When gauging the potential of Jeff Demps, I'm surprised that after 4 pages no one mentioned the true elephant in the room, which is not Shane Vareen. In his one game audition, Demps showed a lot of potential as a change of pace runner, who could catch the ball, despite not being in football shape. The real question is, does Jeff Demps make Danny Woodhead redundant?
Between Ridley, Boldin, Vareen, Demps, and a FB/"big RB" type, the RB corps seems pretty full with young vibrant backs. Woody has been productive, dependable, and a solid contributor to the best offense in the league the last 3 years, but can his talent be replaced for less money than he might receive.as a FA.
To me, Jeff has a ready made role as a KO returner. I'm not worried about his lack of college punt returns. Edlelman didn't return punts in college either. However its as a RB who could see 10 touches a game, that intrigues me the most. He has rare speed and could present a real threat to defenses that we don't currently have. I imagine that a lot will depend on how well he pass blocks. Woodhead eventually turned out to be very good at it, but it took some time to get there, IIRC.
BTW- One of my pet peeves about college scouting reports. So many list a positive on one side and then use the negative just one paragraph later. Like in the one of the Demps' write ups, they list his "toughness" as a positive, and then list "questionable toughness" as negative. That kind of contradiction happens more often than you think