Stevan Ridley is out for the year, and last night's game against the Jets resulted in a feature workload for Shane Vereen. New England's other running backs, in contrast, were virtually shut out of the box score. Brandon Bolden didn't get a carry, Jonas Gray went 3 for 12, James White was a healthy scratch.
What about going forward? Based on Stevan Ridley's season, it looks like your best bet for getting production out of Bolden -- or, it seems, Gray, since he played ahead of Bolden last night -- will be to identify games the Patriots win in a blowout. That seems to be the only time that New England's non-Vereen running backs will have any kind of role.
Here's how Ridley/Ridley's replacements and Vereen have performed in New England's seven games thus far this season. In both laughers, Ridley was better. In three of the other five contests, Vereen outperformed New England's other choices (and New England's non-Vereen backs did nothing in those five games).
New England hosts good Bears and Broncos teams in its next two games. At least based on how things have gone thus far, you probably don't want to try either Bolden or Gray against those opponents.
| Patriots win by 20 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Opp | Player | ToYds | TD |
| Min | Ridley | 101 | 1 |
| Vereen | 40 | 0 | |
| Cin | Ridley | 113 | 1 |
| Vereen | 108 | 0 | |
| Patriots win by less than 20 or lose | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Opp | Player | ToYds | TD |
| Mia | Ridley | 28 | 0 |
| Vereen | 71 | 1 | |
| Oak | Ridley | 61 | 0 |
| Vereen | 37 | 0 | |
| KC | Ridley | 28 | 0 |
| Vereen | 67 | 0 | |
| Buf | Ridley | 29 | 0 |
| Vereen | 7 | 0 | |
| NYJ | Gray/Bold | 16 | 0 |
| Vereen | 114 | 2 | |
--Andy Richardson