LaDainian Tomlinson Wants to Start

Rex WILL name him the starter, just to slow Greene down and pace him for the season. He is going to use LT a bit like TJ, to challenge Greeene. Right now Greene has sugar plums dancing in his head, but I’m not sure Rex is going to go that way to start. If he gives Greene the huge green light and Greene struggles in anyway (fumbles or blocking), there is no way left but down. My guess is that Rex genuinely is thinking of a 50/50 situation to begin, just to give Greene room to grow, and there is the distinct possibility that LT will start.

I understand that the Greene/TJ mix probably wasn’t going to be a good one, but elite atheletes like LT are NOT going to understand why it is they are being passed up. Think Jordan in Washington. The problem is, LT IS going to have some pretty good success. With this OL he is going to get 3 free yards, and he is going to be a nice outlet receiver. It’s going to be even harder for him to tell that he’s on the wrong side of the hill. Let’s just pray that Greene starts out dominant, and this isn’t even an issue. There are alot of egos on that side of the ball right now, especially after Holmes returns.

but when backs lose it, they lose it fast. There is no graceful decline usually. And they have a really hard time seeing it themselves because their vision on the field is better than ever. Its just that the hole closes a little too quickly (must have been someone elses fault).

dream teams can have their own particular difficulties. If the team is winning, everything is cool, but put three loses in a row and everyone thinks that they aren’t being given enough touches.

I can see it working out exactly as you say, and the team gets 11 wins, but egos are part of the equation. LT has some pretty high expectations on what his chances are to be FAIRLY judged against Greene. Unfortunately, what he thinks he is capable of and what Rex sees might not jibe – cue resentment.

let’s say you are right. And LT is a pretty dynamic back. Rex wants to ground and pound. And we have a pretty big potential in the passing attack. How many carries do you want LT to ideally have? If this offense is really hitting on all cylinders, what is the profile? I did see Greene have some success in combination, but isn’t there something about his running style that says: give me 25 touches, I’ll get stronger as the game goes?

Even if LT is everything he thinks he is, I’m not sure the offense can or should accomodate him. And yes, its cool to think of him as a receiver, but we have receivers, tons of them, and the truth of the matter is this has to be a running team because that let’s the defense rest.

Somebody finally looked at the Stats between Sproles and Tomlinson. Why people don’t see this, I don’t understand. It is part of the o-line’s responsibility to help him get those yards. I mean what is everyone smoking here? If you call yourself a fan, be a fan and read the stats. There is more to Tomlinson and his woes the past couple of seasons than the “he’s old and lost a step” declaration. Let’s see what he does. And like JFR said, if Tomlinson didn’t want to start, I wouldn’t want him on the team. He won’t perform. Everyone on this team wants to win. Buying into the system ALSO means understanding your role. People on this team understand their role. The people that didn’t like their roles (Rhodes and TJ [yes, he didn’t like the idea of featuring Greene as the starter this season as was cut, end of story]) ARE GONE. If you don’t like the System, Rex will cut you or de-activate you like he did a certain #3 WR.

Nice correction.

That is to say, the TDs are great, but this isn’t supposed to be a season long high-scoring offense (despite all the weapons). The reason for that is that Rex knows that if his defense is going to be the core strength of the team he really needs a running game to grind up game time to keep his defense fresh. The obvious problem with high scoring offenses is they leave their defense on the field and can have trouble in 4th quarters without a big lead. Plus, I think Rex envisions this defense as a scoring defense, in fact its imperative that they score in his scheme, its the whole point of the confusion and it was a failure of last year’s D.

I think if Rex got his wish the Jets would be a middle of the pack offensive TD team that in 75% of the games ground it out. And his defense would be the top scoring D in the league. The extra fire power they added would be for those games against top-flight offenses like the Colts and Saints where they have to keep up, maybe 4 game out of the year. I think Rex is hoping that Sanchez’s young attacking heart and the new weapons are a kind of turbo boost in particular games, and not all year long.

That hardly seems the question. Greene is not the type of runner LT or Sproles is. It is likely he would have had more YPC as his style is more geared to power. I think Greene is better than both LT and TJ. If LT is to be believed, the question is would Greene average 5 YPC in SD. if you think he would than the SD O-line angle is over hyped. But if the answer is no than you have to give LT the benefit of the doubt.

its funny, the person who disrupted a locker room when his carries and role was reduced was the guy who left. TJ was directly responsible for the Chicago trading Benson when they tried to give Benson a greater role. To his credit he never did that here. Maybe it was because this Offense gave so many opportunities to run.

I’ve been going back and forth with KV all day on this… I think its more to it than just Tomlinson losing a step.

This is really what all great backs who are used to near 30 carries say, and I think it really is right. Great backs need to pile up the carries so by the end of the game they know how to capitalize, they grow stronger.

The PROBLEM is (sorry for the caps), LT is not going to get the carries he need to develop a rhythm here either. Unless Greene gets hurt or absolutely sucks. LT averaged 14 carries. Now with 14 carries, he couldn’t get a rhythm. In Shonn Greene’s last four full games when he was really contributing he averaged about 18 carries. How many carries do you imagine that LT is going to get??? More importantly, how many does he think he’s going to get? More than 14?

What is likely to happen – because by the end of the year Greene is going to be superior – LT’s carries are going to be down, less than last year. He’s going to be saying to himself: “Damn I thought they was going giving me a chance”, “Damn, if I was allowed to ‘get my rhythm’ I could really dominate.”

If the Jets are winning, who cares, but if they have a mixed season, well…

Sure, I can accept Turner being the reason why LT had a weak year, but he isn’t necessarily the reason why he was so far down. If you want to examine your argument, would the answer have been the same if he had averaged 2.9 yards a game? It’s all Turner’s fault. Yes, its Turner’s fault, but the question is, what can you on your own too? And if you’re point is, once he gets a great OL he’s going to really rock. Well, the judgment isn’t how good LT is, but how good he is with this OL compared to Greene.

As I’ve mentioned before, I think Greene has a runnjng style that would really benefit from carries. its the power-speed runners that really start to heat it up at around 20 – 25 carries. Which back, LT or SG do we want to have enough carries to “get into a rhythm”. I say SG.

And yes, I’ve heard of Emmit Smith, I’ve also heard of LT. And if Turner had the LT of old, he may have structured his offense differently.

He’s a stoic leader. Bitching isn’t the only problem. Clearly he holds the Charger’s offense and Turner as responsible for his decline from greatness, and expects to become a dominant player of some kind here. He probably was told he was going to get every chance (and will be in a 50/50 sit to start). It just seems doubtful that he going to see the light when Rex recognizes the young potential in Greene, for the second year in a row. He won’t disrupt the whole team, but it won’t sit well with him. I think we can gauge that.

LT on the field after that Pats game a few years ago. I think he was complaining after the Pats ran up the score. He was also the unoffical spokes person for the Chargers and was the first person in the post-game interviews after big losses. Usually putting someone or something on blast. Usually the refs were the subject of attention. But nothing serious to worry about. Im hoping he stays away from the media after games to be honest. But he’s just too popular a player to think he’s going to be a non-factor with the media. So Im hoping he curbs himself a lil.