I think you are right about Woodhead but ,I think Vereen will be more of an insurance back in case someone gets injured though I don't see him splitting that many carries his first season. Bellicheck has talked quite a bit about how defense spreading out and getting smaller and getting a bigger power back, its just ashame he didn't get someone like Gerhart. I think Stevan Ridley is going to cut into Lawfirm's carries. Lawfirm reminds me more of a poor man's Shonn Greene, not fast, big or that powerful, but good at getting to the hole and picking up a few yards. Like I said, Bellicheck seems to want a bigger bruising type back that can break tackles, Ridley is that guy. I have watched LSU for some time now, and to me he is more of the poor man's Hester, literally same type of backs except Ridley isn't as powerful, his initial burst isn't as fast and isn't as agile, he is a guy that can grind out a few tough yards, which is what was lacking in the last playoff game.
I wouldn't be surprised to see him and Lawfirm split carries with Woodhead getting a similar number of touches, probably a slight increase, with around at least 1,000 from scrimmage. You are right about Bellicheck using multiple guys. Woodhead could be the feature back, but I think Bill realizes how short of a shelf life a back has getting a full workload, and doesn't like to run the offense through one particular back. If Ridley works out I can see Lawfirm being phased out as well. What would be nice is if he got Zach Line in a few years, he is quick enough to work out of shotgun in 3rd downs and also powerful enough to break tackles.
As far as carries I don't know, I just think he will be used in a similar way to last year, just on the field a little more, he might get more carries, he might get more passes, it depends on what the defense is showing, but I don't see any of the backs cutting into his playing time. Even though he wants a bruiser like Ridley (Woodhead's power is underrated though, hes built similar to MJD), he still needs that homerun threat in Woodhead, who has freakish agility, not many backs can run well out of shotgun being at a weird angle taking the handoff, and having to make multiple defenders miss in space. I just don't see Vereen doing that consistently. I mean even Kevin Faulk wasn't a good runner as a 3rd down back, both times he got 100 carries or more his averaged 3.5 and 3.6 ypc, there were only a few types of plays he was good at getting decent gains on. Woodhead can get consistent gains on any type of play, which makes the play unpredictable on whether it is a run or pass no matter what formation, which should secure his role in the offense.
I kind of wish Woodhead were on a different team, similar to Charles. Charles has tons of traditional running plays, and they use a zone blocking scheme, usually with an extra tackle so he has more gaps to run through. Patriots linemen practice pass blocking more and dont use an extra tackle and not as much zone blocking. I think Woodhead could put up the numbers Charles if he traded places. Most of Woodhead's big plays were making guys miss in space all the way to the endzone, weaving in and out since they spread defenses out and there are defenders playing further from the line. On the Chiefs they run quite a bit and it sucks the dbs in, make a few of the miss and you can use your straight line speed off to the races.
Edited by: snow
