Bilal Powell: The Veteran Presence the Jets Desperately Need

This season, most Louisville fans are watching the New York Jets to see how Teddy Bridgewater does coming off of his gruesome knee injury in 2017. I’m waiting for RB Bilal Powell to have a break out year.

The focus of the New York Jets this offseason has been Sam Darnold, the rookie quarterback out of USC. The Jets were seen as having one of the more interesting quarterback competitions in the NFL. However, as a Louisville fan, we should be watching the battle at running back at Jets camp.

Bilal Powell is going into his 8th season as a Jets running back. To date, he has put up pretty decent numbers for a back up/3rd string running back. He has accumulated 3,103 yards with a 4.4 yards per carry average, with 15 touchdowns and close to 1,500 yards receiving with 4 reception touchdowns.

His main competition is Isaiah Crowell, acquired from the Browns this offseason, and 2nd year back Elijah McGuire, who is currently sidelined with a fractured foot.

Compared to most backs, Powell is still relatively fresh, despite being 29 years old. Over 8 years, he has run the ball 711 times and caught 193 passes. By comparison, Crowell has run 737 times over the last 4 seasons. By no means does that mean Crowell is washed up, but it shows they’ve seen roughly the same amount of work over two different stretches of time.

Crowell missed about a week of practice with a concussion suffered in the Jets’ preseason game against the Falcons, but returned to practice earlier this week. Bilal has a better career yards per carry average and catches the ball better out of the back field. Powell also rushed for a career high in yards and touchdowns last year behind an OLine that Pro Football Focus ranked the 30th in the league. Crowell rushed for a slightly lower average (4.1 ypc) behind the 14th best OLine in football.

Bilal also has the most to prove, as he will be an unrestricted free agent following this season. While I don’t see him going off for 1,200 rushing and 500 receiving yards and double digit touchdowns, if his production stays about the same, I think 800-850 rushing yards is not out of the question.

The Jets will likely start Sam Darnold week one (sorry Teddy) and they will need to rely on the running game to help him out. If the offensive line shows any promise, I believe Powell will be a solid contributor on this team. He is the longest tenured member of the Jets and a fan favorite at the Meadowlands.

This guy sums it up pretty well.

This Jets season has a lot of hype around it, mostly due to the quarterback situation. But I think the real star of this team will end up being Bilal Powell.