Ashtyn Returns + OT Focus

Edition #614

Good morning.

Welcome to the weekend. I’m not a golf fan but I always enjoy the masters from Augusta and I’m looking forward to diving into some baseball over the weekend, I’ve been a rubbish Mets fan so far this season. Today we’ve got a couple of things to talk about, the signing of Ashtyn Davis and the offensive tackle class beyond the top tier.

I’m delighted to have Ashtyn back on the team for three reasons. He has gained a reputation for being in the right place at the right time on defence picking up 3 interceptions last year despite barely playing. He offers good depth behind Tony Adams who is slated to be the starting free safety, he knows the system and the expectations. But most of all, he’s turned into one of the better special teamers in football and having lost Justin Hardee to the Browns, we needed someone to come back and lead that unit and I think Ashtyn is your new special teams captain.

The Jets loved Davis and Davis loves the Jets, but he wanted to see if he could find a destination where he could be guaranteed a starting spot in the secondary. Mike Garafolo said a few teams showed interest, but I imagine most of those teams were showing interest in him as a special teams specialist who offered depth. Why make a lateral move when you like your teammates, like the city and like the coaching staff. He’s also one injury away from starting on this top-5 defence, that’s a pretty good situation to be in.

Welcome back to Ashtyn. Yesterday I marked him out as a priority signing and low and behold he arrived. If only all my wishes came that quickly.

👋 CJ Uzomah is signing with the Philadelphia Eagles on a one-year deal. CJ was an outstanding teammate, but his contributions on the field were abysmal.

The jets have completed an official top-30 visit with UAB receiver Tejhaun Palmer, they also spent considerable time with him at his pro-day and have remained consistently in touch throughout the process.

I think it’s pretty safe to say that the Jets are going to be taking an offensive tackle in the 2024 draft. It’s more likely they take two than zero, and fortunately, this draft class is absolutely loaded.

I do feel as though the offensive tackle class is more top-heavy than the wide-receiver class, which gives strength to the argument that taking a tackle early and then taking a receiver is a better use of resources than taking a receiver than a tackle.

We’ve spoken about the top guys in this class ad nauseam so like we did with the receivers earlier, we’re going to shift our attention to that second tier of players.

I’ve tried to include all the players mentioned yesterday and I’ve used the PFF rankings to try and ensure that I hit on anyone inside the top 100 prospects, or anyone expected to go within the first three rounds of the draft…with a little wiggle room for Kansas man Dominick Puni, who I don’t think I’ve seen mentioned once all draft cycle…which is strange.

So while we covered just 6 receivers, we’re going to cover 9 offensive tackles here. I haven’t included Christian Haynes as he’s a guard, has played guard his entire career and will be a guard in the NFL. But I did just want to say that I love Christian Haynes and would be extremely excited to see him as a Jet. He’s rated by PFF as the #64 best prospect in the entire draft.

So like we did with the receivers, let’s try and break this down into some segments. What I try and do with these pieces is offer the stats in a direct comparison to players’ peers. So while I’ll give an opinion here and there, it’s more to put the data in front of you and see what you think.

Starting with the measurables, and there is a lot to like across this list. Kiran Amegadjie and Patrick Paul having arms over 36” is particularly noticeable but both have smaller hands at 9.6 and 9.3. When you’re looking at offensive tackles you largely want their arms or wingspan to be over 34”, so there are a few players on here who fall below that marker. Barton is one, Morgan is another and Mahogany and Puni also fall below the “ideal” threshold. There is a direct correlation that indicates that players with a larger wingspan tend to have more success but remember Vera-Tucker had 32.1 and he looked pretty fine when lined up as an offensive tackle.