Need a bruising RB... But who?

I think blount will be back. The rb market has developed extremely slow. Alot more shoes need to fall like jamal charles, peterson etc before blount can evaluate his value.

It seems teams are warming to belichicks motto of not overpaying for running backs.

zipster9 said:

Rex fumbled 2x.

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Once in 97 touches in 2016. Not great, but then Ridley fumbled once every 80 touches in his Pats's career.

In comparison, Blount has fumbled once every 127 touches in his Pats' career, White has fumbled once in 215 touches. Lewis has fumbled once very 40 touches, although the two vs. PIT in the playoffs really killed his fumble rate. He hadn't been quite that bad otherwise.

Hercules Rockefeller said:

Agree that Blount is a good teammate and seems a good dude. Don't understand why Lynch is a jerk though. He just doesn't like talking to the press because he's "bout that action, boss."

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I hear ya, but these guys owe something to the fans: without us, after all, Marshawn is just some dimwit running into people.

FoxboroFlyer said:

This guy went to the Steelers...The ****in Steelers! After the first go round...Does anyone understand that?! And they cut his ass mid season cause he quit on them, and Bill re signed him cause he was available, and better than what was in house...That's the only reason he was here. MORE than replaceable, unless he wants to come back for the minimum.

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Blount carried 334 times in 2016, regular season and playoffs, and scored 18 TDs - all for a mere $1.1M. The only other times in the BB Era that a Pats featured back has topped 250 carries in a season were Ridley in 2012 and Dillon in 2004.

captain stone said:

And how did that work out for them in the 4th quarter?

Burkhead is an interesting if not extravagant signing; but as of today, if I'm on the opponent's 2 yard line, and I need to call a running play, I'm giving the ball to Blunt…until Burkhead proves otherwise.

I see nothing at all wrong with signing Blunt to the same deal plus incentives under which he played this past season (with maybe a liitle thank-you bump), and then drafting a Power Back of the future somewhere between 96 and 163. Possible targets already mentioned include D'Onte Foreman, Samaje Perine and James Connor; others to watch are Kareem Hunt, Wayne Gallman and the execrable Joe Mixon.

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Perine fumbles a bit (1/103 in 2016).

Foreman and Mixon both fumbled a LOT (1/55).

Gallman (1/149) and Conner (1/237 in 2016) are both pretty good about ball security.

Hunt fumbled only once in 855 touches in his college career and not at all in 2016.

FoxboroFlyer said:

************! Blount is not the key to this offense!
This "gotta have a banger over 240", stuff is comical. Get a damn grip already! If BB deemed him a necessity we certainly have the cap space, that it would have been done already. Good god.

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somebody needs a nap

Addictive said:

My guess is that somewhere in the third and fifth round the Pats will draft a RB knowing that currently for the 2018 season they don't have a single RB signed to the roster. Lewis and White are both scheduled to be free agents and while it is unlikely that BB will let both of them go it is proven that RBs tend to need at least one season of working with the team to learn blitz pick up and running the right routes to be able to stay on the field. Perhaps BB double dips in the draft and gets two RBs like he did the year of Ridley and Vereen.

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White has been very good in blitz pickup. With 60/551/5 receiving (9.2 ypc, 70% catch rate) and 39 carries for 166 yds (4.3 ypa), he's beginning to remind me of old reliable Kevin Faulk. My guess is that he gets an extension and that Lewis has to fight off Foster and possibly a rookie challenger in Camp.

But that pretty much just covers "receiving RBs who can run on occasion".

For "lead runner", I think the Pats still need a backup for Burkhead since I don't see White, Lewis or Foster carrying that load and I'm not particularly confident that Gaffney finally make a move up to 53-man level in 2017. Doesn't necessarily need to be Blount-sized.

So, yeah, could be a "double-dip", but I'm thinking one pick and a couple-three UDFA.

jboston19 said:

James Connor out of Pitt would be a great later round pick up. He was amazing as a freshman, but had a series of really bad things happen and is still recovering. But he's very talented.

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The thing is that it's still a bit of a copycat league. Blount's 2016 performance may have boosted the stock of the bigger guys in this draft. I'm already seeing Conner going in the 4th and even the late-3rd on a lot of mocks.

Ill do it

I'm fine with Blount for one more year but this draft is strong at RB and they should be able to get a good one in the 3rd or 4th round.

mihap said:

Healthy Gaffney.

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good idea, but maybe as rare as a unicorn!

sambam94 said:

^yup, you occasionally saw Blount carrying people when he got up a head of steam.....but too often I saw him get stuffed at or behind the line of scrimmage. Don't need him now.

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Blount's stuff rate was 11.4% in 2016.
- The average among the 29 RBs who carried the ball 150 times or more was 10.7%.
- The average among the five guys who carried 280 times or more was 11.3%.
- Burkhead's stuff rate was 9.5%, but he only carried 74 times.
- Bell was by far the best at 5.0%
- Ajayi, and Freeman were among the worst - over 14% (Doug Martin was 16%).
- Of the dozen 150-carry+ RBs who had a better stuff rate than Blount, only five had more 10+ yard carries, only two ran for double-digit TDs (Elliot, 15, and Johnson, 16), and only one besides Blount had fewer than 3 fumbles (Howard).

Get Blount back for 1.5-2m. Need someone to thump little speedy coverage LBs. Blount is a lot to take down, he is an entirely different weapon.

maineman209 said:

The thing is that it's still a bit of a copycat league. Blount's 2016 performance may have boosted the stock of the bigger guys in this draft. I'm already seeing Conner going in the 4th and even the late-3rd on a lot of mocks.

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Could be. I was surprised last year at how many "round 2" rbs went much later. He's got a lot of potential and I'd be ok with our 4th rounder on him.

Connor and Deveon Smith out of Michigan interest me most as big backs. I like Aaron Jones out of UTEP as a good all around back for us.

maineman209 said:

Blount carried 334 times in 2016, regular season and playoffs, and scored 18 TDs - all for a mere $1.1M. The only other times in the BB Era that a Pats featured back has topped 250 carries in a season were Ridley in 2012 and Dillon in 2004.

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Even if you double Blount salary, 2m, it would still be cheap and good insurance.

Blount is likely looking to cash in on his 18TD season. Nobody knows what he is asking for so it's not simply a matter of throwing a million or two at him. Another factor is whether he'd be willing to be a backup or timeshare. It didn't work out well in Pittsburgh when he was a backup and he was backing up one of the top backs in the league. How do you think he'd react to backing up Rex Burkhead? And no, they're not paying Burkhead 3million to replace Brandon Bolden.

Blount is a 30 year old back coming off a season with his career high amount of carries and lowest YPC average. And he wasn't exactly the most complete RB to begin with. That might not be the best investment.

For what they would likely use him for, they could draft his replacement and get the same type production without the potential headache and cost. Should be some decent options in the draft. A cheap vet like Alfred Morris or Tim Hightower could be an option too.

Blount is a big guy but he is not a true bruiser running back. He runs effectively by making people miss.

If you want a true bruiser who would be a beast inside the 5 yard line or convert a 4th & 1, look no further than
Samaje Perine.

He also holds the FBS single game rushing record with 427 yards.

He is a beast & I would love to see him on the Patriots.

Armchair Quarterback said:

Blount is likely looking to cash in on his 18TD season. Nobody knows what he is asking for so it's not simply a matter of throwing a million or two at him. Another factor is whether he'd be willing to be a backup or timeshare. It didn't work out well in Pittsburgh when he was a backup and he was backing up one of the top backs in the league. How do you think he'd react to backing up Rex Burkhead? And no, they're not paying Burkhead 3million to replace Brandon Bolden.

Blount is a 30 year old back coming off a season with his career high amount of carries and lowest YPC average. And he wasn't exactly the most complete RB to begin with. That might not be the best investment.

For what they would likely use him for, they could draft his replacement and get the same type production without the potential headache and cost. Should be some decent options in the draft. A cheap vet like Alfred Morris or Tim Hightower could be an option too.

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Blount performed well in a "timeshare" of sorts with Ridley in 2013 (153 carries to Ridley's 178 with 1-yard difference in production, 772-773).

With the Steelers in 2014, it wasn't a "timeshare". Blount was strictly a backup, getting about 12 snaps per game while Bell got 58. Blount saw nealy as many snaps in 5 games with the Pats as he did in 11 games with the Steelers.

In 2015, before Lewis got hurt, Blount was part of an RBBC in which Lewis averaged 42 snaps/game, Blount 24 and White 14 (through the first seven games only).

If Dallas cuts Morris in the next few weeks, maybe he's worth a look in OTAs . He's just two years younger than Blount (almost to the day), averaged 3.5 ypa last season as a backup to Elliot and was passed on the depth chart late in the season by Darren McFadden (!).

Hightower turns 31 in May (6 months older than Blount), and he did "okay" in limited action for the Saints in 2016. IIRC, the Pats also had Hightower in for a look sometime during his 3-year "hiatus" from the NFL and elected not to sign him.

The thing is that Morris or Hightower would need to learn an offense that Blount already knows well, and the Pats would likely only save about $500k going that way instead of re-signing Blount. And I'm not really sure what you mean by "the headache."

jboston19 said:

Could be. I was surprised last year at how many "round 2" rbs went much later. He's got a lot of potential and I'd be ok with our 4th rounder on him.

Connor and Deveon Smith out of Michigan interest me most as big backs. I like Aaron Jones out of UTEP as a good all around back for us.

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After Smith's poor showing in Combine testing, it seems to me that his draft ceiling may now be 6th round. He could even end up UDFA, I suppose.

captain stone said:

And how did that work out for them in the 4th quarter?

Burkhead is an interesting if not extravagant signing; but as of today, if I'm on the opponent's 2 yard line, and I need to call a running play, I'm giving the ball to Blunt…until Burkhead proves otherwise.

I see nothing at all wrong with signing Blunt to the same deal plus incentives under which he played this past season (with maybe a liitle thank-you bump), and then drafting a Power Back of the future somewhere between 96 and 163. Possible targets already mentioned include D'Onte Foreman, Samaje Perine and James Connor; others to watch are Kareem Hunt, Wayne Gallman and the execrable Joe Mixon.

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Guarantee that Mixon is not on the Pats Draft Board as being Draftable.. Not with the damning video out there.