The New York Jets are still not using one of their best offensive pieces to his fullest potential. Bilal Powell needs more touches.
Part of the reason for the New York Jets’ struggles is the stubbornness of their head coach Todd Bowles. This is often showed on the defensive side of the football, but it has become clear on the offensive side as well.
The Jets have gotten some pretty bad quarterback play thus far in 2016. In order to combat bad QB play, it is important to establish a dominant running game. The only issue is the Jets are relying on a tailback past his prime.
Matt Forte, although a solid addition to the team, is not a back who can carry the ball 30 times a game anymore. He’s still allusive, but he’d be best fit to split time with fellow back Bilal Powell.
You can tell Forte isn’t getting it done all on his own by looking at his yards per attempt. Sure, if you just look at the yards at the end of the day you’ll see that he’s hit 100 yards twice so far this year. Though, both times it took him 30 attempts to get there.
Forte is averaging 3.5 y/a, a career low, while Powell is averaging 7.1 y/a. Granted the sample size is much different (157 carries compared to 30 carries), it’s still an impressive enough number to yield more touches.
Powell is averaging just 3.75 attempts per game while Forte is averaging 19.6. If rounded to 4 and 20 the Jets are averaging 24 runs per game. As previously stated with the state of the Jets QB position, they should be running the ball 30+ times a game.
It should be closer to a 60%/40% split between Forte and Powell instead of the current split which is 84% Forte and 16% Powell.
It’s been pretty clear that Powell and Quincy Enunwa have been two positive pieces to this Jets offensive puzzle and they both aren’t getting the ball nearly enough.
This past game in Cleveland was by far Powell’s best game. He had 76 rushing yards and a score. He only ran the ball six times though.
The Jets have two solid backs and it’s about time they start utilizing both of them, in the running and short passing game.
