Icon SMI

More Articles from Fantasy Football Freaks

Reminder: Site Survey for the 2012 Season
iPad Winner Revealed
Super Bowl Rankings
Conference Championship Rankings
Divisional Round Rankings
Wild Card Weekend Rankings
Fantasy Football Freaks are the Champions of the 2011 All Pro Leagues 32 Team Expert League
Week 17: Gems for the Last Weekend
The Freaks Projections and Ratings 2011 Week 17
The Freaks Sleepers 2011 Week 17

In this years NFL Draft, the New England Patriots went out and got themselves a brand new pair of Running Backs in California's Shane Vereen and LSU's Stevan Ridley.

The decision to take 2 RBs in the first three rounds of the draft has to give you some idea of what the Pats think about BenJarvus Green-Ellis and Danny Woodhead driving the ground game long term.

Early on in the preseason we were interested to see if either Vereen or Ridley would seriously compete for playing time. So far Vereen has had the edge in terms of draft position and showing up second on the Patriots depth chart. However, we have yet to see him play, since he's been sidelined with a hamstring injury.

Meanwhile, Ridley has stolen the spotlight. In his first preseason game, he went off for 111 yards and 3 TDs. For an encore, in his second match, he put up another 111 yards. Of course, we know its preseason, but numbers like that have to make you look twice.

Most surprising has been his ability as a pass catcher. Ridley only caught 17 passes in three college seasons and even ESPN bills him as "a first- and second-down player who won't catch it at all." They have been wrong so far on the catching part. The Pats got him 7 grabs for 47 yards in week 1 and 3 more for 27 yards in week 2.

On preseason paper, he looks great, but where does he belong in your draft plans?

Fantasy Outlook:
At 225 pounds, Ridley is 15 pounds heavier than Vereen. He's more of a bruiser and closer in style to Green-Ellis and right now viewing him as a backup to BenJarvus makes the most sense. Since Belichick is notoriously hard to read, it's difficult to know what to make of Shane Vereen in this mix without seeing him on the field.

I like Ridley as a deep sleeper. If you have plenty of bench space or are in a particularly deep league he is worth a flier. In 10 team leagues, you should find some safer options, but be sure to keep his name on your radar.

Sources: ESPN