Offensive Line SOS

Edition #510

Good morning!

I’m still not 100% sure who the 2023 New York Jets are. I know we have a dominant yet undisciplined defence. I don’t always agree with the calls, but when you give the zebras the chance to call something against you, then you’re walking a tightrope. The Jet defence plays on the edge, they’re fast and aggressive and that’s what makes them good, it’s a fine line between aggressive and reckless, but at some point, one of those unnessasary roughness calls is going to cost us in a key moment.

We spoke about it all off-season, we spoke about it all training camp and we spent the first 3-4 weeks of the season talking about it. Now we need to continue to discuss it, I’m of course talking about the offensive line. If you were a high school, pee-wee or college offensive lineman, head down to 1JD because Joe Douglas is auditioning, at this rate he may resort to signing himself.

Connor McGovern suffered a dislocated knee cap on Sunday and will be heading to IR. Coach Saleh confirmed that the first option is to rehab with the hope that he can return this year, but there’s still a chance he’ll need surgery.

Wes Schweitzer is also heading to IR with a calf injury. Again, the hope is that he can return this year, but it’s a minimum of four games when you’re placed on IR and I wouldn’t be surprised if he takes longer.

When asked about trading for an offensive lineman, Saleh said simply that teams aren’t trading offensive linemen. This may be true, but you don’t always need the trade market to find capable backups as you will see below.

It was also confirmed that Al Woods tore his Achilles, and he’ll be on season-ending IR. This victory came at a very high price.

Robert Saleh wouldn’t confirm if Joe Tippmann will be back this week. He just stated that they’re going to see how he does over the next couple of days. Which is exactly what he said last week, so I’m not holding out too much hope.

The head coach was also asked about the offensive struggles and he said "Eventually things are going to click and it's going to look pretty cool." - I wish I shared his optimism, but with each performance, my confidence in this offence dwindles.

On the defence carrying the team at the minute - "I know we'll be in every game."

How many offensive linemen have the Jets used this year? If you said 10, then grab yourself a gold sticker because you’re absolutely right.

Here’s the offensive line usage ordered by the total of offensive snaps played this season.

Laken Tomlinson - 100%
Mekhi Becton - 98.32%
Connor McGovern - 88.97% (Injury)
Alijah Vera-Tucker - 59.95% (Injury)
Joe Tippmann - 47.72% (Injury)
Max Mitchell - 40.29%
Duane Brown - 24.22% (Injury)
Wes Schweitzer - 19.42% (Injury)
Xavier Newman-Johnson - 11.03%
Billy Turner - 10.31%

Five different players with injuries have missed time. I tweeted this yesterday but I think it’s worth repeating. The NFL continue to push certain injury prevention measures. The best thing the NFL can do to protect their players, and their investment, is to force all NFL franchises to play on natural grass. The Metlife turf got replaced this off-season and Garrett Wilson, your star wide receiver has already called it trash. It’s time to prioritise your football teams and come up with another solution for concerts and expos, or whatever else you host to generate income. I’m so sick and tired of having to spend a large portion of the season having to talk about injuries. Not all of them are based on the turf of course, but there’s a reason so many players criticise the use of artificial turf. It’s time to listen.