Much of my hourlong car ride from the Jersey Shore to the Jets training facility in Florham Park yesterday was spent formulating a plan for the Jets to ignite their dormant rushing attack.
By the time I arrived, I had a plan: Start LaDainian Tomlinson.
When the Jets offense takes the field for the first time against the Ravens tomorrow night in Baltimore, line No. 21 up behind Mark Sanchez in the backfield as the starting running back.
This plan was not meant to be an indictment of starter Shonn Greene, who has rushed for just 134 yards and a 3.3-yard average through the first three games, but merely a shake-it-up tactic — even if it is just for a week.
The Jets rushing offense is ranked 25th in the league and, despite their 2-1 record, they have yet to show any consistent rhythm in the running game, which for the last two years has been their strength on offense.
There are multiple reasons for the Jets’ poor ranking in rushing offense:
* Greene is a first-time starter.
* Right tackle Damien Woody, one of the team’s best run blockers, retired in the offseason when the team, miscalculating, wanted him back only at a cut-rate salary and he opted for a television career instead.
* Now, starting center Nick Mangold is hobbled with an ankle injury that caused him to miss last Sunday’s 34-24 loss in Oakland and has his availability for tomorrow’s game questionable.
Given all of the above factors, why not shake it up to see if starting Tomlinson in place of Greene might revive the running game from its funk?
Tomlinson said during the offseason he wanted to be “the best third-down back in the league.” But the Jets need him to be the best starting running back in the league against an aggressive Ravens defense.
Tomlinson’s legs are fresh. He has just 29 touches (17 runs and 12 receptions) in three games. With fresh legs last year, Tomlinson got off to a great start as the starter, rushing for 435 yards and three touchdowns in the first five games.
So, as I entered the Jets locker room yesterday I felt like my plan to start Tomlinson had merit on several levels.
Until Tomlinson talked me out of it.
“I don’t think that’s necessary,” he said. “At some point, you’ve got to trust in Shonn. The Jets drafted him for this purpose.”
In the give-me-the-damn-ball society in sports that we live in, most running backs in the league would leap out of their cleats for the opportunity to get more touches.
But Tomlinson, who’s in a close race with Curtis Martin as the most unselfish star athlete I ever have covered in nearly 30 years in the business, is not most running backs.
Tomlinson said it’s not the time to shake things up because he’s looking out for Greene.
“This is a game of confidence,” he said. “We all play with confidence if we get encouragement from our coaches. When they trust us we tend to play better.”
Would Tomlinson love to carry the ball more? Sure. Does he think he’s got enough left in his 32-year-old legs to spark the Jets’ running game? Absolutely.
But, as Tomlinson is quick to point out, he wants no part of “being a guy that would cause that type of controversy.”
This surprises no one in the Jets locker room.
“He’s the most unselfish player I’ve ever been around,” left guard Matt Slauson said.
Cornerback Darrelle Revis, widely considered the biggest star on the roster, who sits a couple of stalls over from Tomlinson’s locker, called Tomlinson “the most humble, giving guy I’ve ever met.
“He’s a guy younger guys need to look up to,” Revis said.
With Greene at the top of the list as one of those younger guys looking up to him, maybe Tomlinson’s unselfishness will ignite the Jets’ running game without him starting after all.