They fact that he looked like an old slow back with no push during the season last year means nothing as well because our OL sucked. This is team no. 4. Out of the 5 backs who had more than 300 carries last year, Jones ranked last in TD's, runs over 20 yards, average per run. He looked slow hitting the hole showed no power in short yardage and goal line situations. He looks worse so far this year in pre-season. No worries players don't get cut based on how they look in pre-season and teams don't bring in guys who are cut at positions that are weak before the season. See Chad and Favre. This is a built to win team now, no way Jones is our prime back to start the season.
There is no way Jones is getting 300 plus carries as the feature back for this team. He will either get cut back substantially as Leon takes more of the load or we get another feature back before the season.
Winston may be right. forget about the numbers for a sec, and just go by what you see. the OL was terrible last year, but watching Leon - behind the same OL - it appeared he has better moves and is just as tough a runner as Jones. even Chatman looks like he has better Offensive moves (granted, he's playing against scrubs, but he proved himself last year too). if i were composing the depth chart, i'd have Leon start, but spell him early to keep him fresh, while still making sure he gets the rock the majority of the time.
I don't see how the Jets could get another feature back before the season. Chatman may be better than Jones now. He is a bit better at picking up the blitz and runs with more desire.
You're probably right, Jones has a big cap number even if we cut him. I just can't see by the way he has run last year and this pre-season that on this built to win team that he is going to get feature back attempts. I could see Leon and Chatman getting the bulk of the carries and plenty of empty backfields.
i understand you are all worried. However, lets see what happens the first couple games of the year. I know its not a good sign to see this in the preseason, but lets see what he does when it counts
I plan on making my predictions for the season prior to the first game not after the last one is played. Last year I was a little off we sucked more than I predicted we would suck.
I remember this one run in particular. TJ took the handoff and charged toward the line. He danced around for several seconds and then was knocked down by a 175 lb CB for a 1 yard gain. What great memories . . .
Some of you are comparing Thomas Jones in the preseason (who runs against the first team defense) to Jessie Chattman (who runs against the third team defense). Some of the defenders Jessie Chattman is running against will never play an NFL regular season down in their life. Thomas Jones is going to be fine, I cant wait to bump this thread in a month or so.
No way in the world the jets cut jones. He ran behind an awful o-line last year. He doesn't call the plays and therefor does not control who he runs behind. Thinks will look much different when the regular season starts.
I'm rewatching the game that I DVR'd on NFL Network earlier today and its early in the first quarter (after a 5 yard penalty on D'Brick) and Jones had a nice 5 yard run to the right side running behind Faneca (Faneca was pulling right). I know TJ is not breaking it for the big gain, and did look awful on some plays yesterday, but he will be fine.
look, jones isnt going to be LT or peterson, hes not going to break big ones he has never been that type of runner. he'll have a good year this year, last year was his first year as a jet and the team as a whole sucked but he still got over 1k. yeah he only had 1 rushing td, but we couldnt get in the red zone period, run or pass. jones will get over 4 yards a carry and at least 7 rushing td this season unless hes injured, u can quote me on that
You hit the nail right on the head--It really seems like to me that Chatman wants it more, and doesn't go down as fast as Jones.
well regardless of his 1000 yard season, i guess i'd look forward to his 50-60 yds per game highlights on espn.
