Losing Vereen/Lewis is the biggest conern, not Edelman

RayClay said:

2 rushes, 7 yards a carry and a TD and that was a great, tough, TD.

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I was way more impressed with that run than anything White has done career to date.

AndyJohnson said:

They are built to take what the defense gives.
Edelman and Amendola are players that rely on quickness to get open in short spaces. Gronk is not. Lafell is not. Dobson is not.
They are built to exploit the entire football field.
If you think you can consistently get players open underneath without the threat of throwing down the field, I'm not sure this discussion will get us anywhere.
They happen to have a QB who will not make risky throws, so while the amount of passes they throw short, intermediate and deep are similar to almost every team in the NFL, they will tend to take the high percentage throw when it is there.

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So coincidentally the last two games, the defenses have just stopped giving them the short passes to their running backs? Yeah right...if anything the defense would give them this option more often with Lewis out. They choose not to use it.

To a degree, I agree with the OP. The importance of someone like Verreen, is for specific defenses. Look at the last superbowl for example. Vereen's contributions I would say were almost as important as Edelmans (or Amendola's or Gronks, etc), as he kept drives alive, and allowed the Pats to score TD's in the 4th quarter. Being the running back that catches passes well, and gets YAC, was huge. Missing that element is a significant loss, especially when playing top defenses like Seattles (or either NY teams or even Buffalo).

Also, I think the injury to Faulk in 2007 was probably one of the biggest pieces missing for Brady when playing against the Giants D. He barely scored despite having perhaps the 2 best receivers in the game su(Moss, and Welker). Who knows what would have happened if Faulk was playing, but I suspect that it probably would have changed some of the offensive drives that game.

Now if the question is whether loosing Lewis or Edeman is the greater loss, I guess it comes down to depth, in that Amedola is better than White, and that is why perhaps loosing Lewis is a bigger issue.

Right now, he's a 3rd down back. It will be interesting to see if they start using White on 1st and 2nd downs. Not only will that open up his game so it won't be so obvious what they are doing on offense, but will showcase more of his skills.

Oswlek said:

I was way more impressed with that run than anything White has done career to date.

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Agreed. He's no Dion Lewis, but Monday night went a long way toward building confidence in him. He broke tackles in the open field, extended plays, and made a tough run when called upon to do so. The guy has real versatility. I didn't pay enough attention to his pass blocking form an opinion there, but if he proves capable with that then I'll feel pretty good about him going forward.

Oswlek said:

I was way more impressed with that run than anything White has done career to date.

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Yeah, I've been a huge critic. I think he's getting a lot of support from Blount and probably the rest of the team. maybe he needs it. Bottom line is, he is running hard now, unlike before. Skill wise? He's got receiving and running skills if he's going to run hard and unafraid.

Oswlek said:

Those two broken tackles were the first two he's made in two years as a Patriot. I couldn't have been happier to see that.

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Almost true, but he has gone down like a sack of wet cement most often. I see the spirit rising in that game. They have to be working to increase his load in practice. That could take a lot of pressure off.