2011 NFL Draft: New England Patriots Visit with RB Kendall Hunter

Tuesday at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass., Aaron Wilson of the National Football Post reported that the New England Patriots held an "official visit" with Oklahoma State running back Kendall Hunter.

Hunter, who's leaving OSU as a senior, produced extremely well in 2010 for the Cowboys having rushed for 1,548 yards and scoring a total of 16 touchdowns.

Strengths

Hunter is projected to go in the middle of the 2011 draft, possibly the third to fourth round. New England, who projects to enter 2011 with running backs BenJarvus Green-Ellis and Danny Woodhead as their top backs could definitely use some much needed depth at the position.

While play at OSU, Hunter achieved two All-American honors, an academic All-Big 12 honor and was a finalist for the 2010 Doak Walker award (given to the the nation's top running back). 

Hunter is your typical well-balanced runner—he's shifty with decent speed and has the ability to broke tackles with ease. 

According to multiple NFL scouts, Hunter has great field vision and is a very patient runner. Hunter will wait for holes and blocks to develop and then make a quick cut to the hole. 

One of the more unique attributes about Hunter is his ability to read and pickup blitzes—something that many NFL running backs struggle with. 

“At Oklahoma State, that’s the No. 1 thing we do besides ball carry—if you can’t block, you ain’t playing,” Hunter said. “Even though I didn’t end up blocking that much, but at practice, you be blocking all the time. You go against linebackers almost every other day.”

New England head coach Bill Belichick must been salivating when he heard that recent quote from Hunter—Belichick loves to find versatile player. 

Weaknesses

Standing in at 5'7" and weighting 199 lbs., some might consider Hunter to be a tad bit undersized. 

Hunter has "stocky" frame and definitely has the room to add much needed muscle and mass in order to excel at the next level. 

While being patient, Hunter tends to "dance" a lot, which often results in loss of yardage. He will need to find the "happy median" so he's not rushing through plays and he's not taking too long for that "perfect" hole.

Conclusion

Hunter will not develop into an every-down back. His size and average speed will not be good enough to carry the ball 20 plus times throughout a game. 

I'm not too sure when Belichick looked at Hunter, maybe just to add some depth at the running back position as he appears to be the poor man's version of Danny Woodhead and Kevin Faulk.

However, the aftermath of the visit with Hunter is that the Patriots have now scheduled a private workout with the back for sometime this week. 

Possibly Belichick sees something in Hunter that scouts don't see. But from what I see, Hunter appears to be Laurence Maroney version of a third-down back. 

There are better running back options in this draft class.

NOTE: This article was first seen at PatriotsPlus.net. Be sure to follow Tony Santorsa on Twitter @     TonySantorsa.