As the rumors were trickling in that the Vanilla Gorilla Brian Scalabrine had signed a non-guaranteed contract with the Bulls, the truth in Kevin Faulk’s injury was coming out of Foxboro.
Faulk, who’s the longest tenured Patriot has a torn ACL in his right knee. The team hasn’t confirmed it, but it appears that his season is over and possibly his career as he’s in his 12th year in the league.
Now the question is, did the team make a mistake in trading Laurence Maroney? I don’t think so. Although I thought he was a potential replacement for Faulk when Faulk eventually retired, everything I’m hearing is that Maroney was not a possible replacement in that role.
Checking out the available free agent running backs and there’s no great names that pop out. The thing is, the team needs a third down back. That, in theory, makes their search a little tougher. They lined up Edelman in the backfield and he can do that as far as the catching passes, but he’s not as big as Faulk and certainly can’t block as well as Faulk.
I’m sure after the team announces the Faulk injury and place him on the IR< they'll have a few running backs off the street to try and fill the roster spot. The team has been successful with this in the past with guys like Mike Cloud. Hopefully the Pats still have some of that magic left in the bag and find a decent third down back off the street.
Don't be fooled, the Faulk injury is devastating. When he wasn't in the backfield week one in 2008 the team lost Brady for the season on a poor block by Sammy Morris filling in for a suspended Faulk.
I'm not even going to think about it.
