Shane Vereen, Stevan Ridley's Instant Fantasy Reaction After Week 4

Relatively ignored in a blowout on Monday Night Football against the Kansas City Chiefs, New England Patriots running backs Shane Vereen and Stevan Ridley saw their fantasy stock take another massive hit.

Already mired in a committee approach, the two received minimal looks on the night as Tom Brady and the offense struggled to keep possession of the football, let alone do anything productive with it:

Name	CAR	YDS	AVG	TD	REC	YDS	TGTS	Points
S. Ridley	5	28	5.6	0	0	0	0	2
S. Vereen	8	26	3.3	0	5	41	5	6

As the numbers hint, Vereen remains the more versatile of the two backs and has more value thanks to his contributions through the air. That has mostly been the story all season, while Ridley figures to continue to take the bulk of the carries on the first two downs.

With Brady's play careening off a cliff, both backs have actually been seriously hurt in the process (unlike Rob Gronkowski, who has three touchdowns in four games).

Vereen has scored more than 10 fantasy points just once this season to date, and his numbers in the passing game on average are seriously down from his output a season ago. It is the same story for Ridley, who scored 16 points on 25 totes in Week 2, but the very next week had 19 more traditional opportunities and produced all of five points.

To make matters worse, defenses have already seemingly been focused on stopping the two with Brady ineffective. Now the Patriots play Cincinnati, Buffalo and the New York Jets in the coming weeks—three teams that rank among the top 10 that surrender the fewest points to the position on average. The Jets allow a league-low 5.3 points to backs.

If owners feel compelled to own a New England back on the off chance things turn around or for an emergency scenario, Vereen has to be the recommendation at this point. Even if the staff ignores the ground game, he still stands a chance at production opportunities through the air.

That said, better streamlining options must exist on most markets that ensure touches, whereas these two were already devalued due to the committee approach. Both are very much risk-heavy options, especially over the course of the next three games.

All scoring info courtesy of ESPN standard leagues, as is points-against info. Statistics courtesy of ESPN.