They didn't want to pay him. He wasn't worth what he was asking. It's better for him to leave. Jones was breaking down and it showed. I doubt he comes close to matching his yardage/TD total from last season, even if he was running behind the Jets' OLine. This is why players do not make roster decisions.
i dont like the grumblings in the locker room but theyre justified if a team leader is being released while the rest of the roster watches gholston be a top 5 paid player on the team while doing nothing to contribute. that being said, Jones lost it soon as Greene took his thunder. what was even worse was once Greene went down Jones did jack shit. he seemingly picked it up when Greene lobbied for more carries through his quality of play earlier in the season. I'd have loved to keep him around for another year and especially wouldve loved to see Gholston cut. that really does have to piss alot of the team off. but yeah 6 Mil for someone to be 1/3 of a rushing attack? no thanks. especially with him not willing to re-negotiate proves hed rather be a starter on a worse team then come back to this organization at a restructured rate. lets not forget the 13Mil he made the first two years he was here. the Jets have already aimed sights at another cut player or will be targeting another young set of legs to compliment Greene and Jones. hell they already met with Dixon out of UConn
But none of them will outdo Rich Cimini, Prince of Unnamed Player Quotes. I swear, he must bring a hypo full of sodium pentathol with him wherever he goes.
Come on with this. It takes a while for QBs and Olinemen to get in sync with one another. The runningback hits the designated hole and breaks free if he can. It's not rocket science. New RBs show up for new teams every single season. They don't take a whole frigging season to sync up wit the O-line. You are romanticizing this. Runningback, especially RBBC, is the most replaceable commidity on most NFL teams in this league. And it's why you hardly ever see RBs taken high in the draft anymore.
I'm a big TJ fan, (gotta get a new jersey now), but he should have agreed to restructure his deal to fit the supporting role. I can understand the Jets letting him go if he was unwilling to do this.........Greene's durability is a big question mark
I don't blame them at all for being pissy...I've read almost none of this Thomas Jones stuff so can someone explain to me why we're cutting him three days before the cap is no longer a factor? Is Woody that hard up for money because people weren't buying his stupid PSL's? I know he stunk in the playoffs but I thought part of the reason was he was also playing with knee issues. Besides, it's foolish to let him go before you know whether Leon can come back and Greene can be the man for sixteen games. And all of you people demanding TJ restructure or take a lesser deal, put yourself in his shoes...you made nothing last year, you're almost 30 and at a position that doesn't have too much more mileage on it and he, like every other player in the NFL has a non-guaranteed contract. Can you really fault the player, especially in this case, for wanting to get as much as he can? Especially when he knows the cap isn't an excuse now? Look at what happened to Leon last year, he played without a new deal and it probably cost him millions.
If the "locker room" goes to hell in a hand basket over this, it wasn't great to begin with. Time (and wins) heals all wounds. No one will care later on in the year. he was a hell of a player for us and I hope he gets paid well and succeeds elsewhere.
The only thing I'll say in defense of the players who are protesting is this: Jones got 13 million across the first 2 seasons, then only 900k last season. So, he essentially made $3.5 million per season on average. While that seems like quite a bit, the only other RBs to rush for 1000 yards every season over the last 3 years are Adrian Peterson, Frank Gore, and Steven Jackson. Peterson's contract averages out to $8 million per, Gore's getting $7 million per, and Jackson $7.5 million per. We know Jones is running out of gas, but his $5.9 million this year is still below the average for any of those backs. They're evaluating it based on what he's done for the team, the FO is evaluating it based on his perceived production this season. Where you stand on the Jones issue is really a matter of which side you value. The more I think about it, I'm not sure how I feel about it, although I'm still leaning toward the FO. It would have been a no brainer if we DID pick up a UFA exemption for him, but that's not the case.
Funny thing is this also unintentionally gives us explaination as to why TJ had to be let go. After Greene went down against Indy the running game was shut down. Why? Because Greene went down? No, also because TJ couldn't get the job done!
I realize the article is about the players being upset because of the release of Jones, but what about the Gholston comment!? I wonder what player said that, assuming it was actually said and not invalid because it was an "anonymous" player.
I find it funny that only Rich Cimini ever gets quotes from these 'anonymous' players. And it's always when a player leaves the team. Weak. I never thought he'd just up and make up fake quotes.
If the locker room had any choice in the matter, we would have had either Kellen Clemens or Brett Ratliff as our QB in 09-10.
I think the complaints are portrayed as worse than they actually were. Everyone in that locker room knows how this business goes. I do not doubt that they disagree with the move and do not like having Jones go after a 1400yd season, but this is far from indicative of a potential mutiny.
Jones is going into the last year of his contract in an uncapped year. The money isn't worth this locker room uproar. No way, no how.
A few employees are pissed that a well-liked coworker got the axe in the middle of March. We have seen the peak of the locker room uproar. Rex will have this under control in no time.
I wouldn't mind seeing our FO bring back Thomas Jones at a discount the way they did with Brandon Moore.
