Maybe you've answered your own question to a degree. They don't know if Greene can be a featured back. Given that and the fact that the Jets feel they are on the cusp of winning a Super Bowl they probably take the outlook that they don't want to hand over the role to Greene were the room for error is limited. Lets say he can't hack it...what then if you don't have LT around? You keep LT who played well last, has a track record and can split time with Greene so as too ease him into a greater role of responsibility. Is this necessarily an acceptable situation? Probably not. You would like to think Greene would be ready by now. Maybe he is for that matter, but as I said keeping around LT has its benefits, providing he is used in a suitable manner as you alluded to. I think it will be interesting to see how they use McKnight this year. Hopefully he can hit the ground running with a good training camp and get off to a better start than he had in his first year.
You need 2-3 backs at a minimum anyways. How many guys in the NFL today are true workhorses and manage to play the whole year? Maybe 3 but even those guys get hurt. The fact of the matter is that LT brought more to the table than Greene did throughout all of last year even if Greene was the superior pure runner in the second part of the season. I think the coaching staff can easily see his talent running the ball, a blind man could, it is the things like pass blocking that he needs to tighten up if we want to see him on the field in a lot of the spots LT saw the field last year.
