Countdown to the NFL!!!!!!!!!!

pwherr · #1 06-20-2010, 11:31 AM

Pre 48 days
Regular 80 days

Dr. Jack · #2 06-20-2010, 12:33 PM

can't wait

JETMAN · #3 06-20-2010, 01:30 PM

By BART HUBBUCH

Last Updated: 6:39 AM, June 20, 2010

Posted: 2:55 AM, June 20, 2010

With mini-camp freshly behind them and training camp just around the corner, the Jets and their fans have plenty of reasons to be excited about Rex Ryan's second season.

LaDainian Tomlinson shouldn't be one of them.

One of Gang Green's more curious moves this offseason was jettisoning Thomas Jones after a 1,402-yard rushing year and signing Tomlinson to replace him.

Tomlinson's low-cost signing had all the makings of a marketing gambit to juice stagnant PSL sales that -- like the Darrelle Revis and Nick Mangold contract scuffles -- are casting a considerable black cloud over the Jets' otherwise promising hopes.

If only the Jets could have signed the 2007 Tomlinson.

Even without pads or contact, it didn't take a grizzled NFL scout to notice in the Jets' recent workouts that Tomlinson just doesn't look like the same player who terrified opposing defenses with his slippery moves and sublime hands for nine seasons with the Chargers.

Tomlinson appears bulkier and definitely a step (or three) slower than he did in his prime, which is to be expected from a running back who next week turns 31 -- increasingly the point of no return in the NFL -- with his incredible amount of mileage.

We're talking about a player with 3,410 touches (combined carries and receptions) who missed just three games combined in his first nine NFL seasons. Indeed, Tomlinson enters this season as the league's active leader in rushing attempts by a wide margin -- 2,880 carries to Fred Taylor's 2,491.

That's a lot of collisions, a lot of wear-and-tear that no amount of blaming the Chargers' offensive line will allow Tomlinson to roll back the odometer on.

Also consider that the two other active leaders in carries with Tomlinson last year, Edgerrin James and Jamal Lewis, both hung it up after the 2009 season.

And to put that in further perspective, Tomlinson has almost 300 more career touches than Eddie George, who -- while admittedly a more straight-ahead, physical runner than Tomlinson -- was burnt to a crisp and out of football by age 31.

Yet Ryan and the Jets act and talk as if Tomlinson is still in his prime, even though LT hasn't averaged better than 3.8 yards per carry each of the past two years and had been reduced to a nothing role with San Diego by the end of last season.

Tomlinson actually worked with the starters at times ahead of Shonn Greene during the Jets' OTAs, and Ryan dropped hints throughout that Tomlinson could have a big role this year.

Tomlinson and the Chargers, particularly GM A.J. Smith, have exchanged insults since Tomlinson's ugly offseason departure, but several NFL executives told me it isn't just sour grapes on San Diego's part.

"If you watch the films from the end of last year, the guy had nothing left," a general manager with multiple Super Bowl rings said last week. "It's not a knock on him personally. All those carries are going to catch up to anyone."

If that role is any bigger than a handful of carries per game while Tomlinson provides locker-room leadership and tutors Greene and rookie third-down back Joe McKnight, then the Jets aren't headed back to the playoffs, much less the Super Bowl.

Deep down, you have to believe the Jets think the same thing.