Jets’ Never-Ending Tackle Tale Features Adversity, Adaptation, and Survival
The Jets biggest team need going into the 2023 offseason will certainly be nailing down their long-term solution to the quarterback position. Their next target? I’d argue for a witch doctor to remove the curse that has plagued their offensive tackles this season.
The news this week that rookie Max Mitchell was placed on the season-ending non-football injury list due to blood clots added to the incredibly long list of maladies that have decimated Gang Green’s depth chart at tackle.
It started in training camp, when Mekhi Becton, a 2020 first-round pick (No. 11 overall), suffered an avulsion fracture in his right knee. It wasn’t all that shocking—it marked the second straight season that ended with the overweight tackle on injured reserve. Counting this full season, Becton will have played in just 15 of New York’s 50 games since he turned pro.
The carousel was only beginning. George Fant had, at the time of Becton’s injury, asserted himself as the Jets’ starting left tackle anyway, but General Manager Joe Douglas quickly pivoted by signing veteran free agent Duane Brown, who over his 14-year career had been exclusively used as a left tackle, according to ProFootballFocus.com. No big deal, right? Fant may have been a bit ticked as a pending free agent after the season because of the pay discrepancy between the two sides, but at least could play.
That’s more than could be said for Conor McDermott, who for some reason held a job in New York for three-plus years as an emergency fill-in when his presence on the edge risked putting the Jets’ QBs in the emergency room. Per PFF, McDermott was responsible for four sacks allowed in 80 pass block snaps over five games last season. That’s really bad.
Fortunately, the Jets had a better backup plan this season in Mitchell, who developed quickly enough to step in fairly admirably when Brown wasn’t ready to start the regular season due to long-standing shoulder woes. It also allowed Fant to continue to play left tackle.
So of course Fant was the next domino to fall, hurting a knee during a Week 3 loss to Cincinnati which required a two-month stay on injured reserve.
McDermott wrapped up the Bengals game, but everyone at One Jets Drive could see that he wasn’t a sustainable solution. What to do? Thinking outside the box, how about moving Alijah Vera-Tucker, a potential Pro Bowler at guard, over to left tackle for the next contest in Pittsburgh? Sure, why not?
Wouldn’t you know it, Vera-Tucker held his own against the T.J Watt-less Steelers in a rousing victory. Well, not that rousing for this purpose, because Mitchell was carted off with a knee injury during the second quarter. That forced Next Man Up McDermott to again finish the game. He happened to play fairly cleanly in pass protection but was flagged twice—once for a false start and later for being an illegal man downfield on a drive the Jets scored a touchdown anyway.
Brown was then activated off IR and the Jets enjoyed a two-week run with no further injury drama, winning both games. In Week 7 in Denver however, disaster struck when Vera-Tucker injured his triceps, another season-ending blow to the tackle position.
Enter Cedric Ogbuehi, who was signed off the Texans practice squad, which in itself should have been a sign that he wasn’t very good. But someone had to play, and by this time McDermott was shelved to New York’s practice squad, where he mostly stayed until the Patriots poached him for their 53-man roster on November 22. It was either Ogbuehi or Mike Remmers, another veteran castoff signed to the Jets’ practice squad.
The Jets’ o-line then struggled mightily in two losses to New England but had a superb run blocking outing in between during their upset win over Buffalo. A remarkable recovery enabled Mitchell to return for Week 12’s domination over Chicago, which was fortuitous, since Ogbuehi went down with a groin injury in that same game. Mitchell was benched after allowing a sack in last Sunday’s loss in Minnesota in favor of Fant in his first game coming off the IR. Got it?
Wait, now Mitchell is done for the year. Will this curse ever end?
Somehow, the Jets have managed to win seven games with all this stress on one crucial position group. More incredibly, their last two games have been their most efficient in terms of pressure percentage allowed—only Carolina has been better at protecting their QB than New York in that short span, per PFF. Previously, Gang Green ranked 23rd in pressure percentage allowed.
Obviously, the quarterback change from Zach Wilson to Mike White played a significant role in that transformation. Whereas Wilson held the ball on average for 3.12 seconds per pass attempt, ahead of only Chicago’ Justin Fields among the league’s qualified QBs this season, White’s time to throw placed 8th and 13th, respectively, in the league in his two starts, according to NFL Next Gen Stats.
Still, while Minnesota’s pass defense hadn’t been all that impressive this season, they do employ two outstanding edge rushers in Za’Darius Smith and Danielle Hunter, who ranked fourth and 18th in the league pass rush win rates this season before facing the Jets, per PFF (100 pass rush snaps minimum). You’d think the Vikings would have made mincemeat out of New York’s patchwork offensive line.
They didn’t. White was sacked just that one time by Patrick Jones II and was hit on seven others over 58 dropbacks. Hunter and Smith got to White a combined three times as he showered the air with 369 yards passing.
When the Bills show up to exact revenge in Sunday’s rematch, they will be without All Pro edge rusher Von Miller, who was lost for the season due to an ACL tear sustained in Buffalo’s Thanksgiving Day victory in Detroit. Excuse me if I don’t feel all that sorry about that; the curse of injuries to the Jets’ tackles throughout this season has made me a bit numb to other’s pain.
Prediction: Bills 37 Jets 20