Who are the top three RBs in this group?

[Cornbread Maxwell]

First of all TJones - by all reports Ive seen - will get the vast majority of touches in CHI. This is hardly a RBBC situation - certainly not to the extent as it will be with Garner/Pittman/Alstott in TB.

Stick a fork in T. Jones, he's done. He's one of those guys that gets chance after chance because he's a good athlete, but doesn't have what it takes to be a running back.

okay. he had a good yr last yr in a RBBC. Noone could run the ball in ARI.

I just think your trying to downplay him so you can take him yourself.

[KingGhidra]

I just think your trying to downplay him so you can take him yourself.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Getting a little paranoid for our league Cornbread?

Maybe you're trying to hype him up so someone else grabs him another player falls to you.



C'mon really. What's this guy ever done? Here's the list of arguments in TJones's favor.

He played for Arizona
So what? Players play for bad teams ALL the time and still look good. They give their team hope and make a bad team at least respectable. Jones never did that for Zona. Dillon did that for Cincy. Tomlinson does that for San Diego. Taylor's done it the last two years for Jacksonville. Ricky Watters did it for Seattle. There are TONS of players who played on average to bad teams and still looked good at the end of the day. TJones is NOT one of them.

What exactly did he do in Tampa Bay? They certainly weren't a bad team. Not bad as in Arizona bad. Whoopdy doo, he ran for 100+ yards against Houston and Green Bay. A feat 504684275024542 running backs accomplished against those teams last season. Why didn't Gruden and co. keep him if he was so good when the fates of Alstott and Pittman were very unclear at the time?

He's playing in Chicago. No offense to the Chi-town fans, but your team still stinks. He's not going to Indy. The Rams didn't release Faulk to bring in TJones as their RB of the future. He's going to Chicago. It's not like they have a great track record of personnel decisions the last 3-4 years. He's still gonna play for a bad team. They still have a young QB. What about Chicago's situation is better than Tampa Bay's???

Actually that's the only argument people are making FOR Jones. That he played in Arizona and never was given a chance. Well boo-hoo. Talented players show talent regardless of their team. Jones has shown nothing. Good luck with him on your teams.

Oh yeah... A-Train is still the incumbent, so a RBBC looms in Chicago in my mind. That's if TJones doesn't fumble the starting job to A-Train's hands by week 3.

[Trainer of Dolphins]

Julius
Kevin
Thomas

Jones' in that order

[Poobah]

I prefer:

Julius
Thomas
Kevin

But, it's all pretty close... all #3 RBs, anyway

[Cornbread Maxwell]

I just think your trying to downplay him so you can take him yourself.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Getting a little paranoid for our league Cornbread?

Maybe you're trying to hype him up so someone else grabs him another player falls to you.



C'mon really. What's this guy ever done? Here's the list of arguments in TJones's favor.

He played for Arizona
So what? Players play for bad teams ALL the time and still look good. They give their team hope and make a bad team at least respectable. Jones never did that for Zona. Dillon did that for Cincy. Tomlinson does that for San Diego. Taylor's done it the last two years for Jacksonville. Ricky Watters did it for Seattle. There are TONS of players who played on average to bad teams and still looked good at the end of the day. TJones is NOT one of them.

What exactly did he do in Tampa Bay? They certainly weren't a bad team. Not bad as in Arizona bad. Whoopdy doo, he ran for 100+ yards against Houston and Green Bay. A feat 504684275024542 running backs accomplished against those teams last season. Why didn't Gruden and co. keep him if he was so good when the fates of Alstott and Pittman were very unclear at the time?

He's playing in Chicago. No offense to the Chi-town fans, but your team still stinks. He's not going to Indy. The Rams didn't release Faulk to bring in TJones as their RB of the future. He's going to Chicago. It's not like they have a great track record of personnel decisions the last 3-4 years. He's still gonna play for a bad team. They still have a young QB. What about Chicago's situation is better than Tampa Bay's???

Actually that's the only argument people are making FOR Jones. That he played in Arizona and never was given a chance. Well boo-hoo. Talented players show talent regardless of their team. Jones has shown nothing. Good luck with him on your teams.

Oh yeah... A-Train is still the incumbent, so a RBBC looms in Chicago in my mind. That's if TJones doesn't fumble the starting job to A-Train's hands by week 3.

OK let me retort as ive done before.

1. a RB playing for a terrible team that must play from behind on a consistant basis will affect him. I dont care about how talented he is. When your team plays from behind, like ARI did, you simply wont get enough chances to perform. ALL of those situations you mentioned were different simply because of the style of play those teams had - ARI had no defense either, while those other teams could keep the score close.

2. You seem to convenetently (sp?) look at total yds v. YPC. His 4.6 YPC are hardley anything to sniff at.

3. Saying its CHI and all hope is lost is a pretty flimsy argument against him. They brought in a proven offensive minded coach who has a number of top flight RBs that he helped along through his career. TJones was hand picked by him, and offere a 4 yr deal for starter money - that alone means he is the starting RB. If you fail to see that because you are stuck with Atrain as the incombant you are going to miss the boat. CHI also upgraded their Oline by adding a premier tackle and solid G. Rexman will use TJones frequently as an outlet.

You take JJones, and KJones - I'll take TJones.

[KingGhidra]

1. a RB playing for a terrible team that must play from behind on a consistant basis will affect him. I dont care about how talented he is. When your team plays from behind, like ARI did, you simply wont get enough chances to perform.

Stop making excuses for him. He sucked. He didn't make Arizona better. Maybe they were playing from behind BECAUSE HE SUCKED.

ALL of those situations you mentioned were different simply because of the style of play those teams had - ARI had no defense either, while those other teams could keep the score close.

How is it any different? San Diego, Seattle, Cincinnati and Jacksonville all SUCKED. Their defenses SUCKED. All of their offensive systems were DIFFERENT. They had a RB prove himself a stud regardless.

2. You seem to convenetently (sp?) look at total yds v. YPC. His 4.6 YPC are hardley anything to sniff at.

Yes because he is going to rush 9x for 134 yards against Green Bay all the time. How dare I look at his 3.8 YPC besides that game and sniff something fishy.

They brought in a proven offensive minded coach who has a number of top flight RBs that he helped along through his career.

Thanks for clearing that up because I had been thinking Lovie Smith spent the last 8 years as a defensive coordinator and linebackers coach.

TJones was hand picked by him, and offere a 4 yr deal for starter money - that alone means he is the starting RB.

So let's examine this "starter money" contract he has.

2004 $800,000.00
2005 $1,800,000.00
2006 $2,000,000.00
2007 $2,225,000.00

He signed a $3.5M bonus with the contract. That means TJ counts $1.7M against the salary cap. Not a huge figure if they decide to cut him after 2004. If they cut him after June 1st of 2005, his cap hit for the next two seasons will be $1.3M. Sure it's $1M dollars, but not a huge amount compared to the $80M teams get total.


Since we keep coming back to the "but he played for Arizona" argument, let's see how that stacks up.

2000
Thomas Jones: 112 carries, 373 yards 3.3 YPC: 32 receptions
Michael Pittman: 184 carries, 719 yards, 3.9 YPC: 73 receptions

2001
Thomas Jones: 112 carries, 380 yards 3.4 YPC: 21 receptions
Michael Pittman: 241 carries, 846 yards 3.5 YPC: 42 receptions

Michael Pittman goes off to Tampa Bay. TJ finally has a chance to prove what he's made of!!

2002
Thomas Jones: 138 carries, 511 yards 3.7 YPC: 20 receptions
Marcel Shipp: 188 carries, 834 yards 4.4 YPC: 38 receptions

Crap beaten again. Not only that, but the "but we played from behind and they couldn't run the ball" excuse doesn't hold up. Shipp had a healthy 4.4 YPC average. Then you might want to say "but Thomas Jones got better too". So lets take .4 YPC away from both so TJ goes back to his career average. Still 4.0 for Shipp. Still twice as many receptions without twice as many carries. Which leads me to this.

G. Rexman will use TJones frequently as an outlet.

But Jones doesn't catch!!

So lets summarize. You and the other TJones lovers out there are basing their entire estimation of Jones on 3-4 good games he had last year compared to a pitiful 4 year career when he's never been able to set himself apart as the best RB on the team.

Thomas Jones sucks. He has sucked, he sucks now and he will continue to suck. I don't care if he rushes for 2000 yards this season, gets 5 interceptions in the playoffs and kicks a game winning 70 yard field goal in the Super Bowl, I'll still say he sucks.