New England Patriots running back Shane Vereen won't use his previously broken left wrist as an excuse for a few dropped passes last season.
"It has nothing to do with the cast," Vereen said Friday, via Patriots.com. "I would never blame it on that. ... There’s no excuse. I should have caught them."
Suffering the break against the Buffalo Bills in the season opener last year, Vereen's eventual surgery kept him out until a Nov. 18 loss against the Carolina Panthers.
The then-third-year tailback sported a cast upon his return to the field.
"I was still able to get pretty good traction on the ball, catching it. It forced me to concentrate a lot more," he said. "Personally I think I might have even caught the ball a little bit better with it because I knew I had to concentrate on the ball more with the cast being on the hand."
"It’s not going to feel great tomorrow, it’s not going to feel awful," he said. "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."
