Story this weekend that the Jets have been rotating three different backs with the starters at OTAs. Tevin Coleman, Ty Johnson (pictured) and rookie Michael Carter have all been taking their turn, and possibly LaMical Perine could still be a factor. It looks like a mess best avoided.
Maybe New York settles on one of these backs, but which one? The one drafted by the current regime (Carter)? The one the coaching staff is most familiar with (Coleman, who was with New York's new offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur in San Francisco last year)? Or the ones most effective a year ago (either Johnson or Perine)? Carter (like most unknown rookies) has the most theoretical upside, but you can't actually draft him with any confidence you're getting the team's starter or even one of the top 2 backs.
It's a mess at this point, and with the Jets we're talking about a team that has generally been a running back wasteland for more than a decade.
In the early part of this century, New York had its moments. Curtis Martin, Thomas Jones -- those guys had multiple good years for the Jets. But over the past 10 years, the Jets haven't had a single top-10 fantasy back. They've had only one, Chris Ivory, sneak into the top 15.
Table shows every Jets back to rank in the top 50 at the position in any year in the past decade. Not a lot of great memories there.
| TOP-50 JETS RUNNING BACKS, 2011-2020 (PPR) | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Player | Att | Run | TD | No | Rec | TD | PPR | Rk |
| 2015 | Chris Ivory | 247 | 1070 | 7 | 30 | 217 | 1 | 206.7 | 11 |
| 2019 | LeVeon Bell | 245 | 789 | 3 | 66 | 461 | 1 | 217.0 | 16 |
| 2016 | Bilal Powell | 131 | 722 | 3 | 58 | 388 | 2 | 199.0 | 17 |
| 2012 | Shonn Greene | 276 | 1063 | 8 | 19 | 151 | 0 | 188.4 | 19 |
| 2011 | Shonn Greene | 253 | 1054 | 6 | 30 | 211 | 0 | 192.5 | 20 |
| 2016 | Matt Forte | 218 | 813 | 7 | 30 | 263 | 1 | 185.6 | 21 |
| 2014 | Chris Ivory | 198 | 821 | 6 | 18 | 123 | 1 | 154.4 | 24 |
| 2017 | Bilal Powell | 178 | 772 | 5 | 23 | 170 | 0 | 147.2 | 30 |
| 2015 | Bilal Powell | 70 | 313 | 1 | 47 | 388 | 2 | 135.1 | 34 |
| 2013 | Bilal Powell | 176 | 697 | 1 | 36 | 272 | 0 | 140.4 | 34 |
| 2018 | Isaiah Crowell | 143 | 685 | 6 | 21 | 152 | 0 | 140.7 | 35 |
| 2011 | LaDainian Tomlinson | 75 | 280 | 1 | 42 | 449 | 2 | 132.9 | 35 |
| 2014 | Chris Johnson | 155 | 663 | 1 | 24 | 151 | 1 | 117.4 | 39 |
| 2017 | Matt Forte | 103 | 381 | 2 | 37 | 293 | 1 | 122.4 | 42 |
| 2012 | Bilal Powell | 110 | 437 | 4 | 17 | 140 | 0 | 98.7 | 44 |
| 2020 | Frank Gore | 187 | 653 | 2 | 16 | 89 | 0 | 102.2 | 46 |
| 2013 | Chris Ivory | 182 | 833 | 3 | 2 | 10 | 0 | 104.3 | 48 |
It's a new year, new coaching staff, and there are some new faces in the backfield. Maybe one of these backs will take the job and, er, run with it in 2021. If you're in a best-ball draft, the one you can select latest might be the best flier (Ty Johnson, as a for instance, might not even be drafted in most leagues, but could very well be the No. 1).
But hard to make any kind of case for using a decent pick on any of these players. Maybe you get the No. 1, maybe you get the No. 3. Odds don't look great of getting a top-20 player at the position.
--Andy Richardson