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There is no point in evaluating it right now.
Everywhere you turn you hear commentary on how bad the Jets are going to be, and one of the reasons is the state of their offensive line.
“How are they going to protect 40-year-old Aaron Rodgers with this line?”
But what is “this line?”
We don’t even know what it’s going to look like in Week 1.
So I don’t even know the point of blasting the line right now. It’s like saying, “I don’t like how that building looks across the street” before it’s done being built.
Let’s see what they do.
Right now you have two pieces – center Joe Tippmann and guard/tackle Alijah Vera-Tucker, both high draft picks.
Based on what we saw last year, Tippmann looks like he’s going to be special, and Vera-Tucker, we know what he can do when he’s healthy.
Where will Vera-Tucker line up? I would put him at guard, where he could be All-Pro. Yes he can play tackle, but while he can be a good tackle, he can be a great guard. He’s built better for guard with his arm length.
But let’s say they don’t land a true answer at left tackle in free agency or the draft, they might need to put Vera-Tucker out there to protect Rodgers blindside. He did play there his last year at USC, and a little with the Jets.
Joe Douglas said they won’t move Vera-Tucker around anymore. Where they decide to put him, they will leave him there.
The right tackle could be Carter Warren, the Jets fourth-round pick in the 2023 draft. He started some games at right tackle for the Jets last year, and while he wasn’t perfect, you could see with more time he could be solid out there. Remember, he was a left tackle his entire career at Pitt, so he’s still getting used to switching sides, which can be a challenge, Everything is reversed. Warren is an impressive guy who is wired right to play a long time in the league – focused, smart and driven.
So maybe they have three spots set.
It’s the worst kept secret in the world that the Jets will target an offensive tackle with the 10th pick in the first round, unless there is nobody there they like, and they could trade back with some team that might want to trade up for a QB like Michigan’s J.J. McCarthy.
If Notre Dame’s Joe Alt slips to 10, the Jets will be ecstatic, and they could have their left tackle for the next ten years.
So if they get Alt, and they feel Warren can handle the right tackle job, then all of sudden, they just have one guard spot to fill, because Vera-Tucker will likely move back inside.
And there are plenty of quality guards available in free agency, led by Miami’s Robert Hunt and Minnesota’s Dalton Risner. There are a number of other options.
They also have a bunch of young guards on the roster who they were developing last year, like Chris Glaser, Xavier Newman, Jake Hanson and Vitaliy Gurman. Not putting any of them in Canton, but they were in the building for a reason, and maybe one them emerges as a starter for an open guard spot.
Clearly they will be adding linemen throughout free agency and the draft process.
Look, I don’t know what it’s going to look like, but to say it’s a problem that’s going to hurt them this year, before we see what they do, doesn’t make any sense.
Let’s see what it looks like in Week 1.
March 8, 2024
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