By Zack Cimini
Notjustagame23@gmail.com

For all the bad publicity the New York Jets have received this year there has been a very bright spot. Their signing of LT has quietly been the key to their early season success. He has by far outperformed Shonn Greene. Greene was expected to storm by LT, and make him look like a cast away veteran in the last stage of his career. Instead Greene looks like LT’s backup. Fantasy owners have to be boiling that drafted Greene as he has done little. Most likely you’ve been forced to start him based on the position you drafted him.

LT’s departure from San Diego wasn’t handled in the best way, but LT acted like a business man during the whole matter. He could have been bitter and voiced his opinion in a fashion that tore apart the organization. Everyone knows the Chargers have not been the best in handling situations with their players. As the writing was on the wall, LT looked for a place that he felt he could still thrive and win a title.

The way LT has been hitting the whole he looks like he may get the last laugh on the rest of the league that was ready to write him off. Brian Shottenheimer currently calls the first half run plays as even as possible. LT and Greene get to showcase for full time second half duties. Whoever is performing better gets the bulk of those second half carries. For the first three games those carries have shifted to LT. Currently he has over 200 yards rushing with a whopping 5.6 yards per carry average.

The burden he has lifted off of Mark Sanchez has been enormous. Could you imagine how the Jets would have started the season with just Greene as the main back? Teams would have had a feast and forced the Jets to throw every down like some teams are forced. As erratic as Sanchez has been who knows how he would of handled the pressure. Starting off the year poor with a young quarterback could have dug Sanchez a mental blow he would of never got out of. You just don’t know how a quarterback is going to handle himself under the scope of an increased role.

With Sanchez having the comfort ability of a veteran back he is slowly emerging into a quarterback. Before you could tell Sanchez’s play calls were scripted. One or two reads and deliver the football. The Jets were not going to take chances with him. Now he is lobbing paces up and trusting Dustin Keller. He’s also making some precision throws and prime spots.

Shonn Greene will break out of his bog soon. Once he does who knows how scary this team is going to be. Defensively they’ve been stout. If this offense picks up momentum, watch out. Sanchez is likely going to go into the playoffs with a phenomenal rushing attack. Santonio Holmes will be back from suspension soon. Adding another big play threat to replace Jerricho Cotchery who is at best a fourth receiver on most teams.

Praise the Jets for their signing of LT and for the way he has responded. He is having more of a fantasy impact than he has in a long time. The past two seasons he looked dog tired and physically not there. Whatever it was….rest, new regimen, or a new beginning, it is working for LT. He is not a fantasy starter but is one of the highest ranking third backs to have on a fantasy team. You never know what’s going to happen over the course of the year. He could be that familiar weapon that you need down the stretch when injuries begin to take place.

By Zack Cimini

notjustagame23@gmail.com

Days of split carries in the backfield have grown over the last five years. More teams have become cognizant of protecting not just their feature backs but backfield as a whole. Protecting the health and investment of one of their main positions has helped sustain teams, and prolong backs from unneeded wear and tear.  From a fantasy football standpoint unless you’ve seen it work, you become weary of how a team is going to run that percentage of carries. Usually someone takes a couple of ticks down because of it in the backfield. Whether it’s a loss of carries in the red zone or one back separating a bit from the other and boosting their percentage of carries.

Out in Kansas City there is a definite lingering outlook on how the carries will be split. You’ve got Jamaal Charles who was equally a Chris Johnson the second half of the season. Coming in to thwart his one man show for 2010 is Thomas Jones. The veteran that has somehow came to life as his career has evolved. As a Jet, Jones busted up fantasy running back rankings with two phenomenal seasons. Strong years of double digit touchdowns to go along with an average of 1,350 yards.

New York planned ahead and decided to draft Shonne Greene in 2009 to forgo resigning Jones in 2010. Saving the money to go on the side of youth could prove to be a great move. Kansas City though believes Jones still has solid years left in him, and will complement Charles.

Youth is the name of the game in the NFL, and Charles is the guy who has that. He has that home run threat speed to change a game on any play. Out of the backfield or slashing through holes, Charles is a factor back. Jones on the other hand never has been a scary open field runner. He was on a New York Jets team that had one of the best if not the best offensive lines in the NFL. The way he got his yards was similar to Edgerrin James. They came in chunks but you’ll never see runs of forty or fifty yards.

One thing that the Jets did do with Jones is up his carries. Since 2005, Jones has averaged just over 300 carries a season. Durability hasn’t been a question though as he has played in every game but one. At 32, you’d think he’d be on the downside of his career. What level he is at is the veteran stage, like Fred Taylor. He is going to have his games where he pops on the scene and has a big game, but for the most part he is going to be a short yardage workhorse.

Kansas City has Jones listed as their number one back, but does that really mean anything? No. Charles is rated consistently as a top ten fantasy back for specific reasons. He is going to be heavily involved in the Chiefs running game, and as the season trickles on he will start to separate from Jones in carries. It’s the natural pattern of how the NFL works. It happened to Jones just last season. As a Jet he was practically a lone force every week carrying the load. Until the playoffs came along and Greene’s play forced the Jets to say this is our guy now, not just after the season.

Will see how this plays out, but those worried on drafting Charles early don’t be. Dividends will pay off just like the waiver wire pickup he was last season.

By Vidur Malik

The shelf life for an NFL running back is usually short, and when the prime years have passed, it happens abruptly. Running backs can go from putting up a string of 1,000+ yard, 10 touchdown+ seasons, to being demoted to a third-down or situational back in the matter of a season or two.

The Washington Redskins currently have three backs who could fall into this category. Larry Johnson, Willie Parker, and Clinton Portis have all been considered elite running backs at one time in their careers, but have since dropped from that level. Here’s a look at all three Redskin backs, and how they could fare this year:

Clinton Portis-

Portis looks to be the starter coming into this season, and is not far removed from his 1,000 yard years. He only put up 494 yards and one touchdown last year, but missed half the season because of a concussion. Only two years ago, Portis had 1,487 yards and nine touchdowns, so his elite number days are probably not behind him. One good sign is that his yards per carry average has usually stayed around the 4.0 mark recently. One of the signs of an aging running back is a significant drop in yards per carry, and even though Portis is far from the impressive 5.5 yards per carry he had his first two seasons, he has still been solid in that category. He did take a few dips into the 3.8-3.9 mark a few years ago, but if he can keep it to around 4 this year, that should result in a productive season. He should be able to approach the 1,000 yard mark if he has been able to shake off the concussion, and if he can stay healthy, Portis should be a back you can draft pretty confidently.

Larry Johnson-

Johnson is not the back he once was. After putting up back-to-back 1,700+ yard seasons in 2005 and 2006, Johnson has not been able to get past a foot injury, which has sidelined him for games, and made his numbers take a severe drop. Last year, with the Cincinnati Bengals, he recorded only 204 yards with 0 touchdowns, while Cedric Benson resurrected his career with an All-Pro season. It doesn’t look like Johnson will be able to do the same in Washington. He’ll have to beat out Portis, or at least compete with him to get significant playing time, and with new quarterback Donovan McNabb and a solid group of receivers on offense, it will be tough for Johnson to get many reps. It’s sad to see a guy who was once the class of running backs struggle to get carries, but the situation isn’t ideal for Johnson, and unless you’ve got a late pick that you don’t know what to do with, it might be smart to hold off on him.

Willie Parker-

It looks like the man they used to call “Fast” Willie Parker will need to find a new nickname. Parker’s drop in production may be the most difficult to reverse of all three Redskin backs. While Portis and Johnson haven’t performed as well as they used to, it isn’t as difficult for them to show flashes of their former selves, because they are both downhill runners who make one cut and use their vision to explode through holes. Parker only relied on his quickness to gain yards in his glory days as a Pittsburgh Steeler, and when the speed goes, a running back’s time on the top is usually gone as well. After three consecutive 1,200+ yard years, Parker suffered a toe injury in 2008, which was the beginning of the end for him. He only had 98 carries last year, and didn’t score any touchdowns. Reports indicated that Parker lacked speed at the Redskins’ minicamp, which means that he isn’t a guy worth drafting.