The Jets’ running back situation is an interesting one. They are going to run the ball a lot, but they only have one proven back, Shonn Greene, and he’s a pretty marginal talent as a runner, though he’s definitely proven he can carry a load. He had 283 touches last year and, as the Jets will run more, he’s expected to get even more touches this year, maybe even over 300. However, he’ll lose some goal line carries to Tim Tebow and now it appears he won’t play 3^rd downs either.

The Jets will have Joe McKnight and Bilal Powell competing for the 3^rd down job and Powell reportedly is the favorite, though both have had very disappointing NFL careers to this point, going in the 4^th round in 2010 and 2011 respectively and averaging 3.9 YPC and 1.6 YPC respectively, though Powell also has 13 career carries so he could bounce back in his 2^nd year in the league. Greene didn’t handle 3^rd down duties last year either and still had 283 touches so he could definitely still have 300+ this year.

Greene is underrated in fantasy circles, going in the 5^th round on average. He won’t catch a ton of passes or score a lot of touchdowns or average a large YPC (4.3 YPC in his career), but he’ll get you plenty of volume yardage and he’s a natural fit for offensive coordinator Tony Sparano’s new blocking scheme. His YPC could also be increased by Tim Tebow’s presence, like Willis McGahee’s was last season. He has very little competition for carries and he’s one of the few running backs in the league who can say that.

However, because his value is almost totally tied to his volume of carries, he does have some downside because he’s only a marginal talent and someone like Powell could break out and eat into his carries, even though it’s unlikely. If you draft Greene in the 4^th round or so, where he’s still a good value in a weak year for running backs, it might be wise to handcuff Powell with a late round pick or, at least, monitor Powell and pick up him if he starts stealing carries.

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