LaDainian Tomlinson gained a career-high 1,815 yards for the San Diego Chargers in 2006, and then his production declined each year until he had a career-low 730 in 2009. But Tomlinson says he’s not the one who changed.
According to Tomlinson, he’s still capable of being the kind of player he was at the peak of his career, even though he’ll turn 31 on June 23. He says the problem in San Diego was that coach Norv Turner changed the offensive approach.
“The things that happened in San Diego, everything was taken away from me,” Tomlinson said today. “There wasn’t an emphasis on running the football anymore, my best fullback was gone, the linemen were pass blocking and it was a passing quarterback and a passing coach. So, the situation’s kind of misleading when you look on film.”
Now that Tomlinson is playing for the Jets, he says he thinks he’s playing in an offense that will properly utilize his talents.
“I knew it was time to leave,” Tomlinson said. “The transition wasn’t as hard because I kind of prepared myself for it and I was ready to kind of move on to something else.”
Still, Tomlinson knows that he won’t be the workhorse he was in San Diego, when he had more than 300 carries in each of his first seven seasons. With the Jets, he’ll share carries with Shonn Greene.
“Shonn and I work well together,” Tomlinson said.