The Boston Globe confirmed yesterday that Patriots veteran running back Kevin Faulk tore his anterior crucial ligament (ACL) in his right knee in Sunday's game against the New York Jets. Speculation on the severity of Faulk's injury ranges from "Can he play this Sunday?" to "Will he ever play again?" Faulk has not been placed on the injured reserve list yet.
Coach Belichick said, in a conference call yesterday, the first step in assessing a player's injury is to see whether he can play in the current week's game. Though the possibility of that seems unlikely.
"[The doctors] are still working on [Faulk's injured knee]," Belichick said. "I think part of it is kind of how things come around here in the next day or so. It's been… we're not even 48 hours out yet, so we'll see how things go in the next day or so. Then, they said that based on how that is, then we make a decision at that point."
Read the *Globe* story. *ESPNBoston.com*, the *Boston Herald* and the *MetroWest Daily News* offer similar stories.
Read more about what Faulk's absence means for the future Patriots in the *Boston Globe*... and here.
One option to fill Faulk's void would be newly acquired (from the Jets) running back and wide receiver Danny Woodhead. Read the *Boston Herald* report. *CSNNE.com* offers a similar story.
Patriots Director of Personnel Nick Caserio had this to say about Woodhead in a conference call yesterday:
"Each of the past two preseasons [Woodhead]'s been productive when he's been on the field. He's played multiple positions. He's short, but I wouldn't say that he's necessarily small, if that makes sense. He's a shorter, stockier type build. He's good with the ball in his hands. He's got good quickness. So there are some things that he did as a player that we liked. That's why we signed him, and we'll see what he looks like once he's here.
"We'll start working with him here this week, and see what sort of progress that we make. He's a really productive player, albeit at a small level of competition, but his production was astronomical. And typically with smaller school players you like to see them produce at a very high level, and he did that at Chadron State."
Listen to the entire conference call.
Belichick was confident Woodhead could potentially fill in the third-down role that Faulk ran so well, in his conference call yesterday.
"Yes, that's exactly what he did," Belichick said in response to Woodhead's third-down expertise. "He actually made [the Jets] as a receiver and played kind of in between receiver and a sub back for the Jets. I'd say that's the type of player he is, yes."
Listen to the entire call.
