthiest guy in the NFL?

I just don't see him being cut but you never know.

I think he's the best RB on the roster that can run between the tackles, run in short yardage situations, play the big back roll and early downs but none of that matters if he can't hold on tho the ball so there's that.