If you're good enough to play they find a spot for you and you get in games, it's that simple. It's not basketball, 45 guys dress for each game and there's all different options with who to sit and whatnot.
If he was good enough to be on the roster one of the other guys wouldn't be. Or he'd at least be playing special teams. Rex says it all the time, they're in the win business, meaning you play your best players. McKnight isn't one of them.
Exactly, you can't show me an NFL team that regularly carries 5 active RB's. Thank you. edit: It's a numbers game too. You have to be able to provide something that someone else doesn't. You can't just carry a bunch of RB's because they are your best football players. We have two punt returners and one of the better kickoff returners in the game. We have two solid RB's that combined can do anything you need a RB to do.
Be as smug as you want, if McKnight could play he'd be playing. Conner was taken a round later and he's playing. So they took a "project" in the 4th round and a contributer in the 5th round? I don't buy that. They overvalued McKnight, as many here are doing, and made up for it with Conner. And of course saved themselves with LT in regard to letting Leon go. All in all they covered themselves, but let's not act like McKnight was part of some master long-term plan, he is now because he's not good enough to be playing now.
Teams have taken "projects" in the first round before. It's not nearly as simple as you want to make it out to be. Why aren't you up in arms about Ducasse taking a spot away from Woodhead? He is a second round project that hasn't contributed either. The jury is still out on McKnight as he hasn't seen the field. Until there is an oppurtunity for him to do something I don't see what the hate is.
I'm not saying McKnight is going to be good or bad. I'm just saying it's ridiculous to write him off because he hasn't shown anything. Look at who's ahead of him and you know why he's not active. Once again, woodhead wouldn't be active either on this team. He was active one week because we needed a WR then when we signed an actual NFL receiver (and that's questionable) he was let go because there was no spot for him to make the active roster here. Conner is a beast blocker for special teams kick returns.
There's no hate, he's a Jet and I hope he ends up succeeding, just calling it as it is. Ducasse is more of a "project" because he's at a position which takes longer to learn, which wasn't even his position in college where he played at a small school. Of course that had less effect on Woodhead or Leon because he's an O-lineman, not a RB. That's different than a RB from USC, basically a pro team, adjusting to the NFL. If the Jets knew in April what they know now you don't think they draft Conner ahead of McKnight?
If every team could go back right now I'm sure the draft order would be very different. I don't know what the Jets know about McKnight right now because we haven't heard anything about him for 2 months. We all know he had a rough training camp and we all know that Rex said he was coming along early in the season. Other than that we have no idea how much or how little he has improved. Until he gets a chance to touch the ball 5-10times in a game it's hard to make any type of judgement on who would have been better to keep because like Willie said no other running back is going to be active for the Jets right now.
what does mcknight playing WITH "basically a pro team" have to do with him playing AGAINST actual pro comp? and mcknights position isnt as difficult to learn as ducasses but hes buried behind greene and LdT on the depth chart the first HB taken, ryan mathews, wouldnt even be getting burn over those guys ... would that make him a bust?
You don't know that. Matthews, or Spiller, could have been lights out from Day 1 and earned some PT. Just because McKnight is buried behind those guys doesn't mean other rooks would be as well.
It isn't that hard to see that neither of those guys are better than Greene or LT right now. Spiller couldn't even get carries from day one in buffalo and Mathews hasn't been anything special in san diego so far. Unless a RB was going to come in an be better than either LT or Greene they would have been buried on the depth chart here.
Everything would be different. You can't use how they've played elsewhere in different schemes with different players as a basis for how they would have played in NY. Add different coaching, different atmosphere and learning from a HOF RB like LT for 6 months.
I can still say with confidence that they wouldn't have taken Greene's spot on the depth chart. Unless someone was going to beat him out they wouldn't be on the active roster. Spiller would have no shot because he is too similar to LT and Mathews just isn't better than Greene and he wouldn't have somehow surpassed him when Greene has already been around for a year.
http://twitter.com/TheJetsStream/status/5691792800350208 #Jets Rex doesn't anticipate playing RB Joe McKnight at cornerback vs. Texans. But says he could do it in emergency. Interesting. #nfl #nyj
