If the Jets get 3 good years out of Jenkins moving forward they're ahead of the game. Anything after that is gravy. NT's can last for quite awhile in the right system though. I think we should look at how Baltimore's NT's have held up since 2002 when they switched to the 3-4: 2002 - Kelly Gregg (26) 16 starts. 2003 - Kelly Gregg (27) 15 starts. 2004 - Kelly Gregg (28) 14 starts. 2005 - 4-3 Defense. 2006 - 4-3 Defense. 2007 - Kelly Gregg (31) 16 starts. 2008 - Haloti Ngata (24) 16 starts. Not sure exactly what to make of the pattern. Kelly Gregg got hurt last year, but lots of players get hurt. He seemed to wear down a little bit at the NT earlier in his career but not enough to make it a problem. My best guess is that if Jenkins stays injury free the Jets will be fine for a few years and if he doesn't we'll have a problem. That's kind of the NFL in a nutshell.
little off topic.. i caught this show "sport science" on fox sports and they had kris jenkins vs and average joe (dude was 5'8 160) just to see what it was like to face an nfl lineman, and jenkins literally lifted the dude up his head reached 9ft in the air, the guy was parallel to the ground and tossed him like 4 feet lol
ding ding ding can't even count the number of plays last year, especially towards the end, when we had jenkins and one other lineman rushing against 5 or 6 o-lineman while every other player, including our vaunted LB Gholston, dropped into coverage. jenks was being double and triple teamed EVERY PLAY. i recall one play when jenks was fighting a double team when the third o-lineman came in from the side and leveled him. He got up slow but kept fighting. plus look for ellis and jenks to switch it up, jenks bull rushing from the right side. yikes. o-linemen screaming out assignments, when WHAM! here comes Scott for a clean hit on Brady. gives me goose bumps just thinking about brady getting carted off. again.
Backs are finnicky. They feel fine for a bit, then they hurt like hell and you're missing games. KJ has alot of mass to support and even if he does put less stress on it, the damage may have already been done. Getting lighter perhaps would help his back, but NT's need mass. Methinks getting a good backup NT might be the best thing for KJ's career or even better, running a hybrid 3/4 just to give KJ some help on the LOS.
