Greene and McKnight, with a competent OC (which we didn't have last year) can be a very nice 1-2 punch for us, especially with Tebow mixed in.
I love Greene and I don't understand the hate on him either. I think he runs the ball hard and delivers some bone crunching hits. He always pops whoever he runs into. Problems with Greene are his slow start. For some reason he never gets going until midway into the season. It just seems to take him 4-5 games to get the engine going to game speed, kick the rust off, I donno? I have no problem with that if we have a guy that can compliment him. LT was great, TJ was great, but those guys got old and left. I still think we could bring in a vet that has something left to prove before they hang it up. His vision is not the best either. I mean the guy is no Curtis Martin and never will be. He just is a bulldozer. Hopefully his vision will get better with experience. This is a peak year from him. I expect a lot and I am confident he will deliver. All my hate and frustration from last season is targeted at Schotty and Holmes. Schotty is gone and for the moment we are stuck with Holmes. Holmes has a lot to prove to me, and I think the offense and team. Who are you Holmes? Are you a champion that catches game winning super bowl catches? or are you a punk that doesn't block if i'm not getting the ball and quit on the team bc your not happy? I would take 1000 Chrebets, Cotcherys, Edwards', Coles', santana moss' before I would ever take a coward like last years captain.
Full disclosure...I'm now 31 and a 240 lb tub of shit and I have so many problems with my neck I can't even mow my lawn. But I played hockey in college...at the end I my sophomore year I was 175...during that summer I bulked up to 195lb. mostly muscle. It severely impacted my speed and quickness. I was much less sore after games and recovered much quicker but there was a big downside. I slimmed back down my senior year and played much better. Of course I wasn't a professional athlete with world class trainers but the increase in size didn't work for me. I think some guys are just meant to be a certain size. Who knows how it will effect Joe but I just figured Id share my experience.
Seriously. This is dead on. 4.1 ypc, 1000 yards overall in a system that featured more pass plays than running plays for the year, despite our inability to stretch the defense, and Schotty being a dumbass. Greene is perfect for the role, people need to stop being so one dimensional and thinking that the running game is only determined by one player.
I disagree, i like him but he goes down at first point of contact, usually loosing his footing somehow, he is far from a proven RB.
I think the dislike for Greene is his inability get yards after contact or make other players miss. When you look at how he compares to other RBs in stats that express how he does absent his line one can make the argument that he is not a very good RB. PFF has a nice article comparing RB elusiveness ratings here.
McKnight basically has a starting job right now. His only competitor for the 3rd down or 'B back' role is Bilal Powell. But he's going to have to prove that he deserves that job every week this summer. His scholarship is over, he's either going to produce in 2012 or be replaced by a new grad. He has all the athleticism you could ask for, so here's hoping he's been listening to his coaches about becoming a better runner. Athletically, he's a similar guy to new Giants RB David Wilson, but watch Wilson run. You practically need to pin him to the ground to stop him moving forward, and he might never have cracked 210 pounds. If McKnight has learned to follow his blocks and run with some tenacity and an attitude that 4 yards matters more than 3 even if you couldn't break it for 50, there's no reason he shouldn't be able to eclipse Shonn Greene as the Jets top back. This is the position I'm going to be most interested in watching this summer. With McKnight competing with Greene for touches, Ganaway looking like a very real competitor for Greene's job, and the near certainty that one or all of them will be cut by this time next year if they can't deliver a top five rushing attack, these guys will be motivated. Here's hoping one of them earns the job, because in case it wasn't obvious, I was hoping the Jets would draft Wilson.
He also tends to stop short on runs up the middle if he sees the hole has closed. He really doesn't show much in the way of guts.
^^^ One of our biggest problems in the running game last year was only running between the tackles. Get Greene out on the edge, and OMG the guy has speed. Schotty was so one dimensional it's crazy. We have to suck the defense in and then bang a few outside the tackles, hit them on their flanks. Greene is a good back that gets better throughout the season. He doesn't catch passes (often) he doesn't pass protect (unbelievable) but he pounds the rock hard and he protects the football. He always plays big for us late in the season/ post season. Please don't forget the guy played injured last year practically the entire season. Sometimes, he looked like he was in a lot of pain and he was still very productive.
That's what happens when your OLine is swiss cheese. And isn't Greene like a 3rd round pick or something? I don't get the hate. This isn't Reggie Bush going in the 1st round and being a Bust. He's a 3rd rounder who's supposed to be serviceable.
Nobody is saying he is a bust but a lot of people are saying he shouldn't be the feature back. He was much better when he was the third down back behind LT in 2010 and Jones the year before that.
He was more a change of pace guy than a 3rd down back because he couldn't catch at all in 2010. If Sparano is planning on using 2 or even 3 guts on 1st and 2nd down with McKnight coming in for passing situations it would give Greene the hence to stay fresh and break some of those late game breakers we saw his rooke year. Or someone else will stay fresh and hopefully break them, whatever works.
Belicheck lines up one of his TEs Hernandez in the backfield and that worked out pretty well for NE on certain running plays. I'm curious if Rex/Sparano will try something similar with Tebow. I guess it depends on how well Tebow can catch the ball coming out of the back field and how well Tebow can pick up the blitz for Sanchez. Either way Tebow will eat up some of the run production one way or another.
Greene is far from a bulldozer. He’s like a misnomer. He looks the part of someone that will hurt the defense and will pick up a lot of yards after contact, but thats far from the truth. In 2010, he was 8th worst in the league with breaking tackles out of all of the RBs that qualified (with 5%). I mean Jamaal Charles and Lesean McCoy broke more tackles... http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stat-analysis/2011/broken-tackles-2010-part-ii Now, IMO, a “bulldozer” should break a good deal of tackles and should be extremely hard to take down on first contact. Greene doesnt do that. He hurts himself more than the opposing team and the majority of times just runs into defenders (because he cant get around them) and falls down on first contact. Like you said, his vision is subpar, he cant catch or block meaning he’s useless on 3rd down, he’s not a bulldozer and is injury prone... Oh and he cant break off any long runs. Ive been through this a bunch, but Greene is average at best. I dont think he would start on 60-70% of the other teams in the NFL, and we are supposed to be a team focused on the run. Im not the biggest fan of Greene, and Im hoping one of these younger backs can at least split carries with him, because I dont see him resigning next year (guy is going to be 28 entering next year which is not good for a RB).
The issue with Greene is that he hasn't taken that giant leap forward since taking the job. He's been a solid back, and I don't expect him to lose his job this year, but he's just not special, and he can't catch the ball at all. He did have 30 receptions last year, but he's not a receiving back, he has stone hands. McKnight is going to play a much bigger role offensively. LaDainian had 117 touches on offense last year. McKnight had 56. If McKnight can take a big step forward (3.1 ypc like last year won't help, though 43 carries is a very small sample), he could get close to 200 touches on offense. The biggest question is do the Jets view him as a third down back who will usurp LT's role? Or do they want him to still be jack-of-all-trades? I would think if he's the main back behind Greene, he wouldn't be practicing much on defense...
