04/08 — A couple of weeks back, Jets PR guru Jared Winley informed us that Marques Murrell had an interesting traveling partner. Murrell, an OLB who’s entering his second season, never goes anywhere without a tire.

“The tire started my freshman year of high school,” Murrell said today. “The main thing was just working on speed and endurance, running up hills with a tire. Now I almost always carry it with me. I took one from the workout facility — the track we ran on.”

If time permits, Murrell returns to his hometown of Fayetteville, N.C., from April to June and heads to Reid Ross Middle School. Then in the early summer, he moves his old-school training to a local high school.

“There are two hills we run to. You have to jog with the tire,” he said. “We still use the same hill — we haven’t changed up anything.”

After a voluntary team workout this morning, the 6’2”, 246-pounder explained how he hooks the tire up to his body.

“I have two mount clips, one end that’s connected to the tire that has a hook and a washer to it. And then I hook the other mount clip around the innertube of a bicycle tire and pull it over top first and then wrap it over my neck,” he said. “So it’s pretty much like a little vest.”

When first introduced to the tire method, Marques wasn’t exactly intimidated.

“When I first looked at, I thought this can’t be hard. But then you pick it up and you have to jog with it for a little bit and then you have to put it down and run back up the hill with it and do drills with it going up the hill,” he said. “After the drills, I was like, this was a little bit harder than what I was expecting.”

Since the tire adds resistance and can increase fatigue, the key is to maintain proper running technique.

“I haven’t weighed it yet but it’s a lot of resistance. It’s a little bit smoother than pulling a metal sled. A metal sled kind of doesn’t feel natural — it’s more herky-jerky to me,” Murrell said. “I thought it was more of a natural, smooth transition for me. The thing about a metal sled is you can’t run with it on the street or anything like that. The great thing about the tire is I can take it anywhere I want.”

Last November, the Jets plucked Murrell from the Eagles practice squad and signed him to their active roster. He played in four games and got some valuable experience on special teams. Murrell, who left Appalachian State second on the school's career lists for sacks (36) and tackles for loss (59), is the younger brother of former Jets RB Adrian Murrell.

“Coming into the frying pan, it was crazy. It was hard just understanding what I had to do on certain plays,” he said of his rookie campaign. “But now everything is coming easier and today I really felt confident about myself. I was just going over plays in my head and I could just roll them off if anybody asked me. That makes me feel more comfortable.”

The former collegiate end should benefit from his first professional off-season. He’s getting more confident with the 3-4 system and is also enjoying strength coach Sal Alosi’s program. And when he gets a free minute, the tire is never far away.

“I go in the bubble sometimes or I go find me a hill,” he said, “just to work on my technical drills and do a couple of running drills.”