PATRIOTS: Opportunistic White leans on experience

Entering his fifth season, James White has continued the Patriots’ tradition of production in the team’s third-down running back role.

 FOXBORO – The comment, made by the player himself, might best describe his NFL career.

“You’ve just got to make the most of your reps,” James White, the Patriots’ veteran running back, said following Friday’s training camp practice on the fields behind Gillette Stadium.

“Coaches decide what each and every person’s role is going to be so make the most of each opportunity. You know you’re not going to get every play. Sometimes maybe two, maybe one, but just try to make the most of that rep and just try to stand out.”

Isn’t that the way it’s been since White entered the league as a fourth-round pick in the 2014 draft?

From modest beginnings – 14 touches for 61 yards while dressing for just three games his rookie year – White has developed into the player who has continued the Patriots’ tradition of third-down backs, one that dates to Kevin Faulk, who was inducted into the team’s hall of fame last year, to Danny Woodhead to Shane Vereen before him.

With 40 receptions for 410 yards and four touchdowns, White made the leap to show that he could fill the role of pass-catching back his second season in New England. In his third year, his ball-carrying skills improved to the point that he went from averaging a woeful 2.5 yards on 22 attempts in 2015 to a career-best 4.3 yards on 39 attempts while catching 60 passes for 551 yards and three TDs (all career highs as well) and totaling 745 all-purpose yards (yet another career high) in 2016.

Last season, White produced 600 yards from scrimmage, carrying the ball 43 times for 171 yards and catching 56 passes for 429 yards and three touchdowns.

And, oh yes, there was that performance in the Patriots’ historic 34-28 overtime win over the Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl LI when White could have very well been named the game’s MVP, setting Super Bowl records for receptions (with 14) and points (20 on three touchdowns, including the game-winning score on a 2-yard run in OT, plus a two-point conversion).

Yes, the 5-foot-10, 205-pounder has come a long way since he arrived in Foxboro via the University of Wisconsin.

“Yeah, you learn a lot through the years, my rookie year ’til now,” White, who is now in the midst of his fifth training camp with the Patriots, said. “I learned a lot, just became a better football player, learned the do's and don’ts and ways I can get better, ways to help myself. A lot of us have come a long way and I just try to use those years to help me prepare for this year.”

This year, White finds himself part of a backfield in motion: Dion Lewis, the team’s lead back last season, moved on to Tennessee as an unrestricted free agent in March; the Patriots signed Jeremy Hill, who ran for 1,000 yards as a rookie with the Cincinnati Bengals (but that was four years ago) as an unrestricted free agent and made Sony Michel, the third-leading all-time rusher in the University of Georgia’s history, a first-round draft pick in April.

White, Rex Burkhead, Mike Gillislee and Brandon Bolden are the holdovers at running back.

Ralph Webb, who left Vanderbilt as that school’s all-time leading rusher, is also in camp, signed as a rookie free agent in May.

“It’s great competition,” said White. “There’s always competition here during training camp. We always have about seven guys competing with one another, have friendship. But we know it’s going to be a competition, we don’t know who’s going to be here at the end of the day, but just make the most of your opportunities.”