#Frank Gore’s Jets mindset is ‘on a whole other level’

Frank Gore believes he could have rushed for 1,000 yards last season with the Bills had they given him the ball enough. He enters this season with the Jets with the same kind of self-belief, but he also knows what he signed up for.

Gore enters his 16th season in the NFL and his first with the Jets in a backup role. Le’Veon Bell is going to be the lead back, even if Gore will get his share of the carries.

“I know the situation here,” Gore said Monday. “We’ve got a great back with Le’Veon, who did great things and still can play this game. I know that he’s our lead dog. My goal is to do whatever it takes when my number gets called to do whatever it takes to help this team be successful.”

Gore, 37, has drawn rave reviews from his new teammates and coaches for the attitude and work ethic he has already shown them. Gore is the third leading rusher in NFL history, but he still approaches things like training camp as if he is a rookie.

“Frank, he’s like no other,” wide receiver Breshad Perriman, who works out with Gore in the offseason, said. “If you see him work, especially in the offseason, he grinds so hard, man. He works like he’s young, like he’s never really accomplished anything. He’s still got that hunger, that drive. You can see it every time he works. You’ve got to respect that, just that mindset he’s got. It’s on a whole other level.”

The Jets signed Gore, hoping he can be a strong influence in their locker room and give them some production in the backfield. With Buffalo last season, Gore had 106 carries for 437 yards and two touchdowns in the team’s first eight games. But in the second half of the season the Bills wanted to get rookie Devin Singletary more involved and that meant less work for Gore. He had just 60 carries for 162 yards in the final eight games.

“I felt like if they would have let me play, I would have had over 1,000 [yards],” Gore said. “I jumped out there and I was having a great year. Singletary is a young back who is very talented and is going to do great things in this league as long as he keeps working. I know he will. I understand they drafted him, so they had to get him ready. I felt like the games I did play I did some good things and showed I can still play. I think if they would have let me continue on with the season, I would have gotten over a thousand.”

Gore has heard people say he is finished and should retire.

“It motivates me in the offseason,” Gore said. “I think about that every day.”

He thinks about it as he outworks men much younger than him. Gore’s offseason workouts are legendary around the NFL. He said he began ramping things up when he turned 28 because that is when he started to hear he was nearly done. He takes only two weeks off after the season and then begins working out, lightly at first and then he increases the load. It peaks during the six weeks before training camp when players are on their own after the spring program.

“When we go home for that six weeks to get ready, I really go hard,” Gore said. “You know how like a boxer gets ready for a fight, that’s how I train in those six weeks to get myself ready for camp.”

He showed up to Jets camp in fighting shape, but was held out of the first day of practice on Friday with hamstring soreness. Jets coach Adam Gase, who has coached Gore before with the 49ers and Dolphins, said Gore never wants to sit.

“You can see why the guy’s still playing, he runs out there on the first day, you know, like it’s the first time he played a practice in the NFL,” Gase said. “You can tell that’s why he still plays, he still loves it. He still loves the first practice. He’s excited about it, he’s nervous about it, I mean that’s, it’s pretty cool to see a guy that’s a future Hall of Famer that still gets like that.”