Jets running back Michael Carter started off his NFL career on a solid note, leading the team in rushing with 639 yards and had almost 1,000 total yards as a rookie in 2021. He took a step back in Year 2, rushing for just 402 yards and three touchdowns even with Breece Hall out for the last ten games of the season.
Carter is back for his third season and is ready to bounce back after what he called a “long-ass year” saying that there were “some moments where I could have come up big and I probably just didn’t.”
With Carter’s struggles in 2022, the Jets started turning more to other backs such as undrafted rookie Zonovan Knight and Ty Johnson. They even traded for James Robinson in October, but Robinson ended up hardly playing for the Jets. Robinson recently signed with the New York Giants.
That trade made Carter perhaps a little too emotional. “This job is the only job I’ve ever had. Never worked at Publix, nothing. When something doesn’t go your way, it hurts you extra,” Carter said Tuesday. He’s learned from that and is ready to prove he can still be a valuable weapon for the Jets, especially entering a season where Hall still isn’t 100 percent and is currently on the Physically Unable to Perform list and at a time where the Jets are still rumored to be in on former Vikings running back Dalvin Cook.
Carter is having a good start to camp, so he may already be on the road to a bounce-back season. If he can, the Jets could quietly have one of the better running back rooms in the NFL.
