FOXBORO, Mass. — It's been tough trying to get any sort of a read on the Patriots' stable of running backs during their organized team activities over the last few weeks.
That's because, as Fred Taylor joked, it's passing camp.
Still, Taylor is taking the same mindset into New England's spring practices. He conducted his typical offseason workout routine before showing up to Gillette Stadium about a month ago to dive into the team's workout plan and prepare for camps.
"I feel pretty good. I feel very good," Taylor said. "I approach it like I approach every year. Work out hard, train hard, get ready for camp, go through camp, get beat up, get sore, play the season, let that take care of itself. I've been steady. Over the past couple of years, I've developed a routine. I think that’s the most important thing that I've gotten used to. It's all second nature. I just work hard and go from there."
The Patriots have brought back the same five running backs from last season — Taylor, Laurence Maroney, Sammy Morris, Kevin Faulk and BenJarvus Green-Ellis — along with Chris Taylor (who was on New England's injured reserve in 2009), and they also added undrafted free agent Pat Paschall from North Dakota State.
In the event of injury or wear and tear, head coach Bill Belichick seems to prefer the luxury of having an array of backs, but it seems possible one of them could get cut before the 2010 regular season. That’s what makes these next three months so important, even for a potential Hall of Famer such as Fred Taylor.
"Go in and whatever they have scripted out for that day, we just put our heads in the books, learn it, come out here [to practice] and run it," Taylor said. "Right now, we're just trying to do the most we can, be as versatile as we can in our system and let the coaches call it how they see fit. As a player, you can't really grasp how things are going to go, definitely not this early."
