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Shonn Greene preparing to shoulder Jets' running load

Published: Sunday, August 08, 2010, 10:00 AM

userpic-3492-100x100.png Jenny Vrentas/The Star-Ledger

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William Perlman/The Star-LedgerShonn Greene will wear extra rib pads to try and stay healthy this season. CORTLAND, N.Y. — Rex Ryan vowed he won’t tell Shonn Greene how to run.

The Jets head coach left any tinkering to Anthony Lynn, who sounds part running backs coach and part mechanic.

“Like I tell him all the time, you’re either a Jaguar or you’re a Range Rover,” Lynn said last week. “So if you’re a Range Rover, I’m not going to try to make you a Jaguar. You just need to learn how to ride a little smoother.”

That, in simplest terms, has been the objective this offseason for Greene, the Jets’ playoffs sensation-turned-starting running back.

The Jets love Greene’s rare combination of power and quickness, which he used to rack up a league-high 304 rushing yards in the postseason last year. They’ll love it even more if he can deliver through a full 16 games, and beyond.

With Greene stepping into the No. 1 role this season, after the team moved on from Thomas Jones, doing so is critical for the ground-and-pound Jets — and admittedly on the 24-year-old’s mind.

“I think that’s what a lot of people are talking about: Can I carry the load throughout a full season without getting injured?” Greene said. “I’ve been looking forward to it, taking the challenge on.”

Lynn proactively addressed durability this offseason with Greene, who was slowed by ankle and rib injuries as a rookie. Together, they watched film of the plays on which he was injured. Lynn determined more than one was out of Greene’s control — but still recommended he wear more insulation than his teammates.

Opposing defenders tend to go low on Greene, because of his bruising style and body lean, leaving him prone to the rib injuries he sustained twice last season. The equipment staff has already fitted him with extra padding around his ribs.

Lynn also showed Greene tape of plays where, facing a trio of defenders near the sideline, it’s okay to step out of bounds; or if two opponents have you stood up, it makes sense to go down.

That’s a conversation fullback Tony Richardson remembers having with Adrian Peterson, for whom he blocked when he was on the Vikings in 2007.

“I’d get mad at (him) sometimes, because he would just try to run through everybody, and I’d be like, ‘AP, hey dude, step out of bounds.’ ” Richardson said. “My biggest thing is I want to see these guys have long careers and, sometimes doing that style of running, you might last a few years.”

Greene understands. He doesn’t like wearing the extra rib padding, but he’s been doing it anyway. If he got a chance to run over Cincinnati’s Chinedum Ndukwe or San Diego’s Eric Weddle in the playoffs again, he would, but he’s also been practicing smart running in certain situations so far during training camp.

“I kind of don’t like shying away from contact, because that’s how I was brought up to play football,” Greene said, “but you also have to be smart and learn how to do things like that.”

A lot about Greene is smarter in his second pro season. He credits Jones, who is now with the Chiefs, for teaching him how to dissect film. He’s been soaking up some of LaDainian Tomlinson’s nine seasons of experience, working on zone reads and cuts during a recent practice.

He was also glued to the team’s Florham Park practice facility this offseason, opting to spend most of his summer there working out instead of hanging out in his hometown of Sicklerville. Greene is currently 226 pounds, his target playing weight.

“That’s how I know he’s focused,” his father, Reggie Greene, said, “because his rookie year, when he didn’t have to be there, he was here at home.”

Ryan said Greene won’t be asked to carry the ball 30 times a game. Tomlinson, whom the Jets signed in March, and possibly rookie Joe McKnight or Danny Woodhead, will also get touches.

But Greene, who earned more than one-third of his rookie rushing yards in the postseason, is first in line. And he’s on a mission.

“I have very high expectations for myself,” he said. “A lot of people are saying I didn’t go through a full season, I had fresh legs — this, that and the other. I look forward to proving those people wrong.”

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Jets have a 'thumper' in fullback John Conner

Published: Monday, August 09, 2010, 6:45 AM Updated: Monday, August 09, 2010, 6:57 AM

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William Perlman/The Star-LedgerJets rookie John Conner, above, is leaning on 16-year veteran Tony Richardson for guidance during training camp. CORTLAND, N.Y. — Before John Conner’s junior year of college, his position coach at Kentucky sat him down for a talk.

Larry Brinson knew Conner, who scored the first time he touched the ball as a Wildcat, saw himself as more of a runner than a blocker. But the coach wanted to make him understand something.

“You’re not going to be the fastest guy in the backfield,” Brinson, a former NFL running back, remembers telling Conner. “Your job is a blocker. That’s what will get you to the NFL.”

Two years later, Conner is in training camp with the Jets, turning coaches’ heads for knocking the wind out of

three linebackers in one practice.

The former walk-on took his college coach’s advice, embracing his knack for laying people out and developing into a throwback-type fullback. The Jets saw enough on film to draft him in the fifth round, and enough in the first week of camp to already be pleased with that decision.

“He’s a thumper, and it just put a smile on my face,” coach Rex Ryan said earlier in the week. “Because when I was looking at tape of a linebacker that he was killing, I was like, ‘Shoot, forget him. Let’s draft this one.’ ”

The rookie is leaning on 16-year veteran Tony Richardson, and also challenging for a slice of playing time — a story line HBO’s “Hard Knocks” seems to have taken an interest in.

It’s too early to tell what role Conner will play this season. While it’s less common for teams to carry two fullbacks, Ryan doesn’t count that way.

“Some teams don’t carry any. Some teams may carry two,” Ryan said. “We don’t care. We’re going to keep the best football players. If it happens to be two fullbacks or four tight ends, that’s what it will be.”

Richardson was on a roster with two fullbacks early in his career, when he and Kimble Anders were both with the Chiefs. Richardson said he was the short-yardage, goal-line fullback as a rookie in 1995, while Anders handled the down-to-down duties.

He also helped bring along Naufahu Tafi, now the Vikings’ starter, during his time in Minnesota.

Richardson says he sees a lot of his younger self in Conner, particularly the way the 23-year-old eagerly hits everything in sight on the practice field.

“A lot of times nowadays, you see young fullbacks coming into the league and they don’t want to hit anymore,” Richardson said. “That’s the biggest thing I think John has in his favor, that he’s not afraid of contact.”

At Kentucky, opposing coaches in the SEC would routinely comment on Conner’s blows, Brinson said.

There was one play against Vanderbilt he recalls, a countersweep to the left on which Conner came across the formation to block a linebacker on the weak side. He knocked the guy so hard, Brinson recalls, that the defender’s feet went up in the air. Kentucky scored to put the game out of reach.

His power comes, in part, from his strong quadriceps and glutes. Jets running backs coach Anthony Lynn said he’s now looking to see if he keeps his feet alive after contact, to move people out of the hole rather than just create stalemates.

Conner said he’s preparing to carry a special teams role this season, so far working with each of the units. But he’s also trying to “make a name for myself” on offense — in the very way his college coach told him he could.

“You have to be a physical player to play fullback, and that’s just one thing I’ve taken pride in,” Conner said. “Playing hard and letting the opposing defender know that I’m here to play; I’m here to stay.”

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Hopefully the rib pads don't increase his chances of fumbling just when it seems like he had gotten past that.

Hey DNA, not sure if you got my last pm on old board or if you responded. I don't know how to send one in this new board. did we lose all our old ones?

send me one if you can. It will suck the next time greene fumbles or leaves game with an injury. a lot of our O will depend on him with TJ gone.

Conner sounds like a beast

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Hey DNA, not sure if you got my last pm on old board or if you responded. I don't know how to send one in this new board. did we lose all our old ones?

send me one if you can. It will suck the next time greene fumbles or leaves game with an injury. a lot of our O will depend on him with TJ gone.

Conner sounds like a beast

I sent you a hundred PM's with no reply and spent many nights sobbing into my pillow, convinced that you didn't love me anymore. Wait???, this isn't a PM?, it's a regular post??? How do you edit??? Dammit, help, I was just kidding!! :o

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