Market Share Report: We Underestimated Matt Forte

We Underestimated Matt Forte

A lot of the same criticisms of Benjamin applied to Matt Forte, as well. Forte was hurt both last year and during training camp, and he's entering his age-31 season.

The New York Jets just didn't use him like your average soon-to-be-31-year-old back.

Forte handled 22 of the team's 26 running back carries, and Ryan Fitzpatrick targeted him seven times through the air. Forte played 76% of the team's snaps at running back while Bilal Powell was stuck with the remaining 24%.

All of the talk prior to the season seemed to indicate the two would be splitting a lot of the work in the offense. Now, we know that's very clearly not true. Forte is always an injury risk given his age, but as things stand right now, he's as close to being a bell-cow back as you can get.

The Jets' offense struggled as a whole Sunday, but the Cincinnati Bengals' defense has been stout the past few years. If the Jets are able to generate more positive game flow in the coming games, Forte's the one who would benefit, and we should be viewing him as such until they give us reason to do otherwise.