The Jets are confident — as they are with all things — that Chris Johnson will get plenty of touches and gain plenty of yards.
But he might lose some chances near the goal line to Chris Ivory, for what running backs coach Anthony Lynn said was good reason.
Lynn called Ivory “the best power runner in the game,” which means Rex Ryan might not win the annual award for hyperbole.
“If we were playing tomorrow, Chris Ivory would be on the goal line, obviously,” Lynn said, via Seth Walder of the New York Daily News. “Sometimes in those situations you have an extra defender that you can’t block, and you need a back that can take him on.”
All exaggerations aside, Ivory has proven himself a tough runner in the past, specifically as a guy who doesn’t go down on first contact.
“Some guys have that unique ability to get skinny in a hole, find a soft spot,” Lynn said of short-yardage backs. “It’s not necessarily a power back.”
So while some might prefer an Adrian Peterson or a Marshawn Lynch, the Jets are going to give Ivory plenty of chances at the goal line, it seems.