Brandon Jacobs revealed Friday that his knee injury that eventually led to January arthroscopic surgery was suffered in Week One of the regular season.
Looking back, Jacobs wishes he would’ve had the knee repaired immediately.
"[In hindsight] I would’ve got it done in Week One, missed four or five weeks and came back and played,” Jacobs said. “As the year went on I thought it was going to get better, it was going to get better, it was going to get better. But when i figured out it wasn’t going to get better, it was too late. So I just kept going.”
Jacobs was one of the game’s most dominant power backs in 2008, averaging 5.0 yards per carry with 15 touchdowns. In 2009, his yards-per-attempt average plummeted to 3.7 and he had just five rushing scores.
Jacobs says he’s learned something from the experience.
“Not to play hurt,” he said. “If something happens to you, no matter what it is, go and get it taken care of. Because things aren’t going to get better.”
Jacobs’ hesitant running and lack of burst hurt the team in 2009. The Giants fell to 17th in the league in rushing, a year after ranking first overall.
Jacobs should regain at least some of his old explosiveness after the knee scope. He turns 28 this offseason and has averaged just 156 carries per year since entering the league. Jacobs shouldn’t be hitting the decline phase of his career just yet.
