Jacksonville Jaguars running back Maurice Jones-Drew's holdout has reached double digits and there aren't signs of it ending anytime soon.
The NFL's reigning rushing champ is not happy with the two years and $9.5 million that remains on his 2009 contract extension and will use the $21 million he received in the first three seasons of that contract to fund his continued efforts towards a new deal.
While Jones-Drew is working out on his own, just as he did during last year's lockout, he might want to consider some unintentional advice that Tennessee Titans running back Chris Johnson and Hall of Fame running back Curtis Martin put out this weekend.
"I was in shape, but I wasn't in football shape ," Johnson told NFL.com's Ian Rapoport of his 2011 training camp holdout. "Like, as much as I worked out in this offseason, I came in, I started in camp, and I'm still not used to it today. I'm still not in football shape. We just started. It takes toward the end of football camp to get in football shape."
Johnson did not end his holdout until September 1 and had a career-low 1,047 yards and four touchdowns in 16 games last season.
"The thing about it, it wasn't nothing I can do during football practice during the season get me in football shape," Johnson added. "I can go through the games and play in the games, but the games still. ... The games aren't as hard as training camp. That's not going to get you in football shape. Training camp is brutal."
Jones-Drew is well within his rights to maximize his earnings, but he should be wary of fourth-year running back Rashad Jennings, who is gunning for his own long-term contract and has looked right at home as the team's top back during MJD's holdout. And if Jones-Drew watched Martin's brutally honest and inspirational speech from Saturday night, he might want to listen to Bill Parcells, who told Martin that he'd better be careful about coming out of the huddle, because you never know who's going in your place.
"You're always replaceable," Martin said on Saturday night. "There is someone always right on your heels. And every year, I tell you, there was someone. I'm not being modest, there was someone on that team had that had more ability, was quicker, stronger, faster and I just outworked everyone."
