FOXBORO -- The Patriots are very accustomed to bringing new players into their locker room during the season, but the acclimation process is different for each.
For someone like receiver Keshawn Martin, the transition may be relatively smooth. He was acquired in a trade with the Texans earlier this year after having spent more than a full season playing in an offense that closely resembles the one used in New England.
For someone like corner Leonard Johnson, who made his Patriots debut last weekend a few days after signing with the team, the transition may have its speed bumps.
How smooth things go can often depend on the position that the newly-acquired player is looking to fill. Picking up a quarterback mid-season, Bill Belichick explained recently, can be very difficult. At other positions, the player's adaptation to a new team may be almost seamless.
Considering the Patriots have just two running backs on their 53-man active roster, and given the fact that they recently signed running back Montee Ball to the practice squad, Belichick was asked on Friday just how difficult it would be to trust a running back that was acquired mid-season.
"I think it depends on what you ask the player to do," Belichick replied. "If you hand him the ball, [it’s] probably not too difficult. Once you get into the passing game -- pass protection, pass routes, adjustments in the passing game -- you’re talking about [something] much, much, much, much more complex and a lot more variations.
"In terms of running the ball you just get the footwork, get the ball handling and give the player an understanding of the blocking scheme, which he’s probably I’d say in most cases seen before -- zone schemes or some kind of gap schemes. There are basic fundamentals in the running game. You either basically zone block them or you gap block them. Everything pretty much fits into one of those two categories. I would say most backs have probably somewhere along the line run those.
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"But when you start getting into the pass protections and base defenses and sub defenses and routes versus man, routes versus zone, situational plays and all that, it’s a whole different ball game."
There is the possibility that the Patriots promote someone like Ball or practice squad fullback Joey Iosefa to the active roster for Sunday's game with the Titans in order to provide New England's group of ball-carriers some depth. But Belichick hinted that his team may opt to carry only two running backs on its 46-man game-day roster against Tennessee.
"I think we’ve done it a couple times," Belichick said of having two backs dressed for a game. "It’s certainly not ideal. But could we do it? Given our offense, we have versatility. We have other ways of dealing with things. But we played the majority of the game last week with two.
"Again, it’s not ideal, but you’ve still got to do what you feel like gives your team the best chance to win. Again I would say if you lose two of any player at any position -- pick any position you want -- there are probably going to be some issues."
The Patriots had Steven Jackson in town for a visit this week, and he reportedly worked out with the team on Thursday. Asked for a comment on the veteran free-agent running back, Belichick replied: "I’m not going to talk about players that aren’t on our team. I mean, there are a thousand players that aren’t on this team. There are just a lot of guys in there working hard getting ready for this game and those are really the guys I care about and those are the guys I’m focused on. I’m not going to talk about guys that are somewhere else. It’d be pretty disrespectful to the guys we have on our team."