Josh McDaniels addresses Patriots injury issues, Shane Vereen

Photo from CSNNE

To say the Patriots are banged up would be pretty accurate. The Patriots have used 36 starters this season due to injuries, and wide receiver Austin Collie was the latest to go down. 2 days later, he was released by the Pats. Josh McDaniels, offensive coordinator, spoke to CSNNE about how the team would adjust to Collie's loss.

"You never like to see a player get hurt," McDaniels said, "and certainly Austin was helping us and doing what we asked of him, but any time a situation like this comes up during the course of the season, it usually provides a little spark of competition and I think that's healthy for any group on the team. We'll look forward to the receivers going out there and having a good week of practice and letting it unfold from there."

The good news is that Shane Vereen is eligible to return against the Carolina Panthers on Monday night. He started practicing with the team after the game against the Steelers, according to CSNNE, and McDaniels said that Vereen will play a role against Carolina.

"Shane is a good football player, and as soon as he's ready and able to help us, and we're able to play him, he'll certainly have a role in the game," McDaniels noted. "He definitely did make a big impact in Week 1. I don't know if we could expect him to do that right off the bat in his first game back, whenever that is. But we'll look forward to having him back. He's a really good kid, great teammate, and obviously good football player who can help us. So we look forward to that."

It remains to be seen how effective he'll be after the long layoff, but it should be a boost for the Patriots to have Vereen in the backfield.

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