The Jets Blog On New Chiefs RB Thomas Jones

It’s been a while since we’ve done this, but the Thomas Jones signing was such a big one we wanted to bring in someone who saw T.J.’s every touch as a Jet to comment on the pick-up. Brian Basset of The Jets Blog was nice enough to chime in. Brian is a long-term blogosphere buddy of mine, and one I had the pleasure of meeting last year in New York. The Jets Blog is one of the better NFL team blogs in existence, so definitely check it out. Here are his thoughts…

"I’m a big fan of Thomas Jones. But for as good as a player as Thomas Jones has been on the field for the Jets, he’s been better as a veteran leader for the Jets away from it. During the course of the 2009 season with a rookie QB, Jones was the driving voice on gameday in the locker room, though rarely to the press.The problem with Jones was that for the Jets he played as well as his line allowed him and we saw that diminish greatly at the end of the 2009 season. In 2007, his first year with the team when the offensive line was a shambles, Jones rarely got into the end zone, once the team added LG Alan Faneca, RT Damien Woody and former Chief FB Tony Richardson, those numbers jumped, but over the course of the 2009 season, I was troubled by his inability to create a spark for the running game down the stretch. While the coaching staff let him still start, it was clear that Shonn Greene made the running game tick as the Jets went on their postseason run. Jones benefited from some fairly soft running defenses in the second half of the season.In a lesser role, I think that Jones can still contribute, but if I were a Chiefs fan, I wouldn’t expect him to be putting up another 1400 yard / 14 TD season for the Arrowhead faithful."

Both some good and some bad in there for all of us with the rose-colored glasses on. Big thanks to Brian again.

Addicts, what are your thoughts on The Jets Blog’s take on T.J.?