Damien Harris needs to see the field

There is no reason for Harris to get reps, while we sit Michel, White or Bolden.

With regard to the Active Roster, Josh has decided on 3 RB, 1 FB, and 5 position WR's.
We "might" activate Harris if we don't have a FB, or of Bolden is taking that role.

Ras-IR Dowling said:

Why? Michel and white are more the capable of handing the carries right now.

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maust1013 said:

Bill Parcells said "You start thinking like a fan and before you know it you'll find yourself sitting with them." Maybe The Hoodie really did learn something from The Tuna after all

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Whatever his faults, I always enjoyed BP as a quote machine.

My favorite - "You can't dream up confidence. Confidence is born of demonstrated ability"

everlong said:

James White had 14 touches and only saw the field 3 games his rookie year. I'm sure all the people calling bust from the soapbox feel justified.

I'm not shocked he's getting a red shirt year and I don't think this indicates one way or the other how he's doing in practice. This year with all the change and instability at the receiver position having stability at the running back position makes a lot of sense.

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people were ready to dump white because of the shiny object named dion lewis.....at least I saw what the team saw in white

The biggest problem Michel has had so far this year (with the depleted OL) is that every time he touches the ball, you see six/seven defenders running downhill.

This is also why the play-action was so damned effective in the early games.

They'll shift it around and have Michel start catching some balls - we saw that against Washington, whereas the Giants' game had the team stuck in one formation for an entire half because of injuries (and a short week crimps creativity).

They're a work in progress on offense, obviously. Part of it is lack of talent at several positions due to injury (OL, WR), and simply not having much at this point (TE).

Players are coming back, BB teams IMPROVE over the year every year unless more and more injuries keep stunting their growth. How many times do we have to see this?

The team is 6-0 with an average margin of victory of 23.7 points (on pace to beat 2007)...even with all of these injuries, and obviously with talent coming back.

The only other team in double digits for margin of victory is San Fran at 17.5 - and they've been healthy (but now Kittle is banged up).

190-48. I don't care how bad they're opponents have been...190-48!

"Brady's playing awful! Michel sucks! The offense is putrid! They need this! They need that!"

Ever wonder why everyone outside of New England looks at the fan base as spoiled?

The answer at WR might be right there with Jakobi Meyers, by the way. If Dorsett or Gordon have nagging injuries, Mo Harris is available soon. With TE, BB must be seeing something in Izzo/LaCosse to let Watson slip away for the time being.

They'll sort it out.

Ps. They've already got that ridiculous Thursday night fiasco game out of the way, have a mini-bye right now to heal up and figure some things out, have their bye week in the distance...and they survived that fiasco with that AB nutjob, as well.

primetime said:

Football Outsiders has the Patriots line as the 12th best run blockers in terms of adjusted line yards and 11th best pass protectors in terms of sack rate thus far. But they're 7th from the bottom in running back yards, ahead of only the Redskins, Dolphins, Bears, Jets, Bengals, and Steelers. Their second level and open field yards rate 26th and 28th respectively.

Certain players (Newhouse, notably) are certainly deficient and tight end help isn't what it used to be, but this offensive line just isn't as bad as the forum wants it to be. It's frustrating to see other RBs (McCaffrey, Cook, Fournette, etc) running behind comparable or worse lines and doing a lot more with their opportunities. That's what we were promised with a 1st round back, not a guy whose production been replicated or bettered by Brandon Bolden.

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The run blocking has been absolutely abysmal when trying to run power.

Michel is simply not the type of back that will create something out of nothing. But he has elite vision and a lot of patience to let blocks develop. That is where he does most of his damage.

And again I challenge you do find consistent plays where there is a hole and Michel makes a bad decision and blows up the play. The reality is that you turn some A22 or even the broadcast copy on and what you see is bad execution, penalties and then someone (often Izzo) whiffing on a block which gets the RB contacted around the LOS.

I really don't get why people are on Michel for a problem he is not responsible for at all. If Harris was some kind of magically elusive player, he would also show that in practice and be active already. Clearly he is not... Depth, lack of experience and catching up when it comes to run blocking/protection keeps him off the active roster.

Triumph said:

I met Tippett., Krafty and NEM all in the same night.

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Did you get NEMs autograph?

Michel had one of the most important runs in Patriots history when he broke off that 26 yard run from the 5 yard line on 2nd in 9. If he gets stuffed there the Pats were likely punting the ball back with 2 plus minutes left with the Rams somewhere near mid field. That run was immense and helped top off an incredible post season performance where he has 336 yards and 6 TD's. 6 games later, with an obviously shaky line and TE core we are supposed to look for a rookie replacement. Odd stuff.

Wax Frog said:

Whatever his faults, I always enjoyed BP as a quote machine.

My favorite - "You can't dream up confidence. Confidence is born of demonstrated ability"

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"Something goes wrong, I yell at them -'Fix it'- whether it's their fault or not. You can only really yell at the players you trust."

sambam94 said:

So, the RB position is supposed to be one of the easiest positions for kids coming out of college to the NFL. With Rex out the last few weeks and Sony struggling, why isn't Harris given a shot to see what he's got?
Obvious answer is that he hasn't shown enough in practice..which is concerning since as stated, RB position isn't supposed to be a hard transition. Thoughts?

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I'm not sure that BB sees Sony as the problem. Yeah, he's struggling in the running game, but I think that's more a product of losing Develin, Gronk, Wynn and Andrews while Mason plays hurt than Sony forgetting how to do all the things that made him effective last year.

I would bet that Belichick sees the problems in the ground game as an issue that spans far past the RB and therefore won't be solved--or probably even helped--just by plugging a different one in.

primetime said:

Football Outsiders has the Patriots line as the 12th best run blockers in terms of adjusted line yards and 11th best pass protectors in terms of sack rate thus far. But they're 7th from the bottom in running back yards, ahead of only the Redskins, Dolphins, Bears, Jets, Bengals, and Steelers. Their second level and open field yards rate 26th and 28th respectively.

Certain players (Newhouse, notably) are certainly deficient and tight end help isn't what it used to be, but this offensive line just isn't as bad as the forum wants it to be. It's frustrating to see other RBs (McCaffrey, Cook, Fournette, etc) running behind comparable or worse lines and doing a lot more with their opportunities. That's what we were promised with a 1st round back, not a guy whose production been replicated or bettered by Brandon Bolden.

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Post of the year though the Homers would dissagree because it's a sin to say Sony has regressed some. Like you said wich is a valid point "other RB's are running better behind worse O-Lines" . But again don't bring up that fact or truth up to the Homers around here.

robertweathers said:

Did you get NEMs autograph?

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Great idea.

Now you tell me.

Wax Frog said:

Whatever his faults, I always enjoyed BP as a quote machine.

My favorite - "You can't dream up confidence. Confidence is born of demonstrated ability"

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Tuna " Once some of these players get a little money people start coming out of the woodwork"

Triumph said:

Great idea.

Now you tell me.

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I assumed you met him before he passed away.

sambam94 said:

I think Sony looks horrible. Yes OL isn't helping, but he has no burst, no speed, and goes down too easily.

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Can we stop with the Lawrence Maroney talk? Please?

maust1013 said:

James White was only active for 3 games in his rookie season, how'd that work out?

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Shane Vereen logged a whopping 57 rushing yards as a rookie.

Put Brady at RB and Sony at FB!

I think there’s a bunch of people here who don’t know what the hell theyre looking at