Last modified: Wednesday, August 22, 2007 12:06 AM EDT New England running back Laurence Maroney pulls in a pass during training camp at Gillette Stadium. (Staff photo by KEITH NORDSTROM) Maroney ready to go BY MARK FARINELLA SUN CHRONICLE STAFF FOXBORO - Forget the fact that Laurence Maroney wore a red jersey for the first month of the preseason. His teammates did. "Man, it feels the same because I don't think they really respected the red jersey anyway," the Patriots' running back said Tuesday. "They were hitting me anyway. It didn't matter, because I was still taking hits." The red jersey in practice is supposed to be a warning that the player wearing it is not supposed to engage in full-fledged contact. Usually, the players are rehabilitating themselves from injuries - as was the case for Maroney's offseason shoulder surgery - and it's meant to provide a safety net while still allowing the tender player to engage in drills and learn what he needs to learn to keep at the same level as his teammates. But while Maroney was supposed to be treated like a piece of fine china until Monday, when the red jersey was replaced by his white No. 39, that wasn't really the case. And even if it had been, he said, the time he spent on the practice field would have been every bit as valuable. "I was still out there running against the ones, running the plays," he said. "They weren't contacting me, but I was still going out there and having to make the right reads, read the defenses and do everything else that I'd have to do it I didn't have the red jersey on." The gloves are off this week, and Maroney expects to see his first game action of the preseason Friday night in Charlotte when the Patriots visit the Carolina Panthers (8 p.m.; Ch. 4, 12). In fact, he can't wait. "I'll play as much as they allow me to play," he said. "I haven't played in a while, so as much as they allow me to play, I'm willing to play." The second-year veteran from Minnesota, who's expected to fill a much larger role in the Patriots' offense this year with the departure of Corey Dillon, said he needs the practice time and the game experience, condensed as it may be. "It's going to have to be enough," he said of the two preseason games remaining. "It's not like I can sneak in a couple more … I'm not going to lie. I need them. You can't simulate game speed in practice." Maroney said that the shoulder surgery aside, he feels much more prepared for his second NFL season than he was for his first - not from any lack of understanding or appreciation of the challenge on his part, but simply from the whirlwind of activity that characterized his transition from Golden Gopher to Patriot. "It was a long process," he said, "and you were dong everything back to back, so you didn't really have any time for your body to recover. You were just coming off a college season and you'd go straight into training, straight into the combine, straight into minicamp. This year I didn't have to do all that, so now my body feels a lot better. "I also learned last year that a lot of the things you do in college, you can't do in the NFL and get away with it," he said. "In this past year and this offseason, I've been learning from Kevin (Faulk) and Heath (Evans), and when Sammy (Morris) got here, I just asked him about different running styles. I'm ready to see what I've learned, and what I can do differently than last year." Maroney likes to call himself "just a little piece of the puzzle, just a small part" of the Patriots' offense, but it's likely he'll have to be a lot more than that. "I really don't know what to expect … we've got a lot of players on this team that can do a lot of different things," he said. "All I know I can control is what I do, and make sure I'm ready for whatever role they need me to play." One thing he won't change is his aggressive approach to running. Shoulder injury or no, Maroney said he isn't ready to become the next Franco Harris and duck out of bounds to avoid a hit to prolong his career - at least not yet. "I've still got to stay in bounds, lower my shoulder and get that tough yardage," he said. "I'm only a second-year player. Ask me that three or four years from now, and I might slide out of bounds. But until then, I'm going to have to take my extra yardage." MARK FARINELLA may be reached at 508-236-0315 or via e-mail at mfarinel@thesunchronicle.com