Time can move fast in the National Football League. Tanner Purdum signed with the Jets on Feb. 2, 2010 and now the 32-year-old is the second-oldest player on the roster.
"I look up and I'm like it's not that long ago," said Purdum on Friday night while signing his new contract. "And I think about it though and I'm like the second-oldest dude on the team. That's not right. It's a little different."
For seven seasons with the Green & White, Purdum has just done his job while appearing in 112 consecutive regular-season contests. But his eighth season will be different as the Jets released K Nick Folk and subsequently signed K Chandler Catanzaro in free agency.
"A little different, a little different. Nick got released. I was the oldest guy, but I had another one with me," he said of the Jets kicking specialists. "Now I am the oldest guy by a good seven years."
But familiarity remains. Purdum was a free agent for just about 24 hours before agreeing to a new deal with the Jets.
"It's home. It's comfortable, but it makes you work that much harder," he said. "You know everyone in the organization and how you're treated and how well we get treated here. You play a little bit harder from home than you do a new place."
Dependable and durable, Purdum remains a key special teams fixture on a roster that continues to get younger by the day. Approaching year eight, Purdum praised strength coach Justus Galac for his work with the specialists.
"Justus does a great job with us. He allows us to do what we need to do to keep our bodies to be able to go the whole season," he said. "Twenty games for a snapper or a kicker or a punter, that's a long time and a lot of balls. He allows us to do what we need to do, and he organizes his workouts so it will benefit us in the best possible way since we are so different than receivers and your linemen. We're most like baseball pitchers in which you come out and perform at 100% for like 60 reps and then you shut it down. That's kind of how it is for us."
