that was a rough decade of Jets football too.. have to be able to run the ball. Freeman, Murrell, Curtis, and Jones........pretty good Jets backs. think Shonn Greene has actually hit the 1,000 yd club too, for whatever its worth.
the question is who is the greatest jets rb since Curtis martin? it's a clear question. it doesn't mean HOFer, it doesn't mean great RB by RB standards. It means and clearly suggests who is the best or greatest in terms of Jets RB since Curtis Martin. Just answer the question.
I like Thomas but I think he was over rated. Played behind a beast o line. I think of ivory ran behind that line he'd be a top 5 back in the league each year. Jones was a work house and did his job well but didn't have that wow factor to me. He went down to easily and from what I could remember would dive to the ground before contact a lot of the time. I guess that is why he was durable. I'm also just a huge Ivory fan and love the way the man runs the ball. He has underrated speed and agility. If he could catch he would be an elite running back. Also loved Leon. I was so mad/sad when we traded him away for what I belive was the pick we took john Connor with. Terrible trade
You're right about TJ here. At least twice a game he looked to have the ability to get a 3 or 4 more yards at the end of a carry if only he lowered his shoulder and fought for it. Instead, he'd concede and go down or run out of bounds. But then again, that's absolutely why we could give him the ball 20 times a game, 16 games a season. Unlike Ivory, who is looking to truck everyone in his way (which I love BTW) and is always dinged up as a result. Ivory has been one of my favorite players since joining the team. The dude runs like his life depends on it every game. However, that running through a brick wall style doesn't last long........
I agree about Jones. He was smart, a complete back, and a leader, but not a great back. In fact, I think his leadership was probably his greatest attribute and contribution to the Jets. I also loved Leon and always felt he was underutilized. I too was unhappy when he was traded. This will get me flamed for certain, but the bolded above is why I don't think CuMar was really a great player. I think he was smart, a great Jet, and I respected him, but was also frustrated by him at the same time. I think he was very good at everything (running, receiving and blocking). He was the consummate professional who worked extremely hard to keep himself in top shape. He was a silent leader and example. He was a class act. He played hurt. He had great cutback ability. I think that aspect along with his dedication and character were his great attributes. I think for those reasons and the fact that the Jets didn't have a lot of other stars, it was easy to see why Jets fans love him so, but I think they overrate his ability. He had good speed, but not elite speed, and thus didn't have the ability to take it to the house from anywhere on the field. I don't think opposing OCs stayed up nights worrying about how they were going to stop him. He was a solid, reliable workhorse back with excellent hands. He rarely fumbled, but unfortunately, several of the times he did fumble were huge and killed the team (vs. Denver in '98 and the fumble vs NE that got Vinny hurt in '99, and there may have been another time or two). IMO, he only amassed all the yardage he did because the Jets centered the offense around him and he stayed healthy because he avoided big hits by going down easily. I don't think I've ever seen a RB get tackled for losses or no gains more than he was or go down on first contact more. Of course some of that was due to the OLs he played behind, but was also due to the fact that he lined up 8 yards deep so he could spot the holes better, but since he wasn't that fast, the holes would often close before he got to them. He also ran out of bounds a LOT. Sometimes it looked like he went down when a tackler just looked at him in a threatening manner. I always felt like he left a lot of yards on the field. I only recall one season that he really fought for extra yardage and ran hard, and that was after his mother publicly got on his case for not running hard enough during the off season. He agreed, and it was interesting to me that the next season was his best year, and I think maybe the only year he led the NFL in rushing. He got a ton of yardage on 3rd down draw plays that failed to pick up the first down. He got a lot of his yards against weaker teams with undisciplined defenses who wouldn't stay in their lanes, so he was able to cut back a lot and pick up extra yardage. I remember numerous occasions where he would be in the secondary, in the clear, cut back for no reason, and run right into a tackler. If he had run straight ahead on those plays he could have gained at least another 10-20 yards and sometimes scored. So his one great aspect at times worked against him. It was like his instincts told him he couldn't run in a straight line for more than 5-10 yards or something. Perhaps worst of all was that in big games, he would often disappear. He just didn't have the ability to elevate his game against top competition. In fairness, Parcells was pretty conservative, so some of what I perceive to be his shortcomings could be laid at Parcells' feet. I'd rather lay them there than at Curtis' feet, because I did like Curtis, but never really liked Parcells.
that is amazing too, we were close last year. I think we could have two 1,000 yd receivers this year.
