A Closer Look at Thomas Jones

After getting a little frustrated with the Bears veteran Thomas Jones, the same Thomas Jones who's 1350 yards last year were the most ever since Walter Payton, I took a closer look at Jones' stats and I am beginning to change my tune. For a running back to gain 100 yards in a game usually he will need about 25 carries a game. When a team relies heavily on their running game as the Bears did last year a running back can expect to see close to 30 or more carries. However, in the case of Thomas Jones the most carries he has been given this year is 21 in both weeks one and two. Against the Vikings Jones was given only 18 carries. While his average yards-per-gain is only 3.0, a running back will generally need a healthy dose of carries in order to bust out a couple of big runs that allow their averages to be over 4 yards-per-carry. In all three games this year Jones has had runs of 17, 15 and 17 yards and with 5-10 more carries Jones could easily bust out a couple more of those as defenses wear down towards the end of a game. Another reason to cut TJ some slack is the play of Cedric Benson. Benson has averaged only 2.7 yards-per-carry this year and his longest run is just 7 yards. With Rex Grossman playing at a higher level this year the Bears have been gaining yards more and more through the air and have not had to rely on the power running game that they have preached for the last three decades. As Grossman continues to develop and gain more respect throughout the league I would expect more holes will open up in the running game and that Thomas Jones will put together a nice string of 100 yard games. With a very difficult Sunday night game against the Seahawks I expect that the Bears will have to turn to Jones to carry a significant portion of the load and he will have to produce for the Bears offense to get the play-action to work and allow Berrian to break free down the field. With three more games before the bye week I give Jones till the Monday night game at Arizona before I would turn to Cedric Benson.