At age 31, Jets running back Matt Forte can’t possibly keep up his current pace, can he?
Forte had 30 carries and two catches in last night’s win over the Bills after having 22 carries and five catches in Week One. That puts him on pace for 472 touches this season, which would be the second-most in any season in NFL history. That would seem to be an unsustainable pace, but Jets coach Todd Bowles indicated after the game that it’s the role the Jets signed Forte to play.
“He’s a workhorse,” Bowles said. “He was getting the tough grind-it-out yards. . . He can run, he can catch, he can block. Just having somebody back there like that who’s going to keep grinding . . . helps us out a lot.”
Asked if the Jets will cut back on his workload, Forte shrugged it off.
“I don’t know. I don’t care either,” Forte said. “I’m going out there to play. As long as we keep winning, I don’t care if I have a 1,000 touches.”
Forte’s career-high in touches came in his rookie year, 2008, when he had 316 carries and 63 catches. It seems awfully unlikely that he could manage almost 100 more touches in his ninth year than he had in his first year, but through two games the Jets like making Forte the focal point of their offense.