It's over. The Jacksonville Jaguars have pulled off the upset of the playoffs. The Jaguars are in the AFC Championship game for the first time since 1999. They knock off the Steelers in Pittsburgh 45-42.
601 days…it's been a long time since you've seen me on the field.
I'm ready. I'm coming. It's going to be a fun year and I want people to really be ready for what I'm about to bring. I know a lot of people are looking at me, counting on me, and I'm not one to let people down.
The preseason has been a tease, a good tease. I'm getting all the feelings like I'm about to play even though I haven't stepped between the white lines or in the huddle. Yet. That changes in a few days. But I prepared like I'm going to play, put my pads on to let my teammates know I'm there with them.
When I was going through warmups, taking handoffs and catching the ball while the fans are out there screaming, it felt good. I haven't had that in a long time. I just want to embrace it all.
Chapter 2 officially starts soon. New city, new stadium. I know the fans are ready to see me out there. I can tell by the way they've embraced me, how they react when they see me. Even on Instagram and Twitter and things like that, when people reach out to me, I try to reach back out to as many as possible.
When people don't see something or someone for a long time, it's easy to kind of forget. But I'm here to remind everyone. Like I said earlier, I'm coming. You can go back and look at the highlights and things like that, but it's not the same. Even when I go back and watch them, and I've seen them a million times, it's not the same. People haven't seen me making highlights in a green uniform before. That's why everyone gets excited when they see it in practice. I even get excited.
Nobody is more excited than me. Nobody is more ready than I am. Nobody is ready for my return more than me — friends, family, fans, coaches, players. Everybody may be ready to see me, but I'm more ready to show people than what people are ready to see.
Naysayers will say I won't be as good as two years ago or "he went to the Jets" and things like that. That's okay, there's always something. And I always find what it is. In high school, I was the two-star recruit. In college, I wasn't the first running back drafted.
Whatever it is that people think I can't do, I'm going to show you that I can do it. That's the type of player I am and that's how I'm going to be. I always have a new chip on my shoulder.
When I first signed here, I was excited about being here, playing for the team I grew up rooting for because of my favorite running back, Curtis Martin. I knew the potential of the team with Sam Darnold, Adam Gase, my new o-line, a new GM. I was excited about the idea of it all. But once I got here and we were going through camp, it's so much different. I really got to see it. It was like, "Oh. I didn't even know Gase could do this. I didn't know Sam could do this. That's impressive."
I can feel the hunger. I can see the hope, the excitement in the fans' eyes whether I'm at a restaurant or walking around the mall. I want to deliver for you. I want to be a person that helped change the culture of what's been going on. I know where we can go. I'm excited about it all — playing in New York in front of the fans and the expectations.
I understand you'll demand greatness out of me. I embrace it.
Let's do it.
