McKnight Readying for Year Two
Rookie no more, Running Back Joe McKnight made it clear on Monday that he wants to have a bigger part of the team’s plans next season.
[McKnight] is anxious to have more of an impact in year two, proving wrong the skeptics.
To get a different outcome, McKnight said he will train harder in the offseason and apply himself to the game more.
Ryan is anxious to see the results as well, saying last week that "one of these days we’re going to have a great one, two, three punch with Joe McKnight."
"I’m excited; I’m excited to get ready, get started for next year," McKnight said. "I’m looking forward to it, he’s looking forward to it, everybody else is looking forward to it. I just can’t wait."
At this point, past decisions are just that, and now it’s only left for us to hope that McKnight contributes more meaningfully in the future. With LaDainian Tomlinson’s questionable end of the season, the focus might go to McKnight this offseason.
McKnight showed some promise during the Buffalo Bills game, but it’s only fair to mention that at that point, the Bills had 15 players on the IR, so he was facing something of a second rate defense on an already bad defensive team … basically, it was a preseason game. With that said, he played well with what was in front of him. It’s still up to the Bills defense to keep their own jobs this offseason. It’s not like he was a charity case in that game.
I’d like McKnight to become a bigger part of this team, and his work on special teams didn’t go unnoticed. He played well there and will need to continue that along with increase his offseason efforts, as well as his abillity to hold onto the ball to get into the good graces of his coach and coordinator.
Wilson, Ducasse, McKnight … the Jets biggest rookie contributor was a fullback during the course of the 2010 season. The Jets are going to need to get more out of those three guys in the offseason.
67 Responses to McKnight Readying for Year Two
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p.s. I recall during season how some of our coaches started gushing about how he’d really been working hard, etc., but also wonder if some of that wasn’t PR spin
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We heard that about Gholston too…
Not that I’m saying I feel as badly about McKnight as I do Gholston, but I’m not going to get my hopes up right now.
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interesting point on ducasse. save money with woody for other holes by slotting ducasse into RT?
hunter is a FA and have to figure someone with OL problems will ofer him starters money now that there’s decent game tape on him.
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I listen to the fan on the internet and I can’t believe beningo and roberts let the jet hater mark malusis take over for them .he is crushing the jets saying they should be ashamed of themselves rex was a bust this year.I mean he is a redskins fan and blows hard for the giants .the good thing is we play the nfc east next year and I would love to go 4-0 with those 4 teams how could getting to the afc game back to back be a bust what a jerk .and we almost won the game being down 24-3 could a jet get a little respect.
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So….his team that had it’s coach and QB bickering like school girls and is owned by the single most detrimental NFL owner in the league wasn’t a bust?
Rex is 24-14 in two years (including playoffs) for a .631 winning % with a rookie/2nd year QB.
That guy is a joke.
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Stuff like that is so stupid. According to this thesis only one team can have a good season in any one year. It doesn’t matter if you get to the final four or go 1-15. Just dumb. Jets only team to make it to the final four both of the last two years.
Now that’s not a championship. But it sure ain’t bad.
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I stopped paying attention to Malusis while back. In fact I will turn the channel or change the dial. I can’t take his commentary serious anymore. While I’m might asking for a pom pom analyst/commentator , I do appreciate insightful commentary as opposed to a diatribe of anti-team remarks that it seems at times when he’s on the air. There are always critics so I take a lot of their commentary with a grain of salt, much of it centers on an a negative bias already. Do like me change the channel if that helps.
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Against the Bills, McKnight set the Jets rookie rushing record, beating out Boozer and Greene. I don’t care who the Bills put out there (and for most of that game, the Jets’ 2nd string offense was in), rushing for over 150 yards in the NFL is an achievement. McKnight could be Mr. Outside to Greene’s Mr. Inside. The kid has talent. Let me put it this way, if Buffalo was so bad and doing well against them was so easy, why didn’t Gholston get his first sack? Unlike Gholston, McKnight had his shot and dominated.
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McKnight looked real strong in that game. It was obvious he had put in a lot of work to get to that point. He and Green should give us a good 1 – 2 punch.
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It’s not as much an achievement when you consider how many carries he had. Just like with Thomas Jones, if you give the guy enough carries he will eventually get you over 100 yards. McKnight didn’t break the rookie record for yards per rush. His yards per rush were merely average against an injured and horrible defense. Not as impressive as you’re making it out to be.
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Dude, 150 yards at 5 yards/carry.
Over 30 carries and….how many fumbles?
Again, it’s not like he was running through tackling dummies, those were guys fighting for a job in 2011.
When any rookie RB to come in during a Week 17 game after playing about 7 offensive plays all season and rush for 150 yards with no INT’s on a 5.0 YPC it is impressive.
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Let him come in next year (if there is a next year) fit and ready to go. No more vomiting or fainting. Then we will see.
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At least we found out that JM was finally in shape. Besides, nobody has ever questioned his talent. We’ll know shortly after the next training camp begins whether the guy has gained any maturity.
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juunit,
He had 32 carries for 158, just a tick below a 5 YPC and he had 2 receptions for 15 yards, for a total of 173 yards from scrimmage. And, that awful defense was being blocked by a 2nd string OL and, with Brunell and KC in, the defense knew the Jets were rushing. With that, only Jamaal Charles ran for more yards against the Bills. Minimize all you want, but 158 yards rushing is quite an achievement. And, it also shows that McKnight bided his time and when he got his shot, he played at an elite level. Seriously, besides being shorter, older, white and named “Woodhead,” what do you want from the rookie?
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I never said anything about Woodhead. McKnight barely played at all during the season so his legs were completely fresh. He was running against a demoralized and crappy run defense. He put up AVERAGE YPC numbers against them, 4.9. Jamaal Charles averaged 6.4 YPC for the entire season, that includes against good defenses. If you gave McKnight a regular number of carries, 20, he would’ve had 98 yards rushing against the BILLS. Not impressive.
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A 4.9 YPC over a whole season would’ve made McKnight tied with Arian Foster for 7th place in the NFL this season. While Buffalo allowed a pathetic 4.8 YPC on defense for the season, McKnight did better than that and, like I said before, he had a 2nd string OL and a defense that knew the Jets were going to primarily run the ball. Also, I thought McKnight was impressive. He didn’t go down easily and for a guy who isn’t that big, he was very elusive between the tackles. In pre-season, he danced before he hit the LOS. Now, he was hitting the LOS fast and juking at the second-level. Plus, he’s probably the Jets best RB for running wide, he has good vision and speed. He was real close to breaking a long run a few times and, IMO, with more carries and experience he’d start to pop homeruns. I’m not saying he’s the new Leon, but he showed loads of improvement over the pre-season.
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I’m not saying he isn’t our fastest RB or that he didn’t show improvement. Just that averaging 4.9 YPC against one of the bottom five rush defenses YPC wise (they were dead last in total rush yardage) with fresh legs, against an injured team in the last week of their 4 win season isn’t all that impressive. It’s not like our entire O-line was backups and they were doing a good job of run blocking despite being backups. McKnight has the speed to be a homerun hitter. Against a terrible defense he failed to hit any homeruns. He had a good game, which is obviously progress from his terrible preseason. But I don’t think his game against the Bills was anything special. Again, it was good, just nothing that blows me away.
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+1 I don’t have advanced stats, but it seemed to me that McKnight made lots of his yards after initial contact. And, evidence of a truly piss poor run D is when you break into the second-level and there’s nobody there, like Thomas Jones’ inflated day against the Bills in 2009. McKnight ground out 158 yards in January…even against a bad team, that’s impressive.
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Bent says: 2.9 yards after contact per carry. Only 11 backs averaged better than that for the season.
I’ll toss another wrench in the works and add that Buffalo were actually pretty healthy on the front seven, moreso than when Tomlinson and Green tore them up earlier in the year, but with inferior numbers to McKnight running behind Ducasse, Hunter and Turner.
That doesn’t account for the fact that the Bills may have quit on their coach by then.
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Great post Sackdance. This guy juunit is a contrarian, and in his writing he sounds like another member. I hope Basset will make the nicknames unchangable. After wild card game one member had an entire conversation with himself. Pathetic.
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Bent says:
We can tell when people do that and do not allow it, for the record.
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everybody has goals but they are hardly maxed but you get closer and closer.I even believe being in the playoffs every year will be part of our future .eventually we will get in it.hey we got a SB at the Meadowlands coming up YOU NEVER NOW.would that be sweet.
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I like the looks of McKnight, he has lots of natural talent, and I think he really learned how to focus on holding onto the ball. I really think they will incorporate him more into the offense this year.
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That’s exactly why McKnight is so disappointing. He has all the natural ability in the world, so it’s his mentality that’s the issue. It’s his work ethic that’s the issue. McKnight was the top high school RB in his day. He should be tearing up the NFL with his level of athleticism.
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They didn’t cut this greedy, moral less, moody, cancerous, brooding, scummy POS yet? WTF!? WE COULD HAVE SIGNED 10 WOODHEADS FOR THAT CAP VALUE
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the player we saw at the end of the season was not the same guy at mini camp for sure. i think a yr around LT will prove to have done a world of good for this kid. him and green will be the 1,2 punch for a while.
i was not high on him in the start, but he has imroved
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Ducasse will be either a replacement for Woody or for Moore down the line. I think they have a keeper in Slauson. A lot of people thought Ducasse would be better at RT than RG coming out.
I really, really want them to keep Hunter and Turner. I wouldnt mind Woody coming back at all, but he would be way down on the list of priorities for me. Hunter did a nice job, costs less, and has Ducasse waiting in the wings, the money might be better spent elsewhere.
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Hunter is not a viable 16-game option at RT. He looked overmatched for the most part starting for Woody, and in the AFC Championship game, they ran behind him once or twice, and that’s it.
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Brendan, I must be in the twillight zone but I find myself agreeing with all your points again today!
Except one: Al Davis is the most detrimental owner in the league.juunit, don’t know where you are coming from with McKnight. 32 carries for 158 yards. What exactly is wrong with that stat line? 4.93 yds per carry is a problem? Sorry but you need to tell your story walking cause I’m not buying it here.
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Against one of the worst rushing defenses in the NFL, that had a rash of injuries, he only put slightly above average YPC numbers. He also was perfectly well rested because he hadn’t played at all during the season while the Bills defenders were exhausted from a long season. If he averaged 6 or 7 YPC, I’d be impressed. The only reason he had 150+ yards is because they gave him the ball 32 times. In a regular game, he would never be given 32 handoffs. Therefore he never would have put up those kinds of numbers in a regular game, AGAINST ONE OF THE WORST RUSHING DEFENSES IN THE NFL HE WAS ONLY SLIGHTLY ABOVE AVERAGE.
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And your point about it only being on 9 carries is what exactly? The amount of carries a player gets is determined by the coaches and has absolutely nothing to do with the skill of the player. So please enlighten me here, what’s your point?
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If you put 1,000 monkeys in front of typewriters, they will eventually recreate the works of Shakespeare.
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Can they do it in less than 6 months?
You’re reach, juunit. The kid did work against an NFL team, give him his credit. Woodhead never ran for that many yards.
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Woodhead never had 32 carries in a game. Woodhead has had games where he averaged more than 5 YPC.
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That you’re looking at one stat, picking at it, and hoping it proves a point. YPC isn’t impressive until you get to a certain # of carries. If you have 5 carries for 100+ yards, that’s impressive. If you have one carry for 30 yards, that’s impressive, but not as impressive as running for a 5 yard average for 30 carries. That’s consistent and productive.
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Sure it’s good. But that’s all it was, just good. With fresh legs, against a bad defense, just good becomes average.
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“just good”.
If our QB was “just good” in the first half of the Steelers game, the Jets are in the Superbowl. Since when is good not a good thing?
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When you trade up in the draft to get a guy and he’s just good against a bad defense. Just good against bad competition translates to average.
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You mean when you take a guy in the 4th round and he’s good, you’re upset? So Brad Smith’s goodness is upsetting to you? Was Leon’s, when he was here?
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who are you calling a monkey?
just need 1 monkey and 1 typewriter and plenty of time
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I’m not sure I was actually calling anyone a monkey. But I guess if I was, I was calling McKnight the monkey.
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And now we’re fringing on inappropriate. Let’s reel it back.
juunit, he’s here, he’s good, and out of Rex’s doghouse.
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Out of all the animal kingdom, monkeys and dogs are probably some of the best things you could be. It’s not like we’re calling him a platypus.
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Bent says:
This conversation makes no sense now sPam has deleted all the troll comments.
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Many Jet fans, including myself, wanted to see McKnight get some action prior to the Buffalo game. Once again, Schottenheimer misused a player. Those of you who are bashing McKnight, because he got his 150 versus the Bills — is it his fault he was held out for the entire season? If given the opportunity, he might have helped us in our playoff run. McKnight showed the ability to catch the ball out of the backfield. It didn’t matter that it was the Bills. He looked very comfortable catching the ball. I would let LT retire, pick up a veteran RB for depth, and let McKnight do his thing. I think he will be a nice player for us.
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Harvlis,
IMO, McKnight earned his place on the bench, needed to work his way off of the bench and, unfortunately, the Jets needed every game until Buffalo, so there was no time to ease him in once he got himself out of the doghouse. Even though I’m very critical of Schotty, I can’t blame him for not playing McKnight. Now, not letting Greene be the feature RB when LT started slumping, that’s still a head-scratcher.
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Sack, Our running game needed help midway thru the season. They should have taken a look at McKnight earlier. Maybe, with his help, we wouldn’t have had to win a bunch of games in the last seconds.
Most OC’s would give their right nut to have Holmes, Edwards, Cotchery, Smith, Keller, LT, and Greene. Our offense underachieved all season.
I think Schotty didn’t use LT properly. He had LT run inside the tackles all the time. He should have been throwing the ball to LT and running him outside, more often.
Patrick Turner should have been given a better look, as well. As a 6’5″ receiver, the Jets could possibly use him in place of Braylon, if they find that they can’t affort both Braylon and Holmes. Not having looked at Turner, now it would be very risky.
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Sorry SD99…I’m not ready to anoint McKnight just yet. Buffalo gave up eight 200yd. rushing games last year, and averaged 4.8 yards per carry to the opposition. They were dead last in the league in so many rushing catagories.
I’m not sold on the “1,2, and 3 punch” just yet.
Speaking of which, whatever happened to Basset’s ‘Boom-Boom-Pow!’ moniker? I liked that.
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Why do we always blame Shotty. Isn’t our loud mouth coach in charge? He is a great motivator but a below average game day coach.
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“the Jets biggest rookie contributor was a fullback during the course of the 2010 season.”
Actually, the Jets’ biggest rookie contributor was Tanner Purdum – a long snapper.
Would have liked to have read he too showed up in Florham Park y’day; as they says “actions talk, and BS…” While I’ll take an optimistic view towards JM, it’ll be tinged with a healthy degree of skepticism for work ethic, i.e., what he does when he’s not compelled to do anything will be most telling for me (and, of course, unlikely any of us will really know until OTAs, provided they happen).