Ty Johnson is the modern day Fred Jackson

[Mikie2times]

Fred Jackson can dribble a bowling ball

[ganesh]

11 hours ago, NoName said:

I think Singletary deserves more credit than that.  Moss went on to have success once he left as well.  I think Ty is best 3rd down back in the league…but Singletary was solid as a 3rd rounder.

I am not sure what success Moss had ?

[transient]

1 hour ago, ChronicAndKnuckles said:

And Fred Jackson went to a division 3 college and bounced around in the arena league. He didn’t get his chance until he was damn near 30. Ty Johnson has great hands/route running, compact build, and good speed (4.4 forty.) Plenty of guys bounced around on practice squads before finally making their mark. Josh Allen seemed to respect his skills. 

Fred didn’t “bounce around”, and he was 26 when he joined the Bills. Because he was D3 he had a longer road, but he was co-MVP in the UIF in 2005 and rushed for 1700+ yds and scored 53 TD’s in 18 games, which are still single season records apparently. He was the leading rusher for the Rhein Fire in his only season with them. Despite the high profile competition, he outlasted and outperformed both Marshawn Lynch and CJ Spiller. Like Kurt Warner, FJax was the exception.
 

Johnson has been IN THE NFL for 5 years. He’s carved out a niche. He’s a valuable player. However, when Cook was injured against the Jets last season the Bills featured Davis, not Johnson. Three NFL coaching staffs so far have come to the same conclusion… he’s not a feature back.

Edited Sunday at 04:07 AM by transient

[GASabresIUFan]

I like Ty Johnson, but he isn't as good as Cook or Davis.  If he was he'd be the starter.  He also returned to Buffalo as the 3rd back, instead of getting a better opportunity elsewhere in free agency. 

 

Love having Ty on the team, but he isn't Fred Jackson.    

[The Firebaugh Kid]

I remember arguing with some special people on here right before they re-signed him. Anybody who doesn’t think Ty Johnson is a big part of this offense probably needs to drink less during the games.

[Mikie2times]

1 hour ago, GASabresIUFan said:

I like Ty Johnson, but he isn't as good as Cook or Davis.  If he was he'd be the starter.  He also returned to Buffalo as the 3rd back, instead of getting a better opportunity elsewhere in free agency. 

 

Love having Ty on the team, but he isn't Fred Jackson.    

[JerseyBills]

Ty isn’t a 3 down back though

He has a role and he's great at it but there's no way he'll ever be a RB1. 

 

I like him alot at his limited role though 

[ChronicAndKnuckles]

7 hours ago, transient said:

Fred didn’t “bounce around”, and he was 26 when he joined the Bills. Because he was D3 he had a longer road, but he was co-MVP in the UIF in 2005 and rushed for 1700+ yds and scored 53 TD’s in 18 games, which are still single season records apparently. He was the leading rusher for the Rhein Fire in his only season with them. Despite the high profile competition, he outlasted and outperformed both Marshawn Lynch and CJ Spiller. Like Kurt Warner, FJax was the exception.
 

Johnson has been IN THE NFL for 5 years. He’s carved out a niche. He’s a valuable player. However, when Cook was injured against the Jets last season the Bills featured Davis, not Johnson. Three NFL coaching staffs so far have come to the same conclusion… he’s not a feature back.

Yes, I know Fred was 26. I am saying he was almost 30 before he got a chance to be a starter. Before that he contended with both Lynch and Spiller. And he absolutely did bounce around playing on 2 arena teams and NFL Europe before getting signed here. And again I keep saying this. Why are some people not reading my OP? I am not advocating for Johnson to be the #1 back. I am advocating a 1-2 punch of Davis/Johnson. I certainly would want Cook starting over anyone else, but not at 15 million. 

[streetkings01]

One thing about Bills fans during the drought years….they love to fall in love with a player and exaggerate their accomplishments!🥱

 

Fred Jackson was a good RB for us, but he wasn’t some stud that was Wall Of Fame worthy. He was a good RB with a very good story during a very dark Bills era!

[Mr. WEO]

13 hours ago, Starr Almighty said:

How is 4.9 anemic? 1st and 10 hand him the ball 3 times and that's a 👉🏻

 

Ty is good at what he does but he doesn't have the cool Let James Cook name 

 

Hey if he's their feature back, then that's great.  If they hand him the ball 3 times in a row, he's done for the game.

[ChronicAndKnuckles]

10 hours ago, ganesh said:

I am not sure what success Moss had ?

He had some decent production backing up Jonathan Taylor in Indy. Especially when Taylor got injured. I scooped him up fast in my FF league b/c the guy who had Taylor was too dumb to not handcuff Moss. He won me some games. 930 all-purpose yards & 7 TDs. He just signed for 2 yr/8 mil in Cinci. I always respect when a guy can bounce back and carve out a career for himself. Especially at RB where teams tend to just draft a new one when their rookie contract expires. It proves to me that he is a smart player who can do everything asked of him and had the discipline to improve. I have respect for Singletary too who is going into his 7th year. 

2 hours ago, streetkings01 said:

One thing about Bills fans during the drought years….they love to fall in love with a player and exaggerate their accomplishments!🥱

 

Fred Jackson was a good RB for us, but he wasn’t some stud that was Wall Of Fame worthy. He was a good RB with a very good story during a very dark Bills era!

I never said he was Wall of Fame worthy, but he was definitely underrated during his time here. Actually reminds me of James Cook with the way he glided through the hole and seemed to fall forward for an extra 2-3 yards on every run.

Edited Sunday at 02:13 PM by ChronicAndKnuckles

[JP51]

On 3/22/2025 at 11:49 AM, clearwater cadet said:

Don't get me wrong I love Ty, but Freddy was a special player on a lousy franchise / team for years.  I forget the year but that opening day run he had against the bears to win the game, still goes down in my book as one of the best plays in Bills history, and I've been watching for 45 years. 

Yeah I would compare Ty more to Kenny Davis in the Thurman years

[Starr Almighty]

4 hours ago, Mr. WEO said:

 

Hey if he's their feature back, then that's great.  If they hand him the ball 3 times in a row, he's done for the game.

You think Davis is done after 3 carries?

[Mat68]

On 3/22/2025 at 10:45 AM, ChronicAndKnuckles said:

I’m gonna go out on a HUGE limb here and probably get some negative reactions/comments, but I really don’t care. We don’t NEED James Cook. Why? Because Ty Johnson is the modern day Fred Jackson of the Buffalo Bills. 
 

2024 Season

TJ = 59 touches, 8.4 yards a touch. 

Cook = 239 touches with a 5.6 yard average. 

Cook has 1267 scrimmage yards which is very respectable. Now give TJ the same amount of touches as Cook and it projects to 2007.6 scrimmage yards. 
 

TJ is a significantly better receiver. He had 1/5 the amount of pass targets as Cook and still has a higher yard & TD total. 
 

TJ also has a higher YPC at 5.2 and Cook at a 4.9, but I will still give the slight edge to Cook as he had a much bigger workload. Johnson has 20 lbs on Cook and I think would give Buffalo the edge in the red zone. 

 

As far as run blocking, it is obvious that TJ is superior. Our own Josh Allen said he was the best 3rd down back in the NFL. Probably because of his elite outlet receiver skills and ability to pick up rushers. I’ve never seen him whiff on one block. There’s a reason he was the least sacked QB last year and TJ played a big role in that. 
 

The last point I’ll make it Ty Johnson is still relatively young at 27 and with very little wear & tear. Buffalo could easily get 3-4 more seasons out of him. 
 

We saw the same arguments with Fred Jackson that his pedigree wasn’t good enough, that he is too old, that the guy starting ahead of him was simply better. Fans who had a keen eye for talent knew that Jackson was the real deal. Why? Because every time he had the ball, he was a monster. The numbers didn’t lie either as I remember him averaging well over 5 ypc. Still the dumb ass coaching staff drafted CJ Spiller when they already had a star on the roster. 

 

This thread isn’t about putting down Cook who is an excellent back. It’s more about money vs production. I think we could get much more value rolling with Ty Johnson/Ray Davis vs James Cook @ 15 million a year. The drop off in rushing yards would be very minimal if there even is a drop off? RB involvement in the pass game would increase drastically as Ray Davis is a very good receiver in his own right. It just seems like every time Ty Johnson touched the ball, it was a first down. I would roll the dice and try to trade Cook possibly a player for player. The Bills don’t need this type of distraction while they have championship aspirations. Hopefully the FO has learned from the whole Diggs debacle and nips this thing ASAP. 

 

Johnson is a very good third down back.  Good in pass pro, good hands, good speed to beat backers to the edge.  He does not have the vision, contact balance, lateral quickness or speed of Cook.  The amount of disrespect Cook is receiving from the fan base is wild.  After Allen, Cook was easily the best player on offense.  

[NoName]

16 hours ago, ganesh said:

I am not sure what success Moss had ?

I thought he did well filling in for Jonathan Taylor when he was injured.  I didn't follow it closely, so I am sure I am mistaken about that. 

[Mr. WEO]

3 hours ago, Starr Almighty said:

You think Davis is done after 3 carries?

 

Why would I think that?  It's obviously not true.  He's a feature back.

 

What's also true is that, in 6 seasons on 3 different teams, no one has saw fit to use him in the way you are suggesting.  The Bills rarely handed him the ball.  He's a good RB3....you could find that anywhere in day 3 of the  draft.  

 

He's a poor man's Zach Moss.

[Starr Almighty]

1 hour ago, Mr. WEO said:

 

Why would I think that?  It's obviously not true.  He's a feature back.

 

What's also true is that, in 6 seasons on 3 different teams, no one has saw fit to use him in the way you are suggesting.  The Bills rarely handed him the ball.  He's a good RB3....you could find that anywhere in day 3 of the  draft.  

 

He's a poor man's Zach Moss.

I think you misunderstood what I wrote. I asked why you said Ray Davis had a low YPC at 4.9 then went on to say that Ty isn't Cook and also doesn't have the cool nickname. Then you replied to me saying the 3 carries thing since I was talking about Davis it confused me 

[bobobonators]

I think this thread would have been better served without the FJ comparison. It loses me and many others. I see very little similarities between TJ and FJ. 
 

Discussing TJ and his ability to be our #1 RB is a much better conversation and simpler too. 

[bmur66]

I have not seen FJ since FJ.

[streetkings01]

12 hours ago, ChronicAndKnuckles said:

He had some decent production backing up Jonathan Taylor in Indy. Especially when Taylor got injured. I scooped him up fast in my FF league b/c the guy who had Taylor was too dumb to not handcuff Moss. He won me some games. 930 all-purpose yards & 7 TDs. He just signed for 2 yr/8 mil in Cinci. I always respect when a guy can bounce back and carve out a career for himself. Especially at RB where teams tend to just draft a new one when their rookie contract expires. It proves to me that he is a smart player who can do everything asked of him and had the discipline to improve. I have respect for Singletary too who is going into his 7th year. 

I never said he was Wall of Fame worthy, but he was definitely underrated during his time here. Actually reminds me of James Cook with the way he glided through the hole and seemed to fall forward for an extra 2-3 yards on every run.

Never said you did, but it’s been posted on the message board many times how elite he was during his Bills career when that wasn’t the case at all! Good RB, far from great or elite.