NFL Player News

With the 138th pick, the Ravens have selected Coastal Carolina running back Lorenzo Taliaferro .

Taliaferro was named the Big South Offensive Player of the Week five times in 2013, setting a record. He rushed for 1,487 yards and scored 23 touchdowns, shattering nearly every school rushing record. Despite that, Taliaferro lacks speed, and could convert to fullback. He could provide value as a short-yardage option immediately.

With the 130th pick in the 2014 NFL Draft, the New England Patriots selected running back James White from Wisconsin.

White spent his first three seasons at Wisconsin behind Montee Ball. When he took over in 2013, he amassed for 1,444 yards on 221 carries with 13 touchdowns on the ground. He also posted 39 receptions for 300 yards and two scores in the passing game. He will likely battle for the third -string spot behind Stevan Ridley and Shane Vereen.

With the 96th pick in the 2014 NFL Draft, the Vikings selected Georgia Southern running back Jerick McKinnon . He worked as a quarterback and a running back in Georgia Southern's triple-option offense and also played as a defensive back.

"He's elusive, he has great speed in the open field," Spielman said. "He kind of gives us that dynamic third-down type back that will give us a little spark when he comes in."

McKinnon is 5-foot-9 and 209 pounds and ran a 4.37 in the 40-yard dash.

With the 116th pick of the 2014 NFL Draft, the Chicago Bears selected running back Ka'Deem Carey from Arizona.

Carey was one of the top backs in the nation, cracking the 100-yard mark in every one of his games in 2013. He totaled 1,885 yards and 19 touchdowns on the ground, averaging 5.4 yards per carry despite serving a one-game suspension at the start of the 2013 season. He also had 26 receptions for 173 yards and one touchdown.

Carey has a chance to slot behind Matt Forte as the team's second running back in the depth chart.

With the No. 94 pick in the NFL Draft, the Browns selected running Terrance West from Towson. 

West will compete for playing time as the No. 2 running back for the Browns behind starter Ben Tate.

West is a big back at 5-foot-9, 225 pounds. In 2013, he set the NCAA FCS single-season rushing mark and led all of college football with 413 carries for 2,519 yards (6.1 yards per carry) and 41 touchdowns and 26 catches for 258 yards and a touchdown in 16 games.

He was the CAA Offensive Player of the Year and a finalist for the Walter Payton Award. West led the Tigers to the FCS Championship game and set the FCS record for touchdowns in a season with 42. He had 354 yards and five touchdowns against Eastern Illinois in the playoffs, and his 84 career rushing touchdowns tied the FCS record, set by Adrian Peterson (Georgia Southern 1998-2001) in only three seasons.

With the 69th pick in the 2014 NFL Draft, the Buccaneers selected West Virginia running back Charles Sims .

Considered a bit too upright a runner but still versatile, Sims found a way to post big numbers in college, rolling for 1,095 yards on 208 carries with 11 touchdowns last season, adding 401 more yards and three more scores on 45 receptions. His versatility is a big plus for him as it is for the Bucs, who can use him as a passing downs back or as a jack-of-all-trades backup to starter Doug Martin.

Josh McCown had great success in 2013 with the Bears when he stepped in for the injured Jay Cutler in part because of his receiving corps with Brandon Marshall and Alshon Jeffery.

He doesn't have that same talent with the Buccaneers, but he might not be far off following the NFL Draft. The Bucs drafted Texas A&M receiver Mike Evans at No. 7 overall, and he will join Vincent Jackson as the starters in Tampa Bay.

Now, this doesn't elevate McCown to a starting Fantasy quarterback, but it definitely helps his outlook. Jackson will remain a solid No. 2 Fantasy receiver, and Evans has plenty of sleeper appeal with a late-round pick in seasonal leagues.

The Bucs are going to be run-first with Doug Martin, but now they have a legitimate receiving corps, including quality tight ends in Timothy Wright and Brandon Myers.

In dynasty leagues, plan on drafting Evans with a first-round pick, and he will likely be selected in Round 8 or later in re-draft formats.

The Vikings could draft a running back in the NFL Draft to help take the load off Adrian Peterson, reports the St. Paul Pioneer Press.

The report says the team is looking for a replacement for the departed Toby Gerhart and give Peterson a rest from time to time.

"He's getting to the point where you don't have to give him the ball 50 times a game for 16 games," said general manager Rick Spielman. "Adrian's the face of our franchise, but Norv (Turner) has a history of having two backs to keep him fresh, because I think it's very important as you go through the season that they're still strong in Week 16 and they're still strong when you get into the playoffs."

Minnesota doesn't have a surefire No. 2 back on the roster. Matt Asiata filled in for the injured Peterson and Gerhart in two games last December and performed admirably with 166 yards on 44 carries (a 3.8 average). But Asiata, entering his third season, is still raw.

After that, Minnesota has just Joe Banyard and Bradley Randle on the roster. They've mostly been practice squad players.

Vikings receiver Cordarrelle Patterson is hoping to do more this season after getting off to a slow start as a rookie, reports ESPN.

Patterson finished 2013 with 45 catches for 469 yards and four touchdowns and 12 carries for 158 yards and three touchdowns, with most of that production coming in the final five games of the year.

"This year my whole mindset is, 'Remember everything. Do better than you did last year,'" Patterson said. "I think I was kind of bad last year. This year will be way better."

New offensive coordinator Norv Turner is counting on Patterson having a better year. General manager Rick Spielman said at the NFL scouting combine that Turner already had 10 plays designed for Patterson, and Turner moved Patterson around in the Vikings' offense plenty during the team's voluntary minicamp this week.

"I think you've always got to hold that judgment in terms of how a guy handles it," Turner said. "We've had guys who have been very productive players, extremely outstanding players I would say, and they lined up and played one position. We've had a bunch of other guys we've moved around. We've moved Cordarrelle around quite a bit this week and he seemed to handle it pretty well, so we'll see how much he can handle?"

Patriots running back Shane Vereen said his previously broken left wrist still isn't back to the point where it was before the injury last September, reports ESPN.

"It's not going to feel great tomorrow, it's not going to feel awful. It won't be 100 percent probably for a while, but it's good enough and I'm working on strengthening it and getting it back," Vereen said via the team's official website.

Vereen suffered a broken bone in the wrist in a season-opening victory against the Bills on Sept. 8 and had surgery that sidelined him until a Nov. 18 game against the Carolina Panthers. He said that his wrist feels good and "through most of the end of the season, I was fine with it." 

If you project Vereen's stats over 16 games he would have finished with 88 carries for 408 yards and two touchdowns and 94 catches for 854 yards and six touchdowns.