By Nate Davis, USA TODAY
Updated 4h 4m ago
LaDainian Tomlinson has openly criticized the New York Jets locker room he was a part of in 2011 after watching it fray at the end of the season.
Now he's warning that Tim Tebow's arrival there could indirectly lead to more strife, specifically from WR Santonio Holmes, who's been singled out as a source of last year's fractious atmosphere.
"If (by) Week 6, if they haven't thrown the ball more than 15 times a game, and Santonio is not getting his catches, you may hear some things (with) him speaking out. I hope Santonio learned from what happened last year. You have to learn from your previous mistakes," Tomlinson, now retired, said on NFL Network's The Rich Eisen Podcast on Thursday.
Holmes had just 51 catches and a career-low 654 receiving yards in 2011 and vented frustration on and off the field.
However Tomlinson also opined that the moody wideout might buy into a dual quarterback system knowing Tebow's running ability might serve to open things up for the offense whether he's under center or perhaps putting the Jets in down-and-distance situations that allow Mark Sanchez to make more shots in the passing game.
"Mark's our quarterback," said L.T. "Tebow will be our Wildcat quarterback whenever we want to ground and pound. Santonio may be able to accept that a little bit more than playing musical chairs."
Tomlinson also touched on a few other topics:
More from USATODAY
By Robert Deutsch, USA TODAY
"If (by) Week 6, if they haven't thrown the ball more than 15 times a game, and Santonio is not getting his catches, you may hear some things (with) him speaking out. I hope Santonio learned from what happened last year. You have to learn from your previous mistakes," Tomlinson, now retired, said on NFL Network's The Rich Eisen Podcast on Thursday.
Holmes had just 51 catches and a career-low 654 receiving yards in 2011 and vented frustration on and off the field.
However Tomlinson also opined that the moody wideout might buy into a dual quarterback system knowing Tebow's running ability might serve to open things up for the offense whether he's under center or perhaps putting the Jets in down-and-distance situations that allow Mark Sanchez to make more shots in the passing game.
"Mark's our quarterback," said L.T. "Tebow will be our Wildcat quarterback whenever we want to ground and pound. Santonio may be able to accept that a little bit more than playing musical chairs."
Tomlinson also touched on a few other topics:
- His assertion that he'd rather be a Hall of Famer than a Super Bowl champion in a ProFootballTalk interview: "Ever since I was kid, I wanted to leave a mark on the game. I wanted to be special. That's something I worked for. And I understand that it's a team game, and at the end of the day, I wanted to win a championship. It's not like I was saying I didn't want to win a championship -- I wanted so badly to win a championship, I sacrificed individually so much. But when it's all said and done, at the end of the day, I didn't win a championship but I think I've got a great chance of going to the Hall of Fame. ... You're going to get various opinions about the way I did things, the way I carried myself. ... But I didn't think I was a selfish person at all."
- Whether running backs are still cooked at the age of 30: "Running backs don't have the same workload as I had, or Marshall Faulk had, Emmitt Smith, guys like that who carried the ball 300-plus times a year every year. And so obviously it takes a toll on your body. But today's game, where you have two- and three-running back rotations, a running back can play a lot longer now."
No comments:
Post a Comment