TKF wrote:
honestly, a stupid move by the jets to let him go for the 3 mil bonus.. and now leon washington visiting the niners... jets are going to regret cutting jones... You know what you get with jones.. a locker room leader, a guy who will run hard and never fumbles.....
Jones did a lot of good things for the Jets, on and off the field as you pointed out. But we all saw how he performed in the playoffs. He had nothing left in the tank and basically never got the ball past two yards. Against good defenses his lack of speed and power really hurt him and he doesn't take advantage of our tremendous offensive line. Now we could see it first hand what huge difference was between Greene and Jones. Greene didn't dance around, hit the hole hard and finished runs over defenders - all things TJ just doesn't do. Add that he is getting older and older and I can certainly understand the move from the Jets perspective. He frees up money and gives us the opportunity to get younger. If we would have had a better RB to complement Greene against Indy, we might have won. A run first team needs two good backs, and as much as I admire Jones for his workmanlike approach and everything he brought, he just wasn't more than an average runner. Now he had good numbers but in his case I see them being more a result of our offensive line. No disrespect to him but I think it was time to move on. Running backs over 30 always raise red flags... I wish Jones all the best, he was a warrior but the Jets can do better than him.
There will be a ton of running backs in the draft who fit our zone blocking scheme perfectly. Montario Hardesty from Tennessee or LeGarrette Blount from Oregon for example. Punishing downhill runners who go forward after one cut. Man, I can just imagine an opposing defense taking blow after blow from our running game next year. Can't wait for next season...
A much more threatening situation in my eyes is the Tony Richardson deal. I hope he adds another year and the Jets groom a FB to take over for him in 2011. He is the unsung hero to our running game and a terrific player. Hope we resign him...
Leon will be back unless some team throws crazy money at him. I just can't see that after the horrific injury he had. The Niners rumors were shut down from what I heard. Now we shouldn't forget, as good a player Leon is, we went on our playoff and late season run last year without him. Definitely something to consider when we think about resigning him or matching a contract offer. If someone else will sign him, we get back a second rounder which we could easily turn into a good RB like Hardesty, Blount or Ben Tate from Auburn...