Shane Vereen

Nice breakdown of Vereen’s return by Oliver Thomas.

More Vereen anticipation, the hot-button topic of the post-bye week.

At least when it comes to short-term expectations, pumping the brakes might be the best course of action when it comes to the expectation level regarding Vereen. He’s a dynamic offensive option – the most versatile presence the Patriots have – but needs to have a week or two before he returns to full speed. It takes time to build up the cardio needed to play 60 minutes worth of football: as Bill Belichick has said on a number of occasions, you can’t get in football shape by running around the track.

Totally with Nick Underhill on his quote below and like him, I wonder if we’re expecting too much. Vereen has flashed a lot in the recent games he’s played, but he was also invisible in the AFC Championship (4 carries, 4 targets 38 total yards), a game where the Pats needed a spark on offense. We’ll see…

I see Vereen, operating out of the hurry-up offense, stepping around a couple defensive linemen and then outrunning a linebacker for a big gain. I picture him catching a screen pass and then splitting out wide on the next down. My vision, basically, is Vereen serving as the new Aaron Hernandez, the multifaceted weapon who makes the no-huddle offense hum. Maybe my expectations are unreasonable, maybe Vereen won’t be that type of player, but big things will be expected from the running back when he returns from injured reserve following a Week 1 wrist injury, which could happen as soon as Monday night against the Carolina Panthers.