
He had seven seasons with at least 150 carries. He averaged above 4.2 ypc in all but one of them and cracked 5.0 ypc in two of them. In that lone 3.9 ypc season his role was pretty clearly defined as 1st and 2nd down between the tackles runner. He was rarely asked (or allowed... this is BB we're talking about) to bounce plays outside and hurdle guys. About the only time he got the ball on 3rd down was in short yardage. Even at age 31 he averaged 4.4 ypc in Philly. Just please watch these 10 runs and tell me he's a plodder:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNdjR4r0RM0 (you won't regret watching... he was a very entertaining runner).
I think the problem with the public perception of Blount is that his most prolific fantasy season was the one season where he was strictly playing a plodder's role. That and it was pretty recent. Nobody remembers when he was the only playmaker on a horrific Raheem Morris/Josh Freeman offense. He disappeared from everyone's fantasy radar when Greg Schiano deemed him to be "not a Buccaneer man" and benched him essentially for an entire season. He bounced around on 1-year contracts ever since.
I haven't watched enough Freeman to confirm or deny any similarities to Blount, but as a Freeman owner I'd be quite happy if he was a Blount clone (but without the black sheep label). We should know soon enough, as I think we've all seen enough of Booker to expect Freeman to quickly push him aside. It will be pretty ridiculous if they are splitting snaps evenly beyond week 2.