Shane Vereen, Jonas Gray's Instant Fantasy Reaction Following Week 9

Tom Brady and the New England Patriots made a point to dissect the Denver Broncos through the air in Week 9, much to the displeasure of Shane Vereen and Jonas Gray owners.    

The convoluted committee approach in New England a few weeks removed from the season-ending injury to Stevan Ridley only got more confusing as Vereen only carried the ball seven times for 17 yards by the time there was only six minutes left in the third quarter. In that same span, Gray carried five times for seven yards.

As one can expect, the final numbers did not wildly deviate from the trend:

	CAR	YDS	AVG	TD	REC	YDS	TD	TGTS	Fantasy Pts.
J. Gray	12	33	2.8	0	0	0	0	1	3
S. Vereen	11	29	2.6	0	5	38	1	10	11

That said, Vereen redeemed himself with five grabs for 38 yards and a score, helping owners to forget about his miserable four points the week prior when he was supposed to take over. That week saw Gray become a waiver-wire favorite because of his eight points, so the Week 9 performance was the definition of disappointing.

As ESPNBoston.com's Mike Reiss captures, the preference in a pass-happy attack quickly shifted to Vereen and stayed there:

That makes the fantasy call quite simplistic, then. Gray can rest on the waiver wire for the time being until he can carve out more of a prominent role for himself. If the team is not employing a run-first approach between the tackles, he has little value.

Vereen is an excellent buy-low option, though, especially heading into a bye week when owners need help. His usual role as a passing-down back seems to have the potential to get him more touches than ever at the moment, meaning he has strong RB2 upside regardless of matchup.

There may be games when Vereen is written out of the plan in favor of a run-heavy attack, but those seem few and far between and can be handled on a week-to-week basis. In such a potent passing attack, Vereen is a strong weapon to have at an unpredictable position.  

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