I like McClain better, but a 1st rounder just erases that possibility away.

That’s what he’s particularly good at – he’s a big unit (6’1, 235lb), moves quickly, and is very combative after first contact. He’s a goal-line demon, but he’s also a very good burrower/wrestler/smasher type. Corey Dillon wasn’t a completely random comparison.

In college, he was the straight-ahead smasher, and Reggie Bush was the shifty around-the-outside guy. Even when teams saw him on the field and knew that meant he was running up the guts, he could still do it.

He was similar in 2008, when Chris Johnson was a rookie at the Titans – Johnson had a fair share of the between-the-20s running, and White was the Red Zone guy. End result – White got 15 TDs on the season, 773 yards total, and had a longest run of 80 yards. He’s at his best when paired with a smaller, agile, yardage-churning back – Reggie Bush, Chris Johnson. Laurence Maroney/Fred Taylor, too? Maybe.

Feature backs are boom-or-bust. Break one feature back’s leg, and at the expense and talent you have wrapped up in a genuine feature-back, your season’s toast. None of the successful teams have a feature back – the Colts have two first-rounders, the Saints have three very good RBs, the Cardinals had a pair of very able backs, the Steelers have two, the Pats had two or three, even the Vikings had a pair of feature-back capable guys.

Who does have a single, feature back system? The Titans. The 49ers. The Rams. The Bears. Those are great teams… cough.

More to the point, you’re going to have your entire season’s hopes riding on one pair of legs, one pair of arms, one head, one shoulders? One injury… season bust.

Pass.

But you seem to be operating on the principle that the Pats RB corps is fundamentally broken. It’s not. Bear this in mind. The RB who got the most snaps last year, at a whopping 60% of total offensive snaps, was Kevin Faulk. Not a feature back. Not a first-round draft choice. Not an Adrian Peterson, Chris Johnson or Steven Jackson type. Humble Kevin Faulk.

Sure, you could add another RB to the rotation. They might run well. But when the Pats are a team designed to be in shotgun/passing formations over 50% of the time, it could be considered a waste, especially when there are always Sammy Morris or LaMont Jordan types floating around who can give solid production. You can give 25% of the snaps to a guy who’s a first-round stud and get, say, 700 yards. Or you could spend that first-rounder elsewhere and pick up a so-so free agent and get him to churn out 500 yards with the same snaps.

You’re probably right about White being an “issue” in terms of motivation and discipline, but by that same token, so were Corey Dillon and Randy Moss prior to their New England sojourn. If he had a strong coach (check), and a clear set of instructions about when and how he’s supposed to run, then he might turn (back) into a productive RB, especially if he’s tasked with the same type of running he was meant to do in college. He’s also got a personal stake in remaining a productive NFL running back and not a mere backup – he chose to declare as an underclassman for the draft because he needed the cash to care for his sick grandmother. He wasn’t prepared for the draft physically and slipped down to the second round because of it; he needs to be productive to remain in the NFL for money reasons and he won’t do that sitting behind Chris Johnson. Belichick’s done a lot with players who are desperate to prove a point – Dillon, Moss, Bruschi post-stroke, Vrabel post-Steelers, Tully Banta-Cain after being in California, etc. If anyone can squeeze out a great season or three from White, it’d be Belichick.

I also considered Washington not only for his Kevin Faulk-like scatback abilities, but also his kick and punt return skills. At the moment, the cupboard is a little bare – Edelman, Welker and Tate all suffered injuries last year, Butler wasn’t used a lot, and the #1 RB was also the main kick returner, not exactly ideal. Washington can pick up the return duties that used to be Kevin Faulks – Faulk hasn’t been used as a returner for a while.

He gets the same criticism as Joseph Addai in Indianapolis and Reggie Bush in New Orleans – they don’t put up feature back stats. But they don’t get the same opportunities to – they’re second-fiddle behind the passing attack, and are there to keep the defence honest. They don’t get the same opportunities as a Chris Johnson or Steven Jackson to get yardage, TDs, etc, so it’s not surprising when they don’t.

In fact, the rosters of the Colts and Pats look fairly similar if you break it down – good pass-protecting linemen (no Leonard Davis-style 330lbers), no strictly blocking TEs (zero in the Brandon Malemaneuna-style), no fullback worth mentioning, decent-but-unspectacular blocking WRs (in comparison with, say, Hines Ward). They’re built to pass the ball, not power-run it. Given that kind of team-building, it’s clear that Maroney isn’t intended to be ‘impressive’ – he’s there to be solid and keep a balance somewhat.

He’s perfectly capable of running for 5+ yards per carry if and when the opposition defence drops their safeties and linebackers into coverage, and that’s all you ask him for.