During Vereen's rookie year, I liked the strength he showed at the combine and felt he could be an undersized all-purpose RB in the mold of MJD or Ray Rice. But after seeing enough of Vereen trying to run north-south, I'm not comfortable with him in that capacity. I guess his upside is Kevin Faulk, which is still plenty useful but isn't a closer like Corey Dillon was.
That having been said, I want to see a little more from Gray before rushing to any conclusions. His running style is supposed to resemble Law Firm's, and he looked great last week and not so great against the #1 run defense this week.
When Ridley went down I tempered my expectations for our running game. I'm not convinced yet that Gray can do his job as the big back, but the Pats don't have much choice right now. I'm choosing to keep an open mind about it.