NY Jets 2015 Spotlight: Bilal Powell

Last season with the NY Jets, the play of Bilal Powell was one of the key factors in their success and it will be difficult to replace him if they don’t re-sign him.

Powell was a key factor in who helped the Jets become a better team with coming out of the backfield along with taking the work load off of Chris Ivory in 2015. He has been known for his quickness and speed in getting in the open field. He had his third best career year this year with 313 total yards, his best in averaging yards with 4.5 per play, and one touchdown.

Late in the season when he came off his injury, Powell was seeing a lot more playing time with being very successful in helping the Jets push for the playoffs. He was a big contributor in beating the New England Patriots and Dallas Cowboys late in the year. When he was injured early on the season, Ivory was taking the majority of the work load on, and it wore him down midway through the season. Once Powell returned, he and Ivory became the two headed monster the Jets were expected to deploy going into the season.

The problem I had with him is he has a tendency to drop balls while on the run or missed an assignment during the games. I noticed he would have a problem in catching passes while on the run which made the fans along with the organization and coaches rather frustrated. Those passes that he dropped could end up being very crucial because every little play counts. If he was trying to make a statement in why people should sign him, then he will need to improve on this. He also needs to work on picking up the blitz and making sure the quarterback is protected in the pocket.

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Powell can start on any team and could be a game changer because of his quickness and speed that could cause defenses to have many missed tackles.

It is going to be tough because of his age as he is 28 years old and that could be a problem the Jets will have in re-signing him. For how much of a beating the running backs take, it’s hard to determine if he has much more left in him. If the Jets were to offer him a contract then they should do it for a short-term deal and keep it at that.

It will be interesting to how they handle the situation with Powell because they are going to want to sign another key player that helped last season and that is Ivory. Powell has shown potential but he needs to worry about staying healthy for a whole entire season.

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If they are going to sign Powell, the Jets will be getting a player that will have a chip on his shoulder in wanting to prove people wrong. The organization will have a tough time in deciding in who they will want to sign so hopefully they make the right decision regarding Powell.