It’s a really good question and one that I haven’t full grasped yet just because we haven’t seen these guys with pads on yet and it’s just about impossible to truly evaluate the running game on any level without real contact.
But you look at Shane Vereen, James White and Roy Finch and they’ve certainly gotten some attention in OTAs. I think the first thing that we look at is can Vereen stay healthy, because if he can’t it appears that White will be thrust into the fire right away.
Finch is small, so we really need to see if he has the toughness and elusiveness that Danny Woodhead had to avoid contact and make life difficult for would-be tacklers. If he can’t he likely won’t make the team.
But it’s clear on both sides of the ball that the passing game is what the main focus is now and the Pats certainly did not want to be hamstrung like they were when they lost Vereen last year and had no threat in the passing game. I think we all took Kevin Faulk for granted somewhat.