One thing I love nothing more than is debating ProFootballFocus ratings and yesterday they dropped this little nugget about James White.
Highest receiving grades among NFL RBs last season:
1. Theo Riddick, @Lions
2. Danny Woodhead, @Chargers
3. James White, @Patriots— Pro Football Focus (@PFF) June 2, 2016
White was thrown into the first last year in his second season when Dion Lewis went down, but while you might think he simply took over Lewis’ extensive role, he was actually managed far more delicately. The week after Lewis was lost for the season White had just one catch on one target and one carry. The next week, three targets, and the following week five targets.
His breakout game came in the fourth week against the Eagles, where he had 10 catches on 13 targets for 115 yards, but that was the high-water mark of the season. And while he slowly became a factor in the passing game the Patriots never handed the ball off to him more than three times in a game during the regular season. In the AFC Championship they handed it off to him five times and he picked up a measly 11 yards.
More troubling, and this is a stat I’ve hit on far more than I’d like this offseason, was White’s performance in the passing game in that AFC Championship, where he was targeted a team-high 16 times and came up with just five catches for 45 yards, the most devastating of which is GIF’d below. A touchdown here could’ve been the difference in the game.
For the season White ended up with 40 catches for 410 yards and four touchdowns, but just 22 rushing attempts for 56 yards. It’s painfully obvious how one-dimensional he was. The bigger problem is how much of a key White will be every time he takes the field. Is he a good receiver? Sure. Is he good enough to change the course of a game as a pure receiving back? Nope.
That’s why I am putting White on the bubble. Despite White’s place on the roster it didn’t stop the Patriots from looking at receiving backs this offseason, including Bilal Powell, and signing undrafted rookie DJ Foster, who seems on paper very much like White as well.
It might be too late to give up on White, but that doesn’t mean he won’t have to earn a job this summer and prove that he’s more capable of running the ball than he appeared to be last year.
