Vereen to be #1 RB...?

[Ring 6]

If we stick with a Rid/Vereen/Woody trio best case scenario- Both second year backs break out and give us a good rushing attack. The worst case scenario- They both bum out, and we have virtually no ground game.

But thats a big miscponception. For us to have no running game, the OL would have to fail. Being a decently effective RB in the NFL is not rocket science if you have the basic skills, which these guys do. And in our offense there are enough yards to be had just because defenses consider defending the run an afterthought, that its hard for any RB to really look too bad.

 

[rookBoston]

Pure speculation based on where he was picked and perceived talent, not on anything he did last year, which was next to nothing. Hopefully he turns it on in his second year but the recent history (of high draft picks that don't do much in their 1st year) has left me skeptical.

This happens all the time. Ty Warren had a non-descript rookie year, playing behind Bobby Hamilton and Anthony Pleasant, and became a solid pro. Chung was not impressive as a rookie, some flashes but disappointing. Gronkowski was a fairly solid blocking TE as a rookie, but didn't become a weapon for us until his second year. There's a tremendous opportunity for a 2nd year player to establish themselves.

 

[PatsFanInVa]

Crap. I was convinced that he was drafted as a big FU to everybody who said we whiffed on a guy who danced around too much... I mean, he's a freaking blood relative of Ben Vereen...

 

[jmt57]

Patriots may look to Shane Vereen as No. 1 running back | ProFootballTalk

Basically Reiss claims the Pats staff still see Vereen as a #1 RB, after all he was a 2nd round pick and had a hamstring injury that hampered his efforts last season.

Does anyone agree this should be the case? All the talk around has been about Ridley being #1

Once a player is on the roster Belichick doesn't care if you were a first round pick or an undrafted free agent. That being said, a year ago they did have Vereen rated higher than Ridley as evidenced by the draft status of the two running backs.

Just for the record here is a link to Reiss' column and what he said; personally I wouldn't read much into it one way or the other. Playing time will be determined between now and the end of training camp, not strictly on 2011 performance. I took it to be a simple reminder from Reiss about Vereen in the wake of BJGE signing with the Bengals.

Quick-hit thoughts around NFL & Pats - New England Patriots Blog - espnBoston

It’s easy to forget because of his limited contributions as a rookie, but the Patriots still have high hopes for running back Shane Vereen (2nd round, 56th overall in 2011 draft). With BenJarvus Green-Ellis signing with the Bengals, the door is open for Vereen -- who battled a hamstring injury in 2011 -- to find his place atop the depth chart with Stevan Ridley and Danny Woodhead.​

 

[BTTA]

Why is a short running back considered less desirable than a tall one? If anything, having the weight more compactly placed would seem to make a back more powerful and provide less space to hit.

Where does this idea come from?

 

[CheeseMonkeys]

We will be seeing a lot more of this pretty soon hopefully.

NFL Videos: Vereen seals the deal

 

[pdangle]

I'm predicting big things from Vereen. Possibly even Ridley, who impressed me even more than expected (more on that below) last season.

It's a shame we haven't had much of an explosive run game around here in a while. I think it's made our expectations a bit low. Riddle me this however. Why does it seem every RB we've used the last few seasons has done significantly better than most expected (I'm talking average yards-per-attempt here)? I think that our O-Line has grown and improved greatly into an unheralded darkhorse upper tier run blocking unit. We're always so concerned with keeping their pass blocking skills top-notch, we might be missing a real diamond in the rough. Yes, I'm saying it, these guys can run block too! We just need a top notch RB that would open our eyes to it.

BJGE - Great ball security, strength, patience, but VERY limited explosiveness. Still, over 200 caries, this guy throws up a 4.0 Y/A. Jeez, the guy never broke anything over 20 yds. So those were hard fought, non-fluff yards; Telling me what my eyes saw, the initial holes or lanes were there, but few yards were taken after that.

Woody - Great shiftiness, vision, burst, but limited initial strength and size and power. It's nice when it all breaks right, but when he's unable to sneak, dive and/or squirt through, he's an arm-tackle-for-a-loss waiting to happen. Might have been hurt last season, or maybe his schtick didn't fly as well the second time. Still this guy throws up a 5.2 Y/A (many 3rd downs though) over two 60+ carry seasons. Again, the holes were there for all to see; They must be, because Woody doesn't break many early tackles.

Ridley - Enter the rookie, surprised as more of a "complete" back than either the two above. Still doesn't have the pedigree to be considered a "top" level skilled RB in the NFL. Yet... but realistically, probably not. In either case, with 87 carries, he throws up a 5.1 Y/A. Pretty good number (especially in a season both BJGE and Woody were down 20% over their historical Y/A, probably due to new faces on the O-Line). Still, it was enough to have some excitement on his future.

So back to the original premise of this post, given ANY such back that can break the EARLY tackles, grind, AND break it late, we should expect more strong performances like this behind the holes and running lanes our OL generates. Hopefully Ridley and Vereen are such backs. If so, I think we'll be pleasantly surprised at their success. Now, IF we get lucky, and either of these guys is a top 10 NFL RB, watch out!

 

[Patriot Missile]

Didn't see enough to make any kind of assessment on Vereen last season. With what little I did see was underwhelming and nothing of the explosiveness we saw in college. To be fair he was injured most of the season and just getting his sea legs back so to speak.

I'm pretty excited to see what the guy can really do and I almost feel like Vereen and Dowling
are like new drafts picks ready to be evaluated come ota's and training camp. A lot of fans forget that Vereen will probably be working in the kicking game as well and may make an impact there too.

 

[shmessy]

Incredibly stupid statement I just realized I made...MoJo pretty much defeats it.

There used to be a fella named Barry Sanders also.

Wasn't too shabby.

 

[Armchair Quarterback]

If Vereen hadn't impressed the staff last year, they wouldn't have let BJGE sign with Cinci for 3 yrs/$9MM, which is pretty reasonable cash for a starting RB. Ray Rice is probably going to run $7 or 8MM/year, more than twice as much.

Pretty clear that BB let Lawfim walk. For a GM/coach that likes roster competition and cap-friendly veteran contracts, the fact that he didn't bring BJGE back is a vote of confidence in what he has on the rest of the roster.

Not only do I think Shane will step out of the shadows this year, I think he'll be an UPGRADE: more explosive hitting the gaps than Bennie, more versatile especially in the passing game. Ridley was impressive (other than fumbling), but BB drafted Vereen a round earlier and saw something in him that made him worth a 2nd round pick. The short TC and the injury put Vereen behind the 8-ball right out of the gate, but I think we'll see Shane make a name for himself this year.

This happens all the time. Ty Warren had a non-descript rookie year, playing behind Bobby Hamilton and Anthony Pleasant, and became a solid pro. Chung was not impressive as a rookie, some flashes but disappointing. Gronkowski was a fairly solid blocking TE as a rookie, but didn't become a weapon for us until his second year. There's a tremendous opportunity for a 2nd year player to establish themselves.

The reason they let BJGE walk may have nothing to dol with what they think of Vereen. Let's see him actually play before proclaiming him an upgrade over BJGE.

Warren, Chung and Gronk played in all 16 games their rookie season. Vereen played in 5, wasn't even active for ST. That doesn't mean he won't do anything this year but the Brace and Price type picks have made me skeptical of high round picks who contribute so little. Let him prove it first before I have any expectations of him. You're being wildly optimistic.

 

[Armchair Quarterback]

Didn't see enough to make any kind of assessment on Vereen last season. With what little I did see was underwhelming and nothing of the explosiveness we saw in college. To be fair he was injured most of the season and just getting his sea legs back so to speak.

I'm pretty excited to see what the guy can really do and I almost feel like Vereen and Dowling
are like new drafts picks ready to be evaluated come ota's and training camp. A lot of fans forget that Vereen will probably be working in the kicking game as well and may make an impact there too.

Agreed, didn't see enough of him and what little I did was underwhelming.

 

[PatsSox363804]

Charles Davis at NFLN now has the Pats taking an RB at 31, citing the loss of BJGE. I really don't see that happening; they should be in good shape with Ridley, Vereen and Woodhead leading the way.

Lazy journalism, IMO. They see Green-Ellis leave and of course that means it creates a hole that needs to be filled with a first round pick. My favorite is the guy at Walter Football saying we'll take a DT, which we could, but his reasoning is "with Albert Haynesworth gone..."

 

[patsinthesnow]

There used to be a fella named Barry Sanders also.

Wasn't too shabby.

Just keep piling on. :bricks:

 

[mgteich]

In general, I agree with you.

The primary issue for me is short yardage. I believe that there is a significant in effectiveness among running backs, even on the same team.

I think that the ability to convert short yardage on the ground is major asset. There are teams where 3rd and 2 is almost always a passing down; for others it is almost always a running down.

My bottom line is that I believe that Green-Ellis was a reliable short yardage back, who didn't fumble. We need to find a rb to equal Green-Ellis in this role or even improve this part of our game. BTW, I'm fine if the solution is Ridley, with someone else as the backup. I just think that this aspect of the running game is important, even on a pass first, second and often team.

But thats a big miscponception. For us to have no running game, the OL would have to fail. Being a decently effective RB in the NFL is not rocket science if you have the basic skills, which these guys do. And in our offense there are enough yards to be had just because defenses consider defending the run an afterthought, that its hard for any RB to really look too bad.

 

[Reckedtrek]

I absolutely loved Vereen pre-draft and went as far as comparing him to Marshall Faulk. He better accomplish something next year!

I'd be happy with 4 YPC average and no fumbles as a start. As so many people on this board will tell you, anyone can do it so let's hope Vereen can. Anything on top of that is just icing on the cake.

 

[Bostonian1962]

I've been following Ridley on twitter, and he seems to be hitting the workouts VERY hard, and I love that about him. He needs to do what Parcells used to have the fumbles do, and carry a football everywhere he goes, and make the fumbles a thing of the past. If Ridley does away with the fumbling, he can solve our RB issue, IMHO.

 

[ausbacker]

I've been following Ridley on twitter, and he seems to be hitting the workouts VERY hard, and I love that about him. He needs to do what Parcells used to have the fumbles do, and carry a football everywhere he goes, and make the fumbles a thing of the past. If Ridley does away with the fumbling, he can solve our RB issue, IMHO.

The O/C can solve our rushing issues too you know.

 

[alvinnf]

Whichever of the two backs taken last year, can prove they are solid blocking backs in the passing game. Will earn the starting role. Either way we have three dynamic backs with different skill sets, should be lethal.

 

[patsfan13]

IMO Vareen could have a huge impact, especially as a receiver out of the backfield. That said I don't see a guy being the #1 they was say an Earl Campbell was back in the day, better to split the workload so say 3 guys average 10-12 touches per game. You have a much better chance to have a healthy backfield & fresh legs for the playoffs.

 

[40yrpatsfan]

We're blessed to have 2 talented young backs in Vereen and Ridley. RB isn't like other positions in terms of learning curve. Once they learn the protection packages, which they both did last year, they are ready to run. Look for both of them to have outstanding seasons barring injury.