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Chris Ivory's Injury History not in Jets Favor

You could forgive Rex Ryan for parting ways with Shonn Greene. The “ground and pound” that has been promised for years has been more “grunt and plod” as Greene attacked the line in slow motion and took only what was served to him on a silver platter. However the one thing about him was that he missed very few games (only 3 in 4 years and one of those games was due to a bad case of athlete’s foot).

But from the management team that brought you the 3 ring circus of Mark Sanchez, Greg McElroy and Tim Tebow, comes the Jets rushing attack featuring two players who are held together with duct tape and pencils.

In 3 years in the NFL Chris Ivory has 9 (that’s nine) separate injuries and has missed 28 games. Of those injuries the most severe was a Lisfranc fracture on his left foot (missed time in 2010 and 8 games in 2011). A lisfranc sprain or fracture is almost always very severe. It occurs when the arch to your foot collapses, usually as a result of a 300 lb linebacker dropping his knee on you as you lie at the bottom of the pile. The result is almost always surgery that requires screw to be placed in your foot to ensure the arch is supported correctly. These injuries never heal completely – think Ahmad Bradshaw and how he hobbles through each season. Which is why for such a talented running back he was used very sparingly as Pierre Thomas, Mark Ingram and Darren Sproles split the NO rushing attack and not as the featured rusher as the Jets are hoping for him. In fact he practiced once this summer before tweaking his hamstring and hasn’t practiced since.

Enter Mike Goodson – the thunder to the Ivory’s lightening. Goodson is a very talented rusher – unfortunately he has missed a whopping 21 games in his 4 year NFL career. That’s an average of 5 games or 30% per season spent on the bench. Whilst none of the injuries have been severe enough to require surgery of any kind he is a very slow healer versus the recovery time of most other athletes at his position.

With a quarterback situation shakier than my nan’s tea cup, these two are going to be called on heavily to lead the attack when the Jets have the ball. Our bet is on both of them being out of commission by week 8 leaving Bilal Powell and Joe McKnight to carry the load for the rest of the season.

We’ve seen mock drafts with Ivory as high as the 4th round which is criminal as there are several better options to go with at this position. Let others pay with their hearts whilst you make your decision based on what you know to be the likely outcome.

Jared Smola, Lead Analyst

Jared has been with Draft Sharks since 2007. He’s now Lead Analyst, heading up the preseason and weekly projections that fuel your Draft War Room and My Team tools. He currently ranks 1st among 133 analysts in draft rankings accuracy.