Jets heading into 2022 season with youth movement at the running back spot
The youth movement has come to the Jets’ running back room this year.
Entering the 2022 season, the oldest running back on the Jets roster is Ty Johnson at 24 years old.
That is a significant change from a year ago when the Jets had veteran Tevin Coleman mixed in with young players like Johnson and Michael Carter.
“They’re young, they’re fresh, they play hard, they’re smart, they’re dynamic,” head coach Robert Saleh said. “They’re all versatile in regards to three down capability. Michael has a different running style than Breece [Hall], he has a different running style than TJ [Johnson] and he has a different running style than Bam [Zonovan Knight].
“They’re not four of the same, they’re four very different backs and you just trust that with their mindset that they’re going to be able to get it done.”
The Jets will look to improve their ground game, which was near the bottom of the league in 2021. Gang Green ranked 27th in rushing yards as it averaged 98.1 per game.
During the offseason, the Jets made a couple of changes hoping to improve that total. The team drafted Hall in the second round, who rushed over 1,400 yards in back-to-back seasons at Iowa State while also being named the two-time Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year. Undrafted free agent Knight was also added shortly after the draft and was recently named to the 53-man roster.
“Learning this offense has been kind of different,” Hall said. “It is similar to what I did in college, but there’s a lot more nuisance and a lot of little things that I’m learning as I’m still a rookie.
“I still mess up and I try to go 1,000 miles per hour, sometimes overthinking everything. It is coming along for sure and I like where I’m at.”
The goal is to have a tandem of Hall and Carter — who flashed his potential last season as a rookie — to take pressure off quarterback Zach Wilson once he returns from a meniscus trim and a bone bruise injury. The Jets also beefed up their offensive line by signing left guard Laken Tomlinson and left tackle Duane Brown.
It has been six seasons since the Jets last had a 1,000-yard rusher. In 2015, Chris Ivory rushed for 1,070 yards and Gang Green hasn’t had anyone cross the threshold since. Carter led the team in rushing in 2021 with 639 yards and four touchdowns.
Jets offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur is confident in the team’s young running back talent in the locker room.
“There’s a lot of good runners in there, good football players,” LaFleur said. “Taylor Embree, our running backs coach, does an awesome job with those guys. He learned from one of the best in Bobby Turner, who’s a legend running back coach in this league, has won multiple Super Bowls and that’s what was so fascinating for me, or intriguing and Saleh, to be able to bring Taylor in here because he got to learn from Bobby Turner in what it takes to coach running backs in this league.
“You’ve got to be tight with your words with it, you’ve got to be disciplined, but you’ve also got to let these guys play, particularly when the bullets are live on Sundays. I know he’s done that, the guys feel real free, they’re on it in terms of the scheme and they’re able to go out there and show what they can do.”
13 ADDED TO PRACTICE SQUAD
A day after cutting their main roster down to 53 players, the Jets officially filled 13 practice squad spots. Among them is the fan favorite who helped Gang Green win all three preseason games this summer.
Chris Streveler, who threw for 277 yards, five TDs and one interception for a 124.6 passer rating, will be the Jets’ practice squad quarterback. The team waived him after deciding to keep Mike White as one of the team’s three active roster quarterbacks.
Joining Streveler are wide receivers Tarik Black, Calvin Jackson and Irvin Charles, tight end Kenny Yeboah, tackles Chris Glaser and Grant Hermanns, defensive linemen Bradley Anae, Jonathan Marshall and Tanzel Smart, linebackers Hamsah Nasirildeen and DQ Thomas and safety Will Parks.
Five of the 13 signees played in the regular season with the Jets last year — Black, Yeboah, Marshall, Nasirildeen and Parks. Like the rest of the league, the Jets are allowed 16 practice-squad players.
One of them will be linebacker Chazz Surratt, who the team hasn’t officially announced. Surratt was a 2021 third-round pick of the Minnesota Vikings, but the team waived him on Tuesday.
