Jets Sign All-Pro Tackle Tyron Smith

Edition #595

Good morning ☕

You didn't think I was going to wait until Monday did you? There were two huge pieces of news last night and it wasn't Bryce Hall taking his talents to Tampa. The Jets signed the best offensive tackle on the market in Tyron Smith and the deal is a cracker as we'd say over here. The Jets will also be hosting Mike Williams on Monday and while both come with significant injury risk, it's a risk worth taking.

The Jets now have their starting offensive line set, and it’s a vast improvement from what we saw last year.

LT - Tyron Smith
LG - John Simpson
C - Joe Tippmann
RG - Alijah Vera-Tucker
RT - Morgan Moses

Now there is a huge caveat there and it’s health. Morgan Moses missed some time last year with some niggles, Tyron Smith has had injury problems for the last few years but enjoyed a relatively healthy 2023 season, and AVT has yet to complete a full year in the NFL. The Jets have had some tough luck with injury, and injury prevention absolutely needs to be a key priority for the team heading forward. But sometimes you have to take some risks, and for me this is a risk worth taking.

Tyron Smith was my #1 priority for the Jets, and to come away with him gives me an incredible amount of confidence moving forward.

The contract is also a big plus for Joe Douglas. It’s worth $6.5 million guaranteed with $13.5 million to be earned based on playing time and other incentives. So the deal can be worth $20 million, but for it to be worth that it means Smith has stayed healthy through the year, and if he stays healthy through the year is anyone going to question it? Absolutely not.

Smith played 847 snaps last year and allowed just a single sack on 536 pass-blocking snaps. He also only allowed 18 pressures. In short, when he’s on the field he’s one of the best left tackles in football.

The Cowboys had him on a special program in the second half of last season where he did walkthroughs and strength training but didn’t participate in live drills. The Jets need to work out a system that keeps him on the field.

He’s allowed 5 sacks in the last 6 years and while 2020 and 2022 were injury-plagued years, that was over 3,741 snaps…so you get an idea of his kind of talent.

The priority for the Jets is keeping Aaron Rodgers healthy, and the Jets have gone out and got three new players who will do just that. I was critical of Joe Douglas earlier in the week, but this is an outstanding deal for the Jets, with all those incentives we only pay a premium if we get a premium.

With it being a one-year deal, I don’t think this alters the Jets draft strategy too much. The Jets still need to resolve their tackle issue long-term, but this does allow someone to come in and act as insurance for both Smith and Moses, while also learning from two of the best to play the game.

But it does add some flexibility. They don’t need to reach for a tackle if they don’t believe there’s one worth taking at #10. They can be more open to trade-downs if they have a certain tackle they love, but feel needs developing. They can pick one of the wide receivers if one falls to them.

We’ll spend a lot more time looking at Tyron Smith over the coming weeks.

Mike Williams will meet with the Jets on Monday