La'Mical Perine to carry the load for Jets in finale with Frank Gore out

La’Mical Perine’s number could be called a lot on Sunday.

The Jets rookie will be the lead back with Frank Gore out for the finale at New England with a lung contusion.

Perine just came off of injured reserve to play in Sunday’s 23-16 win over the Browns. He had nine carries for 30 yards and one catch for 14 yards. But Adam Gase suggested that Perine could have a heavy workload against the Patriots.

"It would be good to see him carry the load and see how he does on first, second and third down," Gase said.

Gase said the plan would be to try to involve all three young backs – Perine, Ty Johnson and Josh Adams. Gase has been criticized for not going to them sooner. But Gase was balancing developing the young guys and trying to finally win a game.

Perine was expected to be featured more after Le’Veon Bell was released. He has shown flashes in practice and games with his bursts of speed. But between injuries, some blocking issues in pass protection and having the more experienced Gore ahead of him, Perine has had a tough time establishing himself in Gase’s offense.

The fourth-round pick out of Florida has appeared in 10 games and has 232 yards and two touchdowns on 64 carries to go along with 11 catches for 63 yards. Perine missed the previous four games with a high ankle sprain. Gase was impressed with how Perine played in his first game back.

"I thought he looked good," he said. "You can tell when a guy’s been out for a bit and we kind of noticed last week in practice where his speed looks a lot different than the other guys. You haven’t been banged around for a while and all of a sudden you get back in there, your body allows you to take hits in different ways. Your legs are fairly fresh.

"He was excited to get out there. He did a good job of when there was holes he hit them. He played violent. It’s good to get him back out there. He gives us a little explosion there. This week we’ll map out how we’re going to use these guys, see how many touches we can get all these backs."

Two-minute drill

Gase said he would talk to the medical staff and general manager Joe Douglas about possibly activating right guard and Long Beach resident Greg Van Roten from IR for the last game.