Stevan Ridley's, Shane Vereen's Instant Fantasy Reaction After Week 5

The New England Patriots' aerial attack has struggled early in the 2014 season, and the team has begun to rely heavily on its running game as a result. While Stevan Ridley's fantasy value rises due to this schematic change, Shane Vereen's takes a slight dip.

Here's a look at each running back's numbers on the night:

Player	Rush	Yds	Avg	TD	Rec	Yds
Stevan Ridley	27	113	4.2	1	0	0
Shane Vereen	9	90	10.0	0	3	18

During the team's Sunday Night Football contest against the Cincinnati Bengals, head coach Bill Belichick gave the vast majority of the early work to Ridley. In fact, the veteran ball-carrier dominated the team's touches through one quarter, via Mike Reiss of ESPNBoston.com:

In the midst of his early production, Ridley was given a goal-line carry that resulted in the first touchdown of the game. His usage in the red zone will definitely affect his fantasy value going forward, and that first-quarter score is a very good sign of things to come.

If Ridley keeps up this kind of volume out of the backfield, he should be secured as a solid RB2 option this season.

Vereen is a more explosive, versatile running back; however, his value resides mostly in the passing game. With New England's offense becoming more balanced and quarterback Tom Brady finding new targets in Tim Wright and Brandon LaFell, Vereen's touches will lessen.

While Vereen will continue to be a part of New England's offense, he cannot be relied upon by fantasy owners to average 10 yards per carry as he did against the Bengals. He still holds some value as a flex option in PPR formats, but should be relegated to the bench otherwise.