If Tom Brady ends up having to serve his four-game suspension, the New England Patriots will likely need to lean heavily on their running game in the early part of the season. Unless LeGarrette Blount can get himself into shape, he won’t be much help.
Ben Volin of The Boston Globe reports that Blount failed his conditioning test at the first day of training camp on Wednesday. The veteran back was was asked to run 20 sprints of 50 yards in under eight seconds each, and he was only able to do 12 of them. As a result, Blount has been placed on the non-football injury list.
It’d be one thing if he just barely failed, but it doesn’t sound like Blount was close to passing if he gave up with eight sprints remaining. Perhaps the 28-year-old has been slacking this offseason since he is suspended for Week 1 as a result of his role in this incident with former teammate Le’Veon Bell last summer.
The Patriots leaned on Blount heavily last season against specific opponents, most notably when he ran for 148 yards and three touchdowns against the Indianapolis Colts in the AFC Championship Game. He was the favorite to win the starting job heading into 2015 before he showed up with cement in his cleats.
