12, actually. Great job by Tomlinson last season despite the shitty OLine he was running behind, or, more often times, in front of. He is definitely going to benefit from the Jets' OLine.
I think Jones would have dealt with the 20 carries a game Ryan says he's gonna give LT. Hey, I don't think that this will hurt the Jets too much as long as Greene continues to play the way he has, and Leon is healthy. I just happen to agree with the article that the Jets didn't upgrade the running game.
It could be upgraded with Brick having another year under his belt. Don't they always say that it really takes three or four years before you really learn the tackle position.
They added a guy who is a better pass catching option, a better pass blocker and has more speed and power. The only thing that Jones MIGHT have on LT is health but then again, LT MIGHT not suffer as many nicks and scrapes if he isn't getting hit in the backfield by three guys and trying to break a tackle just to make it back to the line of scrimmage. How the Hell is that not an upgrade?
They* say that for every position. *People who are payed to make gross generalizations to a sports fan who would not realize that different players have different learning curves.
Can't agree with that. Right from the start, it was obvious to me the difference between their running styles of last season (offseason, actually). Greene takes the ball and bursts to the hole, whether it will be there or not. TJ has this frustrating tendency to make a hop cut in the backfield on about 60% of his runs, anticipating the timing of the O-line. Many times, the hole appeared to be there, and TJ let it close. Greene is a classic north-south bruiser with a decent cutback move. A powerback with average vision that fights through tackles and keeps his feet moving even when there are 3 defenders wrapping him up. Jones is a classic cutback runner who relies on durability, a ton of carries (as statjeff said above) and slightly above-average finesse to evade defenders. TJ's main problem is that his running style is predicated on the same type of average vision that Greene has, and when a finesse runner is counting on average vision, he's going to be 1 yard and a cloud of dust more often than not.
If you look at some of Greene's highlights last season and his college highlights he shows more than average vision finding the hole and cutting through it. He might not have great vision but relative to Jones I think Greene's vision is a bit better. Then again Jones often times couldn't even make it to the hole unless it was wide open so maybe his vision wasn't an issue. I don't know.
Last year the knock was we have no receivers, this year is we lost the great Thomas Jones, any reason to knock us down, they find. Its never apples to apples, but the media makes its so. I guess Greene is replacing Woodhead and LT is replacing TJ. I love it, the media still does not believe.
The actual quote was this: "Hypothetically, we'd see [Tomlinson] carry the ball 15 times a game." It is clear that this is an upper limit even in the current thinking, and is designed to make LT happy and let Leon know that he has no leverage with the team. If it turns out that Tomlinson is not effective enough for 15 carries, he'll get less. It's really not that complicated.
Where is the knock on the Jets in the article? He didn't say they would suck or that they have no chance at winning. He didn't say they weren't going to be top cantenders... He just told the truth, that LT is not an upgrade to Jones. He didn't say Cromartie wasn't an upgrade, or any of their other moves were downgrades. Any article that doesn't kiss the Jets ass is a slam for some of you guys.
He's probably right, LT is not an upgrade to 2009 Thomas Jones. Good thing, like about 20 people have said already in this thread, that LT is not replacing TJ.
It's an issue of context. You can't just say that a Mustang is better than an F-150; if my primary use for a vehicle is to move sheets of 8x4 then the F-150 is considerably better than the Mustang. In the same way, how successful or otherwise LT was behind the San Diego O-line last year has absolutely fuck all relevance to what he's going to be asked to do behind the Jets' O-line because they're completely different roles.
So is LT replacing TJ or not?? It amazes me the stupidity of sports writers and due to gamut of news companies in the US it seems any fucktard with a biro and a notepad classifies as a reporter.
You can't possibly look at the film on the SD offensive line, and the NY Jets offensive line and not CLEARLY see how LT is going to be an upgrade from Jones. LT has FAR superior vision and moves, is at least as fast - even if he has lost a step or two, and will have HUGE holes opened up for him by the Jets oline. Time will tell, but I can easily see how LT will be FAR more effective than he was in SD over the past few years. The Oline is the difference......and it's a HUGE one. :up:
What frustrates me about the LT signing is that the Jets seem not to acknowledge that 2008 and 2009 happened the way they did for him. I could care less if the Jets have leverage with Leon Washington or not in an uncapped year when they could easily sign him to a big upfront contract and then release him a year or two down the road if they have too. It would be easy for them to offer him 12 million guaranteed in a 6 million bonus and 6 million salary for the year and then tie in a bunch of incentives that extend the contract along those lines if he actually is good enough to get the downs played for them next season. I keep looking at Leon Washington and thinking that he is going to be so much better than LT next season for whomever he winds up playing for. Yes, he had the injury and yes he might get hurt again, but LT is ancient and his talents clearly have eroded substantially over the last couple of years. If Leon has a good year next year nobody will be surprised, if LT has a bad year nobody will be surprised - so why the heck is LT sitting in the weight room working out for next year while Leon wanders around looking for the deal that the Jets will not want to match?
Apparently the Dolphags are interested and the Jets will match their offer. So hopefully that happens, maybe that's why he's still down in Florida. I want Leon on this team.
