It wasn’t that long ago when Patriots running back Laurence Maroney looked like a solid first-round draft pick.
He put up 939 yards from scrimmage as a rookie while playing behind Corey Dillon, then started the majority of the undefeated regular season for the 2007 Patriots, topping 100 yards four times in his last six games, including the playoffs.
He’s disappeared since, though, causing many to wonder what the heck happened. Including Maroney.
“What am I doing differently?” asked Maroney on Friday to the Boston Herald. “I come to the
final conclusion that I’m not running the way I used to run. I got to
get back to the basics.”
Maroney is averaging just 2.9 yards per carry this season after only playing three games because of injuries in 2008, but he has a chance for a bigger role now that Fred Taylor is out indefinitely.
Maroney wears his emotions on his sleeve and his effort has never been questioned. He admits that it’s tough to watch his old University of Minnesota backfield mate Marion Barber have such great success as a pro.
“That’s the saddest part for me,” Maroney said. “Just seeing how great
they talk about [Barber] and he’s definitely like my big brother. But
I’m like, ‘Man, that used to be both of us. L, you used to run just
like him, what happened?’ Get back to it. . . . [Run] with no remorse.
Be Kamikaze.”
Whereas Barber is known for running like his pants are on fire, Maroney is known in New England for dancing too much, looking for the perfect hole that never comes. He was booed last week by the home crowd and hears the criticisms, but doesn’t want to play too fast as a reaction to them.
“That’s just as bad as dancing because I’m not really reading the
play,” Maroney said. “I’m trying to hit it fast and hard, so they can
be like, ‘Well, at least Maroney was running hard.’ It really don’t
mean nothing if I ain’t getting nowhere.”
The Patriots will spread the ball around in the running game, giving Kevin Faulk most snaps on passing downs and giving Sammy Morris plenty of work. But Taylor’s injury gives Maroney a chance to revive his career in New England before it fades away. By all accounts, the coaching staff still believes he can fulfill his early career promise.
Sunday’s game is in Denver, which may be a good thing for Maroney, who might understand the Foxborough crowds a little too well.
“We have one of the roughest crowds, (they’re) so judgmental, they want
perfection,” Maroney said.
“I feel like they really just want me to do
good and I’m just not performing to the level that they expect of me.
It was their way of saying, ‘Mr. Maroney, now’s the time we need you to
be the running back everybody expected you to be.’ ‘OK, crowd, I hear
you.’ I’ll try my best to answer.”
Poor LMo. His days are numbered.
I think he used to do better with a FB leading the way. I’d like to see the Pats try that with him (too bad they dont have a true FB) again and run more screens to him. He does well with a little room to run. Unfortunately for LMo, BJGE will take advantage of any time he gets with the ball and I expect the results will be impressive, leaving LMo the odd man out.
“He’s disappeared since, though, causing many to wonder what the heck happened.”
I’m sorry, Rosenthal, but didn’t even PFT write about his injuries, including the broken shoulder last season?
Or did you forget?
This guy is no Marion Barber. They may have gone to the same school, and have similar haircuts. That’s it.
Barber can run downhill and hits a hole hard.
Maroney is a dancer. BUST.
Hello UFL.
perhaps since they have special rules for Princess Brady they could come up with special ones for Lil Barber to get him going again.Princess could teach him that little jackoff motion thing he does that inspires refs to throw utterly ridiculous flags,rendering defenses afraid to actually play the game of football like it should be played.
In Maroney’s defense, the OL hasn’t exactly been focusing on Run Blocking these days
For some reason they’ve been concentrating on Pass protection and the running game has suffered – Maroney hasn’t had too many holes to run through.
And on another note, good to see NBC is on top of the login problem.
It used to be that I had to re-log in every few days. Now I have to re-log in EVERY TIME I visit this website.
Nice job.
Maroney will find his MoJo soon enough and get back to posting good stats.
The Pats are running a more Urban Meyer type spread offense and backs like Maroney just don’t fit the system.
That’s why they will play Faulk and Morris more often.
I remember watching him the preseason of his rookie year and thinking “this guy’s a ROY candidate and future Pro Bowler for sure” (and I’m a Bills fan). He looked fantastic, but had that straight up and down running style and liked to try to bowl people over. I guess you can last only so long doing that in this League–after a while you realize that that comes with a cost in injuries and pain. I suspect that’s a big part of why his game has left him; his body may be a bit more afraid of contact at this level, consciously or unconsciously. Can’t say that I blame him, actually, but unless he reverses course, looks like another first round bust for the Pats*……
“In Maroney’s defense, the OL hasn’t exactly been focusing on Run Blocking these days”
I don’t know. Taylor and Morris looked good. Maroney sucks on kickoff returns too.
Can’t say that I blame him, actually, but unless he reverses course, looks like another first round bust for the Pats*……
Another first round bust for the Pats?
The Pats, under Belichick, have had some memorable 2nd round busts who just did not (or do not) belong in the NFL (Adrian Klemm, Bethel Johnson, Chad Jackson), but their 1st round picks have generally been pretty solid or better (Seymour, Wilfork, Warren, Mayo, Mankins, Meriweather, Graham, Watson). I understand that some may question the 1st round pedigree of Graham and Watson, but they have remained regular starters and will not be NFL unemployed any time soon unless they suffer career ending injuries.
It just ain’t there. Whatever “it” is.
I used to look at the lack of holes by the O line, too, but the other backs make yards out of it.
What ends up a -1 for Maroney is a +2 for Taylor, Morris, Law Firm, or Jordan last year.
Faulk almost always gets positive yards too, but the D is almost always playing pass when Faulk is in.
Maroney sucks.
If you discount an aberration game against Miami in 07 and one against the Bengals in ’08, his rushing average would have been under 4.0 yards per carry both of those seasons too.
What does that tell you about how bad he was the rest of the season? Discounting one game (14 carries) could drop his average 0.6 yards per carry.
He’s a bust, and the sooner New England moves on, the better.
The dancing comment is quite valid. Maroney almost never hits a hole hard and in stride. When the crowd booed him last week it was after he had done yet another dance before getting to the line and been thrown for a loss. He’s a lot better when they get the ball to him on a short pass or a quick toss. I agree that he would do better with a fullback — the Pats should have tried to keep Heath Evans.
-It was their way of saying, ‘Mr. Maroney, now’s the time we need you to be the running back everybody expected you to be.’ ‘OK, crowd, I hear you.’ I’ll try my best to answer.”-
So…..what your saying is, if you suck against Denver, that’s the best we can expect from you?
The last time I saw Maroney moving forward was going through a checkout line at the Stop&Shop in Plainville. He tried to go sideways but ran into the candy and gum display. He just doesn’t have it in him to hit the gap hard.
murabma, your joking, right? the patriots have missed on one first rounder- maroney. watson, yeah, he isnt the greatest, but he is good. lets see, your a bills fan. how is jp losman doing? give me a break guy. get an idea of what your talking about before you open your mouth. oh, dont forget about that gem of a pick you guys had with mike williams, the tackle, just in case you dont remember, considering he sucks.
“Patsfan1776 says:
October 10, 2009 7:15 PM
The last time I saw Maroney moving forward was going through a checkout line at the Stop&Shop in Plainville. He tried to go sideways but ran into the candy and gum display. He just doesn’t have it in him to hit the gap hard.”
I heard about that.
He got hit in the eye with a chiclet and was laid up for 4 weeks.
that was kind of sad