Offensive Line Carousel

Edition #231

Good morning!

Another week and another offensive line conversation, but when you’re 25th in pass-blocking DVOA you can't really expect anything else.

The Jets have signed two veteran offensive tackles over the last 24 hours, and we’re going to get into both signings below.

If you missed yesterday’s stat-packed edition you can read that by clicking HERE. Later this week we’ll spend time getting to know the Pittsburgh Steelers, who are facing plenty of questions of their own.

🤢 The big news is that the Jets placed George Fant on IR ruling him out for at least 4 weeks. The earliest Fant can return will be week 8. I have to ask the question, should he have been playing at all?

👍 A nice little stat here from Rich Cimini - “Here's one that may surprise you: DE Carl Lawson has the highest QB pressure pct in the NFL -- 20.6% (13 pressures in 63 rushes), per @NextGenStats (based on a minimum of 50 rushes)”

💲 Jets owner Robert “Woody” Johnson made an appearance on the Forbes top 400 list of richest people in the United States with an estimated net worth of $3.4 billion…so he has a penny or two.

⬇️ The Jets dropped 6 places to #31 in the NFL.com Power Rankings, a list that is penned by Jets fan Dan Hanzus. The only team deemed to be worse than the Jets is Houston, not great. “New York has held a lead for 22 seconds this season. Luckily it was the final 22 seconds of a miracle win in Cleveland. Otherwise, it's been an ominous start to 2022 for the perpetually rebuilding Jets.”

🍀 In Monday’s news conference Robert Saleh spoke at length and the word “luck” came up on more than one occasion.

When he spoke about luck playing a part in allowing touchdowns due to miscommunication, I didn’t really want to hear it. That’s just a coaches excuse for poorly coached and communicated systems. When you speak about luck in terms of injuries though, there is a point to be made.

The Jets have now had three starting tackles go down with injuries. Mekhi Becton is done for the year, Duane Brown was lost for the first 4 weeks of the season (minimum) and George Fant seemed to be playing hurt and now finds himself on IR, which means he'll be sidelined for at least 4 weeks making him eligible to return in week 8.

If that’s the case the Jets would be starting Connor McDermott at left tackle and rookie Max Mitchell at right tackle. Not an ideal situation for any QB, let alone your franchise QB making his season debut, if in fact Zach is cleared to play come Sunday.

Even with the signings of veteran tackles Cedric Ogbuehi and Mike Remmers, there’s still a chance that neither is ready to go against Pittsburgh, but having watched the Connor McDermott performance on Sunday, their conditioning may be accelerated through the week.

I don’t want to pour onto the poor guy but McDermott was beyond awful on Sunday. There were 68 tackles who played 20 or more pass-blocking snaps on Sunday, only two had a worse pass-blocking grade than Connor. In terms of pass-blocking efficiency, Connor was 67/68 at 88.9 and only three of the 68 gave up more pressures (one of whom played double the snaps of McDermott). It’s clear and obvious why the Jets have added two veteran tackles.

But are the veterans they’ve added any good? That’s the question

Cedric Ogbuehi has been signed off the Houston Texans practice squad and as a result, he has to be added to the active 53. You’re not allowed to sign a player from another team's practice squad to your own. Ogbuehi will now count against the Jets 53 for a minimum of three weeks, even if he gets released tomorrow.

Cedric was a 1st round pick of the Bengals out of Texas A&M back in 2015, he missed most of his rookie season as he made his way back from a serious injury, but made his debut in week 13. Over the next two years, he split his time between left and right tackle and struggled in pass protection. He allowed 9 sacks in 2016 and then 8 sacks in 2017, and that was his final year as a full-time starter.

When he left Cincinnatti after they declined his 5th-year option following the 2018 season he was largely considered a bust. Considering he played 54 total snaps that year and was a healthy scratch for much of the season, it won’t come as much of a surprise to hear that most Bengals fans were happy to move on.

Ogbuehi spent the last three years playing sparingly for Jacksonville and then Seattle before bouncing around the practice squads of Baltimore, Tennessee, and then Houston. I remember Cedric as a big-time bust for the Bengals and if I’m being completely honest, I wasn’t aware that he was still playing. He has held up relatively well in his limited action over the last three years allowing 2 sacks over around 250 pass-blocking stats.

On the plus side, he’s always been a relatively good run-blocker, so there is that. That 85.1 grade in pass-blocking was back in 2015 when he had just 21 pass-blocking snaps to grade.

If I were a betting man, I’d say that the Jets hope that Mike Remmers is the answer to their current predicament at tackle.

I’ve heard from several people that the Jets had an interest in Remmers dating back to the early days of camp, but there were some questions around the knee injury that landed him on IR last season, finishing his season in week 8.

Remmers has been a consistently productive tackle through the years for multiple teams after going undrafted in 2012 out of Oregon State. Unfortunately for Remmers, most people remember him as the tackle who struggled in the big games.

In the 2020 Super Bowl, Remmers had the worst game of his season against Tampa Bay, allowing 6 pressures a sack, and taking two penalties.

Back in 2015 he had one of the worst games from a tackle in Super Bowl history while a member of the Carolina Panthers. In that game against Denver, he allowed a staggering 10 pressures and 3 sacks while playing right tackle.

He’s never been elite in any one area, but he’s always need relatively consistent in every area. Not only is he a consistent presence, but he also has good positional flexibility having spent time at every position on the offensive line outside of the center position.

No year better represents this versatility than 2020 where he played four different positions throughout the season for Kansas City. The below chart highlights his snap counts by position, starting with 2021 at the top.

The one year he played left tackle consistently was the 2016 season for Carolina where he allowed 9 sacks, 48 pressures, and was flagged for 15 penalties…not great, but remember there is a reason why these guys are available heading into week 4 of a season.

Let’s just recap what’s happened so far on this offensive tackle carousel. We started with a tackle battle between Fant and Becton, which ended with Fant being named the LT and Becton being named the RT.

Becton got injured, the Jets signed Brown, and Fant was moved to RT with Brown taking over LT.

Brown then got injured, Fant was moved back to LT and rookie Mitchell was slotted in at RT.

Fant gets injured against the Bengals and McDermott goes in at LT right Mitchell is still at RT.

All indications point to Connor McDermott starting at left tackle on Sunday now that Fant has found his way to IR…and that is almost enough to make me sit Zach for another week, almost! But we all saw how awful Joe Flacco was in terms of reading a defense and finding the open receiver.

I also don't blame Joe Douglas for the situation the Jets find themselves in. You can't just keep ploughing resource into one position, there are plenty of OL5's around the league who are at Connor McDermott's level, the only difference is they don't have to play because it's incredibly unlikely and unlucky to have these serious injuries to one position.

The offensive line keeps spinning, and it starting to make me dizzy.