Curtis Martin will carry the ball 300-plus times next year if he's effective at his job, whether or not the Jets make the Super Bowl or not. O.J. Simpson, Eric Dickerson, and Barry Sanders carried the ball that many times year-in, year-out, for teams that were expected to do at least as much as the Jets are in 2006, and the Bills, Rams/Colts, and Lions repeated failure to make the Super Bowl was never lain at their doorstep. Are you saying it was Curtis's fault the Jets played so bad in 2005, then? Did you shoot the family cat the first time it got a hairball, too?
I don't believe in abusing the elderly that doesn't mean I believe they should be put down. We had this same stupid argument about Chrebet last year during the off season.
I didn't mean to call you stupid, I'm not that fond of you yet. Martin was one of the reasons along with Mawae, Herm, Bradway, injuries and outright dogging it for why the Jets stunk last year. He was awful that's the facts. He is old and will not get better he will get worse. I've seen this story for 40 years with better players than Martin and that's no knock on Martin.
I have to agree w/this assessment other than the 320 carries I dont see CMart getting that many carries
I never pictured you a Walmart shopper? I can see you making a 4:20 run to Costco for a gross of twizzlers but not Walmart.
Thanks for that clarification, Winston. I will try to work my way into your better graces. I just don't think you can say Curtis was awful last season. Disappointing, perhaps, but look at what he had to deal with. The O-Line was shot. Mawae was clearly fading. Martin more than most RBs depends on the tackles, he's a finesse runner more than a smash-mouther, and the Jets' tackles last season were atrocious. There was no passing attack until Bollinger found some consistency in the last four games, by which time Martin's legs were too banged up for him to continue. Still, he ran for decent yardage, against defenses that were gearing up for him on every snap. Give the Jets a guy who can find Coles deep once in a while, even (especially) Bollinger who I think began redeeming himself in the Miami game, and some guys up front who can move people back for a change, and he will do well. He just needs to find the open field, and he will make havoc. I don't think the Jets should run him like they did in 2004, but I think they should not give up on their best-ever RB after one sub-par season given the Canton-caliber nature of his singular career. I'd like to see the Jets change things up with an alternate RB, give Martin 200 carries or so, and see what they can do with a multi-dimensional offense. I'm optimistic, anyway.
Well, I have this Walmart across the street from my shop and I think it's their store manager's policy to hire nothing but smoking hot young women to man the registers... I've never seen anything like it. So, uh, I guess it makes it a more intense shopping experience or something.
I guess it's not too far from possibilty for him to have great year. He got the title only 2 seasons ago. But I remember reading during the offseason of the training he was doing,and hanging around jim Brown etc. he'd have to do that again and stay healthy. I'm not going to bank on it though,but i'll root for the guy
You're not at all in my bad graces, I just don't see Martin as the Jets future. He was brought in to help the Jets win a SB and the group they brought in with him simply didn't get it done and now it's time to move on. Martin probably goes into the HOF but in my mind he will always be behind Snell and Riggins, two Jet RB who helped teams win SB and Freeman who was simply the best back the Jets every had.
Didn't Riggins win his SB ring as an old-timer? Snell was the difference-maker in SB3, and McNeil was the second-best back behind Dickerson for a year or two in the early 80s before injuries hobbled him, but c'mon. Comparing yardage with Freeman and Matt just isn't close. Even when combined, Curtis leaves them about a mile behind. He's had as many 100-yard games for the Jets as any three RBs you care to name in team history.
I agree that the state of the OL and lack of a passing game made it very difficult for Curtis to be productive last season. But I think that his knee injury in Week 2 really affected his game, and he looked pretty bad for most of the season. I would estimate that Curtis went down on first contact on about 80% of plays that he touched the ball last season. He clearly had no burst, and seemed to lack the power necessary to fall forward after being tackled. Now don't get me wrong. I am pulling for Curtis, and if healthy I think he can be a productive RB again. I see his yardage going down somewhat because he was always the type of RB who needed to see consistant touches during the game. His carries will be limited, and his yardage will go down, but I still see him being productive in YPC if his knee fully recovers.
Martin isn't the Jets future but he was not truly part of the problem last year. At least by that I mean he didn't suddenly lose all his ability and go from leading the league to being a scrub. There was a lot of reasons for his problems last year. Injuries to him and others mainly. The most telling thing to me was the Jax game where when Fiedler came in for the few plays. Martin rushed 3 times while Fielder was in and because the DBs actually had to respect the pass the running game looked better and Martin averaged at least 5 yards on each of those carries. Unfortunately that didn't last as Fiedler went down and then CMart himself got hurt. He will probably be the starter and main back this year unless Blaylock or Houston really step up and beat him out. It would not be surprising to see him get at least 200+ carries and it wouldn't be suprising to see a rookie HC rely on a veteran leader to get them through some rough patches. Just have to wait and see how it all plays out.
If you needed to win a game or a group of games in the playoffs and you had in their prime and healthy Freeman, Snell and Martin on the bench. Martin isn't getting off the bench.
HAHA NICE! yeah I love watching an Oldman every now an then oh, OLD MAN! i say we give this guy the ball 300 times lol seriously though martin should be fine this yr as long as at least 8-12 carries get put on someone else. id expect him to see around 15 carries a game. we could easily pound the ball with the amount of able backs we have. not saying theyre capabale but i would expect the same YPC from our younger talent as i would Martin. if not more.
I won't dispute your central premise that Freeman and Matt were great. I do argue with the idea that they were better than Curtis. Okay, extrapolate McNeil's performance in strike-shortenened 1982-83 and say he had another four to six games to pile up the kind of yards that measured up to Martin's best seasons. Or else argue that Martin never performed as well in a game as big as Snell did in Super Bowl III. But if that's your point, what about longevity? The problem with your metric is that McNeil and Snell had primes that combined lasted as long as Martin's. Or put it another way: How many NFL rushing titles did Freeman win eight years into his career, or ever? How about Snell?
I suspect they will have to, for the team's future as well as Martin's. One of Coach Edwards' mistakes was not pacing Martin after his injury, and I suspect Coach Mangini will want to work in a younger pair of legs.
McNeal never had under a 4.0 YPC. He finished his career with a 4.5 YPC average and had 2 seasons with over a 5.0 YPC average. Martin has a 4.0 YPC average for his carreer, he has had 4 seasons where he averaged less than 4.0 YPC and 4 seasons where he averaged more than 4 YPC. They both have 3 plus 100 yard playoff games but McNeal did it in 2 less games and also had a 200 yard playoff game. Both Martin and McNeal won 1 rushing title in their careers. Matt Snell played FB in a two back offense where he shared carries with Emerson Boozer who was a fine back in his own right. The most carries he every got in a season was 215. He played on a team where the offensive line was set up primarily to pass block for Namath, they had no mind set to run the ball at all during Snell's prime, the Jets were a pass first team and Snell was not only a good RB, he was a great blocker and had very sure hands. He also had a better YPC average than Martin and against what at the time was the dominate defenisve team in pro football and considered maybe the best D of all time, he shreded them in the big game something Martin failed to do in the SB for the Pats or the AFC finals for the Jets.
This year RB will be by committee C-Mart may get the lions share but I believe that we will see alot of Cedric Huston and Leon Wahsington
