its strange to have so many older and injury prone guys take up so many roster spots at one position!!! that said i think fred taylor is going to be the man this year

The Pats will probably carry 4 RBs this year. BJGE will be cut or traded. The Pats will probably use that roster spot at LB

when 4 get injured every season, i would say not.

Probably will have one on the practice squad in reserve for the usual injury to Morris and Maroney that knock them out half way through the season.

Four is not a bad number with multiple offensive schemes as long as it's the right four....

when you consider that more often than not BJGE and Morris are in the FB position, there are 3 HBs (LM, FT, KF) and 2 FBs (BJGE, SM) not unusual at all.

Most teams carry 4 RB on the 53 man roster.  I was hoping we would have drafted a big back like Gerhart, Tate or Hardesty allowing us to cut both Morris and Taylor but that didn't happen.  There is no way we cut BJGE.  He is too inexpensive.  If anyone gets cut it will be Taylor and his $2MM salary.  Morris costs only $900K and is a year younger.

Given the injury prone situation with Morris and Taylor (Maroney too, although he stayed relatively healthy last year), I think the Pats carry all 5 backs to start the season.  It won't take long for one of them to get hurt and go out on injury reserve.

We signed an undrafted rookie free agent.  I look for him to make the practice squad and he's there if we need him.  To make room for the 5 RBs, I think we go with 5 WRs (Moss, Edelman, Tate, Holt and Price) instead of 6.  Welker starts on PUP.  Patten, Aiken and maybe even Slater get cut. 

Aiken was a ST Captain, no way he is cut...

i was just about to say the same dat dey aint gon cut Aiken!

We need all the RB's we need lol:P but i want FT to step up to the plate and EAT up  LB's! Maroney needs to stop fumbling or he is gonna be benched! and dont cut bjge he is really good! he is waay better than maroney who dances behind his o-line

In Response to Re: is 5 running backs an unusually high number?:


Yes way!  Aiken is a one dimensional player.  He's terrible as a WR.  We since have signed Marques Murrell and drafted Devin McCourty.  McCourty is an excellent gunner and adds to the defense while Aiken can only play special teams.  By signing Holt and drafting Price plus with a healthy Brandon Tate, we don't need another WR/ST expensive player like Aiken who makes close to $1 MM to cover kicks.  I said the same thing about Kelly Washington before last season and everyone called me crazy but I was right about that and I will be right about this.

We have 5 guys who I think we carry as WRs in Moss, Edelman, Tate (another special teams guy), Price and Holt.  You got to look at the numbers.  Either Aiken goes or we cut a RB or OL type.  There just isn't room for Aiken the way I see it. 
If you didn't like my Aiken prediction, you're going to hate this; I think Ron Brace could be cut.  I know, he was a high pick but he was drafted as a hedge to Wilfork holding out.  Now that Wilfork is signed long term, we don't need Brace.  I thought he was a mistake when we took him and he appears to be a bust.  I think Slater needs to be cut too now that we have McCourty to return kicks.  I don't think we'll cut a DB because 9 is just about right.  That means we cut either Ninkovich or Murrell.

So, if you want to keep Aiken, who do you cut on offense?  If 1-2 guys get hurt during training camp and start on PUP, then there could be room for Aiken for awhile.  But, if that happens, I'd rather give Brace another year.  Here's my depth chart and we still have one player too many on defense. 

OFFENSE 25 Players
Slot	24 Julian Edelman	Tory Holt	PUP 29 W Welker
WR	#90 T Price	22 Brandon Tate
LOT	32 Matt Light	26 S Vollmer	24 George Bussey
LG	28 Logan Mankins	28 Dan Connolly
C	30 Dan Koppen
ROG	34 Stephen Neal	24 Rich Ohrnberger
RT	31 Nick Kaczur	28 Mark LeVoir
TE	#42 R Gronkowski	#113 A Hernandez	32 Alge Crumpler
QB	33 Tom Brady	24 Brian Hoyer
RB	25 L Maroney	34 Kevin Faulk	34 Fred Taylor
		33 Sammy Morris
		25 BJ Green-Ellis
WR	33 Randy Moss
DEFENSE 26 Players
DE	29 Ty Warren	24 Myron Pryor
NT	28 Vince Wilfork	28 Mike Wright
DE	Gerrard Warren	32 Damione Lewis
OLB	30 Tully Banta-Cain	28 Pierre Woods	26 Rob Ninkovich
ILB	24 Jerod Mayo	24 T McKenzie	25 Marques Murrell
ILB	#62 B Spikes	24 Gary Guyton
OLB	#53 J Cunningham	25 Shawn Crable
LCB	#27 D McCourty	26 J Wilhite
RCB	29 Leigh Bodden	24 Darius Butler	25 T Wheatley
SS	26 B Meriweather	23 Pat Chung
FS	26 James Sanders	26 B McGowan
SPECIAL TEAMS 3 Players                                Possible Cuts
PK	26 S Gostkowski		35 Shawn Springs
P	#150 Z. Mesko		36 David Patton
H			23 Ron Brace
LS	24 Jake Ingram		24 Ryan Wendell
KR	#27 D McCourty		28 Eric Alexander
PR	#27 D McCourty		24 Matthew Slater
			29 Sam Aiken

In Response to is 5 running backs an unusually high number?:


I believe so.  However, most of their RBs can only play for part of the season(s).  Is it time to spend that #1 pick on a(nother) premium RB?


Personally, I just want to see a productive/healthy RB ready for the play-offs.

yeah, i'm sure it will be cut down to four

No, if we lack a feature rb and the ones on the roster get injured a lot.

I wouldnt cut Law firm. He is a decent back with a good potential as a blocker. He cleared the way for atleast two Maroney TDs, if I'm not mistaken. Also we need to get younger, so given the choice, Sammy Morris would be stuck with the short straw, IMHO.

can we stop suggesting that pat paschall, a small back from a Div 1AA school, is going to bump BJGE, a big back from an SEC school, off the depth chart.  lawfirm is a good back with solid size. he is a little brick with the ability to power it up between the tackles.

Id say Sammy gets the boot, although for the $$ Id rather see Taylor go.  In my dream Patriot world, the Pats would trade their (not OAK's)  2011 1rst Rd. pick for Titans holdout Chris Johnson. Unfortunately, the amount of money it would take to sign him to the deal he expects and resign Brady/Moss makes it highly unlikely. Can you imaging what the passing game could do with a homerun threat like him standing behind Brady?!!! Opposing defenses would have to pick their poison! Go Pats!

Do to their age I think one will be out injured before the end of preseason so the PATS will only have 4 at most by the time the regular season starts and thats about a normal number of RB's. 

The RB position got better just by the addition of Crumpler and I can't imagine they would have the injury issues they had last year. If they do, well, it's a chance you take at all positions.  I too would love Chris Johnson or a CJ style RB. Don't see that happening though until next seasons draft or free agency.
 I like the RB's we have right now and expect BJGE to be released as well if Paschall(sp) is nearly as good as he might be. BJGE has leveled off and actually gotten slower in my opinion.