Picked this up from Pro-Football Talk. And the article raises a valid issue, (I think). The one factor which makes me think that Leon will definitely be back is that TJ looked exhausted and yes his knee was troubling him too, maybe next season too????? I would hate to see Leon in any other Uni than the Green and White of NY.
I think there's a good chance all 3 will be back. I think it will lend a little unpredictability to our running game for other teams. One game it could be Leon dicing up the field, then it could be TJ 3-4 yarding you to death. Then Shonn Greene running over you. Plus the injury insurance would be nice. Sure did work out for us this year. Either way, I think if any one of them is lost, they should be replaced with someone, even if it is a lesser player. It would be our luck to lose 2 backs in one season. I can't picture any of our 3 RBs carrying the load by themselves.
Isn't that what happened in the last 30 minutes of Indy? LW - on IR TJ - Knee banged up for playoffs SG - Rib in 3rd quarter.
I don't get the thread title. This is a running team. I'll be surprised if we don't carry 4 runningbacks next season. I'm not so sure that TJ will be one of them, though.
Let TJ play his contract out and in the 2011-2012 season our backfield will be: FB: Davis RB: Greene RB: Washington RB: Woodhead (or PS or UDRFA)
I hate when they see Leon's replacement was Greene. He replaced him after he was injured, period. He can never replace what Leon has done for the play of the Jets on offense when in the game and the different options he provides every time he is on the field. I don't know how we can keep all 3 but I also don't want to go into the season with just SG and Leon. We need TJ for another year.
Keep LW. Let him return kicks/punts and catch passes/screens out the backfield. With Leon playing that role, TJ getting a dependable 2-4 YPC (hehee...), and Shonn Greene bowling defenders over, we should be set at the RB position and Sanchez should have a bunch of weapons to use at his arsenal. Watching how anemic our pass offense looked at times in the latter part of the season, I couldn't help but wonder how much easier it would have been for Sanchez to spread the ball around had he had Leon's reliable hands able to catch balls out the backfield for us. I like the sound of having Braylon, Cotchery, Keller, Leon, the addition of a capable 3rd WR, and a more developed 2nd year Sanchez (with big game PO experience to boot) as our passing attack.
Thomas Jones is a nice back, but he's going to require some kind of extension. He's not playing next season on a one year deal. I'd be shocked. I'd be much more comfortable going into the season with Greene, Washington, and a middle round pick. -X-
Yea, I agree with everything you said here. I've always been a big TJ supporter, but like I said in another thread, I think he may have hit that RB wall we see so many guys hit. We don't want to be in the position we were in in the AFCC game when Greene went down again.
i think the rb. depth chart will be either: t.j. ,l.w ,s.g with s.g. and l.w. getting the first half touches and t.j. being the closer or s.g ,l.w. , chauncey washington(currently p.s. player) with a 55 -40 split between l.w. and s.g. with c.w. picking up 3-4 carries a game
The argument for keeping Jones next year is that we won't have to give him more than 200 carries or so during the regular season and so he'll still have some spring in his legs in January. The problem with the argument is that both of the Jets other runningbacks are injury prone at this point and so keeping Jones may well turn into another 300+ carry season and a worn out back by the end of it. Then you throw in the fact that Jones is definitely at the point where runningbacks suddenly go over and it becomes a dicey proposition. It's kind of a no win situation for the Jets and they probably should proactively fix it by getting some depth at running back and then bidding Jones farewell and letting him move on to his next team. It would be nasty to get deep in the playoffs again and find that we had no rushing attack because we let all the factors that were in play this year remain the status quo and got caught short again.
We could run 15% less than we did this year and still have more rushes than passes. My guess is that is the kind of balance that Ryan is aiming for. Given what we saw this year I'd rather go with 550 rushes and 450 passes.
That just means that Sanchez will be able to throw the ball more than 15 times a game - we could throw the ball 20 times a game and technically, it would be 'more balanced'. Rex wasn't breaking any news here. There have been run-first teams that threw twice as many times a game as we did thisy ear. If you really think the Jets will go into 2010 with 2 runningbacks, I don't know what to tell you, gus.
Can Leon function as our slot receiver? Instead of wondering who our 3rd WR will be out of the slot and how we keep the backfield from getting too crowded with Greene and TJ there as well, just line up Leon in the slot instead of in the backfield. He's got great hands and is very effective at getting YAC. Just because his jersey number is 29 instead of in the 80's, I don't know why he can't fill a Welker-type role for us that will allow us to keep as many playmakers on the field at once.
I don't at all. But out of the three we have right now, I think one of them will be gone and in my book TJ is odds on to leave, not Leon like the OP suggested. Balanced is 50/50 or near as. Unless MS has a MEGA TC this won't happen. But the predictability of us running the whole game my come to a sticky end early in the season.
Keeping Jones, but start Green and use Leon as the scatback. Jones can be used in goalline situations and to close out games (I like his ball security more than Greene's). Leon can, and should, be given the Westbrook treatment in that he lines up everywhere and receives 15 touches (carries, screens, and true passes) a game. Greene should start though, as he has the big play possibility that Jones lacks.
