Replacement of Ridley

ivanvamp said:

Some interesting FA RBs available (per nfl.com):

- Ronnie Brown
- Tashard Choice
- Felix Jones
- LaRod Stephens-Howling

Some decent players there.

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I haven't read through the entire thread but is it worth kicking the tyres on Mikel Leshoure? Outside of that suggestion, I'm okay with the Patriots promoting Gray and continuing the platoon with Bolden, Vereen, White + new RB.

Ronnie Brown signed with San Diego last week.

Bolden and Vereen don't hit the hole the way Ridley did. We are going to miss that type of aggressive running.

But, before they do anything outside our current roster, give them all a chance to be the lead back.

Bolden looks like he could get better the more carries he gets. When he got enough touches against the Bills he got into a rhythm.

I think Vereen is a great 3rd down back, but not sure he can hold up as an every down back.

Give White and Gray a chance to carry the rock and see what they can do.

Sign Tebow... jk lol

I think James White will step up and fill in nicely.

While neither Vereen nor White can endure with 20-25 carries a game, the pair with 12-15 apiece might. It always offers another receiver for the passing game. You'd need a 3rd and 1 back, like a Fullback, such as Develin, perhaps.

BB is creative. He has often found new ways to skin a cat.

Who likes to trade with us?........ Tampa
They probably won't trade us Doug Martin and they have Chris Simms coming back in a few weeks.
Mike James also looked good filling in for Doug Martin last year.

I would try to get Bobby Rainey from Tampa......
That kid out of Western Kentucky is a player who is averaging 4.9 ypc behind a sub-par offensive line.
In a limited role, he has 401 yards or combined rushing and receiving yardage this year.

The more I think about it, they'd be crazy not to give Law firm a look. It's getting toward mid season and they have a chance at a big back with some power to go with Vereen, experienced as a successful pro, and in our system and a good character guy that fits team chemistry.

Recall, I was never a big law firm fan, but why untested rookies, or guys new to the system in mid season when we can have a good character guy who can do short yardage and move the chains? Screw upside, we don't have time for that.

It is truly laughable that the same people who thought Tyms had 0 chance to move up and run deep to catch balls from Tom Brady feel the combination of Vareen/Bolden/White is more than enough to replace Ridley.

People on these forums seriously undervalue Ridley.

AzPatsFan said:

While neither Vereen nor White can endure with 20-25 carries a game, the pair with 12-15 apiece might. It always offers another receiver for the passing game. You'd need a 3rd and 1 back, like a Fullback, such as Develin, perhaps.

BB is creative. He has often found new ways to skin a cat.

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Sure, they can split 12-15 a game but that doesn't mean those 12-15 carries a game will be good. You're right that neither of them can take 20-25 a game, but I'm not sure Vareen can be efficient and good for this football team taking 12-15 carries. James White hasn't had bad carries this season, but he only has 3 .. we need to see a body of work from 1-2 full games to get a better idea of White and what his role is going to be.

KA- said:

...People on these forums seriously undervalue Ridley...

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And others seriously overrate him. Welcome to message boards!

Deus Irae said:

And others seriously overrate him. Welcome to message boards!

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Kind of like how 90% of this board overrates Vareen?

KA- said:

Kind of like how 90% of this board overrates Vareen?

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I don't think anywhere near 90% of this board overrates Vereen. I'd venture to say that most of the board understands that he's not a between the tackles runner, he's got some issues with catching the ball, and he's got durability issues.

Go take a look at the threads where people wish Woodhead hadn't gotten away. You'll probably find some of the talk there.

Deus Irae said:

And others seriously overrate him. Welcome to message boards!

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I'll take a back who has recorded a1300 yard season, and was on course for another 1100 yard season. He did that despite sharing time with Vereen and Blount, which is all the more impressive, in his 3+ year career.

This just doesn't seem that complicated. Vereen and Bolden will share carries as the "feature back" and White will take over some of Vereen's third-down back reps.

Ridley's been getting 15 carries a game. Vereen's been getting 7 carries a game. Vereen will become the 15 carry back. Bolden will get 7. White will get 7. Whatever incremental difference there is between Bolden and Ridley on 7 carries a game is pretty insignificant in the big picture. It's not like we are replacing Earl Campbell out there.

AzPatsFan said:

I'll take a back who has recorded a1300 yard season, and was on course for another 1100 yard season. He did that despite sharing time with Vereen and Blount, which is all the more impressive, in his 3+ year career.

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"Taking a back" is not the same as overrating him, which is what I posted. And Ridley didn't reach even 800 yards when Blount was here. He had 773 yards rushing, which was 1 yard more than Blount had in the same season, and Ridley had 25 more carries.

you can make all kinds of suggestions but in the end, it's BB's decision and he is a "next man up" coach...that probably means White or the kid elevated from the practice squad, Jonas Gray

hwc said:

This just doesn't seem that complicated. Vereen and Bolden will share carries as the "feature back" and White will take over some of Vereen's third-down back reps.

Ridley's been getting 15 carries a game. Vereen's been getting 7 carries a game. Vereen will become the 15 carry back. Bolden will get 7. White will get 7. Whatever incremental difference there is between Bolden and Ridley on 7 carries a game is pretty insignificant in the big picture. It's not we are replacing Earl Campbell out there.

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I agree that "this doesn't seem that complicated," but there are a few possible solutions here, all of which have been covered. While we're at it though, Ridley hasn't been getting "15 carries a game" either.

He's had 27, 25, 19, and was on pace to get around 20 yesterday. Only two times this season did he have single digit carries (8 vs Miami and 5 vs KC) and both of those games were terrible offensive outputs that we lost where they completely abandoned the running game.

Your option (have Vereen as the lead RB) is highly debatable in my opinion. He runs very tentatively, dances around, and doesn't hit the hole with the same intensity as Ridley did. He's also somewhat fragile, and will not be able to carry the load of 20+ carries or so a game. As a matter of fact, he hasn't even reached double digit carries once all year, and that includes yesterday when Ridley went down (5 carries yesterday). It doesn't seem that Belichick views Vereen as anything close to a lead back.

condon84 said:

Bolden looks like he could get better the more carries he gets. When he got enough touches against the Bills he got into a rhythm.

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I agree with all of your other points, but I'm not sure that 10 yds on 6 carries = "getting into a rhythm" yesterday as the game went on.

As a whole, I do believe that he'll be handed the keys as the lead RB, so it will likely depend on how effective he is as to what extent other options will be explored. I think we can all assume that the carries will be spread around more, no matter what.

I'm not sure I understand the issue at all. White has been inactive. White will be active. It really is that simple.

IMHO, we should have looked for veteran back in the preseason, someone who would be inactive absent any injuries. In any case, Belichick likely prefers Bolden to those players who are available, although a trade is always a possibility.

BOTTOM LINE
Our "norm" for this year has been to use Ridley, Vereen, Develin and Bolden. Now, we will have White instead of Ridley. Certainly, we have to expect our highly drafted to be our #4 RB (and to compete with Bolden for reps).

I would be fine with us looking for a 5th RB, so that we wouldn't be crippled if someone else had to miss a game or more. Perhaps that player is Gray. If so, I would activate him to protect him against someone else picking him up. Gray certainly flashed a bit in the preseason.

mgteich said:

I'm not sure I understand the issue at all. White has been inactive. White will be active. It really is that simple.

IMHO, we should have looked for veteran back in the preseason, someone who would be inactive absent any injuries. In any case, Belichick likely prefers Bolden to those players who are available, although a trade is always a possibility.

BOTTOM LINE
Our "norm" for this year has been to use Ridley, Vereen, Develin and Bolden. Now, we will have White instead of Ridley. Certainly, we have to expect our highly drafted to be our #4 RB (and to compete with Bolden for reps).

I would be fine with us looking for a 5th RB, so that we wouldn't be crippled if someone else had to miss a game or more. Perhaps that player is Gray. If so, I would activate him to protect him against someone else picking him up. Gray certainly flashed a bit in the preseason.

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Steven Ridley has been the lead, bell-cow RB this year. Including yesterday's pace, he's had (OR) had have 4/6 games where he had 19+ carries (two times this year he had 27 and 25 carries).

The only times he didn't see 19+ carries were the two losses where we abandoned the run completely.

The question people are debating is who will be the lead RB.