Wisconsin Badgers in the NFL: James White

Moving on with our “Wisconsin Badgers in the NFL” series, we have running back James White of the New England Patriots.

James White was selected in the fourth round of the 2014 NFL draft by the New England Patriots after a successful college career with the Wisconsin Badgers.

Like most fourth rounders, White had to earn his playing time early on but through his work ethic, knowledge of the game, and of course his skill set as a running back he has since become an integral part of the New England Patriots offense that has won three Super Bowls since White was drafted.

What has made White successful in New England is that he does whatever is asked of him and he does it all very well. For the first four years of his career, White had been primarily used in New England’s passing game and he would haul in 161 receptions for 1,413 yards and 12 touchdowns over that span.

However, due to injuries at the running back position in 2018, we saw White’s role expand both as a pass catcher and in the running game last season.

As a pass catcher, we would see White make 87 catches for 751 yards and seven touchdowns. All of which were career highs by a fairly wide margin.

Yet it was on the ground where White would see his workload really increase. He finished 2018 with 425 yards on 94 attempts and scored five touchdowns. His previous high for rushing attempts in a season came the year before in 2017 with just 43.

White’s ability to play many different roles within this Patriots’ offense and execute them all nearly flawlessly has garnered high praise from head coach, Bill Belichick:

"“He’s always been a very hard worker, a very diligent guy, knows his assignments very, very well. Asks questions like a coach would ask them. Has an ability to think really far ahead of what problems could occur on certain fronts or looks or what have you. He does a great job of that.”"

Offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels would also add:

"“”He does a tremendous job of digesting and jumping into our game plan and knowing it inside and out in terms of his overall preparation. There’s not many guys that we’ve had that have done it to the level he’s done it, and we’ve got a lot of great guys that we can talk about. This guy’s a really special guy in terms of how hard he works, the type of preparation he puts in and the type of teammate he is.”"

While many outside of the state of Wisconsin may not have known much about James White prior to the 2014 NFL draft, us Wisconsin Badgers fans knew what a special player he could be and that the Patriots were getting a good one.

Looking ahead to 2019 we may see White’s role in the running game be reduced with a healthy Sony Michel but he will be prepared for whatever job Belichick and McDaniels throw his way and he will continue to be a difference maker in the New England passing game.