New Pittsburgh Steelers running back LeGarrette Blount averaged five yards per carry and scored seven touchdowns last season with the New England Patriots and because of that, he said Friday in an interview on SiriusXM NFL Radio that he’s kind of surprised they let him get away in free agency.
“I didn’t think they were going to let me go,” said Blount. “At the end of the day, though, there is a business of this whole thing and the business part is that they couldn’t meet the requirements of a contract deal with me, so we had to part ways.”
When he met with the Steelers last Friday, Blount said that they were very up front with him about how they intend on using him in 2014.
“They basically told me that a lot teams have three or four guys that run the football and that they feel like they can do everything that they want done with two,” said Blount, who came into the league with the Tennessee Titans as an undrafted free agent out of Oregon in 2010. “They wanted to let me know up front what they wanted me to do and they told me they definitely want me to do short yardage, they definitely want me to do goal-line stuff. They want me to carry the football.
“They’re not going to limit me to anything off the past due to what I’ve done with past teams. If I’m able to do the third down stuff with them, then they’re going to let me do it. If I’m able to do the protections and the ball catching stuff with them, they’re going to let me do it. They’re not going to put a limit on anything that I can do.”
So far during his career, Blount has mainly been a two-down running back and dating back to his rookie season, he’s one of the best in the game on first down and ten carries.
“They got me because they know I can run the football,” said Blount. “They know I can be productive running the football and they just wanted me to come there and carry the football.”
You can hear more of what Blount had to say during his interview in the audio posted below.
