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Shane Vereen’s Fantasy Value Limited by Tom Brady’s Inept Offensive Help

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By @WaltYeboah

Shane Vereen Fantasy Football Week 4 Start or Sit

Stew Milne-USA TODAY Sports

Outside of WR Julian Edelman, the New England Patriots don’t have any fantasy football gems on their team — at least not yet. Before the NFL season started, Shane Vereen was awesome in the preseason and it looked like he was going to be used as a potent weapon in the screen game. Unfortunately, Tom Brady hasn’t been able to connect with Vereen for any big plays this year as Brady’s ongoing struggles in the Patriots’ shabby offense have been well documented.

Vereen is primarily a third-down running back, and New England has seen a lot of third-down situations this year since they’ve struggled to move the chains on early downs. However, Vereen still has not made any big waves in fantasy football this year, outside of his solid Week 1 performance.

What’s holding Vereen back? The Patriots’ offensive line has broken down on screen passes that should have turned into huge plays, where at least one or two linemen constantly missed their blocking assignments. Simply put, New England’s passing game has just been one big mess and there’s a lot of blame to pass around.

In Week 4, the Patriots will face off against another team that has a struggling offense, as they make their way to Arrowhead Stadium to face the Kansas City Chiefs on Monday Night Football. Right now, Brady is playing about as well as Alex Smith and that’s not a good thing. His weapons at the wide receiver position are few, yet he’s still not finding a way to involve Vereen in the offensive gameplan enough.

If Patriots TE Rob Gronkowski sees a higher snap count, this could also spell doom for Vereen since Gronkowski will see even more targets headed in his direction. At this point, unless starting RB Stevan Ridley goes down with an injury, it’s probably best to sit Vereen and take the wait-and-see approach.

I’ts not really Vereen’s fault that his numbers have been so poor this year. Therefore, play it safe and sit him until Brady and the offensive line can get the Patriots’ offense back to a respectable level again.

Walton Yeboah-Amoako is a Columnist for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @WaltYeboah, “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google.

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