I'm giving you a scouting report. I wouldn't have even registered if I didn't come and see all the incredibly inaccurate posts about Johnson and what he's going to mean to the Jets. I read one person compare him to Curtis Martin and another compare him to LeSean McCoy. That's just ridiculous. In Johnson's best day (2009) he was never even close to the RB that Martin was, 2000 yards or no 2000 yards. If Johnson was so good he'd have gotten a contract bigger than what Toby Gerhart got. The NFL knows what's up with Chris Johnson. My guess is that most of you will find out the hard way in the Fall. It it possible that I'll be wrong? Sure. But he's going to have to change the way he plays, learn how to pick up a blitz, learn how to run routes out of the backfield and change his overall attitude for that to happen.
I addressed that in my first post. The Titans offense last year was better and more efficient when Shonn Greene was in the game than when Chris Johnson was in the game. It was clear who the better RB was. Unfortunately Greene got hurt in the first game and didn't come back until week 7. It did make a difference when the Titans were forced to go with Jackie Battle in a crucial goalline situation against the Chiefs that may have cost them the game. I am very happy with Greene as the starting RB because the position isn't all that important to begin with and Greene does all you really need from a RB. He picks up the tough yards, can catch out of the backfield and is a better blocker than Johnson. They need a better complement to Greene than Johnson and my guess is they'll address that sometime in the draft. I was on the fence when the Titans signed him because I thought they overpaid for him (and still think that) but he's a lot better than I thought he'd be. He's one of the best short yardage backs in the league. That's huge late in games when you're trying to milk the clock with a lead.
"If Johnson was so good he'd have gotten a contract bigger than what Toby Gerhart got." If that's the case I'm happy my front office didn't give this guy more than he deserved. I don't see your point here. And I don't think anyone was saying he's as good as them, just using those backs as comparisons in our situation. LeSean McCoy is a quick back that our offensive coordinator (who worked with shady) likes to use. Sure he's not as good as McCoy is now. But the last speed guy in our backfield we had was Joe McKnight and he showed up to training camp unconditioned every year. Curtis Martin (if I remember right) was an example of a guy who didn't have the best ypc the season we gave him a chance. I can tell you no fan is expecting a 2000 yard season from him. We're expecting a compliment to our bruising running back that can pick up yards, which CJ2K has. A good receiving back doesn't hurt either
I would take Ivory in a short yardage situation over Greene any day of the week. You could argue we have one of the best RB tandems in the league.
I think CJ's biggest contribution is going to be catch the ball out of the backfield. I see him having the impact LT had for us in his short stint with the team, and if that's the case I think we'll really benefit .
He will help the Jets to a few more wins and the Titans not having him will add a few more losses for them.
we aren't discussing baseball. I looked up fbo rb rankings and they had Johnson at 17 for 2013 which was better than anyone previously on our roster (33 and 34). My guess is that you've cherry picked some specialized pfo rb stat that ranks cj very poorly in order to back some position you took. I'm also guessing that whatever pfo metric you're using penalizes heavily for negative run plays which would obviously hurt Johnson. If cj stays healthy I'm pretty excited to see what morningwood can do with him. Regardless of any advanced metric you want to pull up I think it's obvious to anyone that he is an explosive player that can make things happen in space. That's something we haven't really had here for a while so it's exciting. I think mm will use him effectively and our offense will be much better with him than it would have been without him. And that's what matters.
Ftr I primarily see Johnson as an upgrade over Powell, who wore down as last season progressed. Neither Powell nor Ivory are better than mediocre catching the ball, as well, so Johnson will be an upgrade there, too. Ivory also has a history if some injuries, so Johnson should help there, too, if needed. I expect Johnson will be healthy despite the rumors and such about his knee, and the acknowledged miniscus surgery, which doesn't sound too complex. I tend not to think much compared to others around here about the perceived cakehole factor in attitude, either. He sounds hungry to me. My original concern is he wanted to be the featured back where he went, and Ivory imo was the Jets' best player on O last year, so CJ must be acknowledging to himself he will be sharing the load with Ivory. Still, the Jets did have the sixth ranked rushing attack last season, with Powell sharing the duties (Btw I think we will still see Powell from time to time, just not as much as last year). So I am not expecting a huge upgrade in the rushing attack. What I instead think will be a big help is that as a receiving threat and more of an outside running threat Johnson will allow Marty more flexibility in playcalling. Which will help Vick, too. In the end Johnson will succeed or fail to the extent to which he fits in with Decker, Vick, Ivory and Kerley, and hopefully a hot rookie wideout. No one here is expecting some football equivalent of clearing the way for him to play one on one. It will be a team effort on O.
Home runs would equate to touchdowns not yardage; certainly a RB that scores a lot of touchdowns but doesn't rush for a lot of yards could be argued not to be a great running back. Yardage would equate to batting average, and an applicable argument would be you trying to claim a .300 hitter isn't a good hitter if he also has a lot of strikeouts. That would be a bad argument. Your argument is simply not an accurate comparison of the two sports.
After the first four games Powell had 66 carries for 330 yards, a 5 ypc number. The rest of the season he was 110 for 367, a 3.34 ypc average. Perhaps I should not have used a term suggesting he was tired or something, but his production clearly declined on a yards per carry basis. I think that metric is best to isolate the value of his play from how much Ivory was in the game.
Don't worry. I won't hold it against you. Ftr I corrected an error in the post you quoted. Powell's total rushing yardage in the last twelve games was only 367.
Now I will admit I did like Greene a bit when he was with the Jets but better than Johnson? 1/2 yd less per rush for his career, career long of 36 yds to Johnsons 94, 51 yds on average per game to 84 yds per game for Johnson, 14 rushes over 20 yds and no rushes over 40 to Johnsons 68 over 20 and 18 over 40. You also keep going on how Johnson can not catch yet Johnson has more receptions and yards per year every year. The vast majority of fans that were for this signing were not expecting him to be back to his 2009 production and are aware he has dropped off a little but when he is sharing touches with Ivory and Powell also he is not going top be expected to do as much anyway. Unfortunately you seemed to have skipped over those posts and just want to go on and on about how terrible Johnson is. You don't rush for 1000 yds 6 seasons in a row if you suck as you keep claiming and he averaged 4.6 yds a rush while doing that.
A lot of it will be situational. At some point they'll be playing catch-up in a game and that's when another team will really try to just run them over. Best run defense is always putting up points and taking that option away and making the other team throw. Whereas the Jets almost always keep it close with New England, I think that's how Ryan's played it before, and I think he'll do it again. CJ is a really nice complement to Ivory. Rotating those two in and out is going to make for a tough run game to defend.
I think that might be a reason why they were pursuing MJD and then CJ. You can't freeze a RB out of the game of he is a receiving threat out of the backfield.
