As NFL training camp is only a few weeks away, head coach Adam Gase is ready to finally get in the building with his players to start evaluating and putting together his roster.
GM Joe Douglas made some big improvements to the roster on both sides of the ball, which will lead to some heated camp competition.
So over the next few weeks, we’ll look at some of those position groups as well as some key players that will be pivotal in the Jets' success or failure during the 2020 season. Let’s target a group that needed some massive changes after a brutal 2019 campaign…
OFFENSIVE LINE DEPTH CHART (in order)
- LT: Mekhi Becton (rookie), Chuma Edoga
- LG: Alex Lewis, Jonotthan Harrison
- C: Connor McGovern (FA addition), Leo Koloamatangi
- RG: Greg Van Roten (FA addition), Brian Winters
- RT: George Fant (FA addition), Ben Braden
2019 REVIEW
So…where do we start? It’s not good either way, as you can tell from Douglas’ promised overhaul to the depth chart.
But we’ll start at tackle with Kelvin Beachum and Brandon Shell. Their Pro Football Focus grades – Beachum at 67.1 and Shell at 63.6 – aren’t bad but they’re very average. Shell also allowed seven sacks, while Beachum allowed four. Neither player played a full season, as Shell in particular was subbed out and replaced by Edoga, who didn’t provide any improvement to the right side either. Oh, and that’s not to mention that Kelechi Osemele’s signing only resulted in three starts out of him before injury kept him out for the season.
Then, there are the guard positions. Lewis was a solid option that Douglas scooped up in free agency as one of his first moves with the Jets. But Winters needed to be replaced by Tom Compton at one point because it just wasn’t working, and the Jets were looking for whatever combination of linemen they could to play consistent ball.
Finally, Ryan Kalil was brought out of retirement to be a constant at center, and a leader in the locker room. But, after seven starts, Kalil suffered a knee injury. Still, he was the league’s second-worst center among qualified players before going down. Harrison stepped in after that.
Overall, the unit just couldn’t glue itself together no matter how much shifting and replacing went on. In turn, Sam Darnold was running for his life and Le’Veon Bell had to dodge tacklers before even reaching the line of scrimmage. And speaking of that, the Jets were second-to-last in run blocking, according to Football Outsiders. PFF also had them averaging 0.7 rushing yards before contract per attempt – the lowest mark by far for any team during the season.
It’s hard to get anything going on offense when the line can’t hold up, so it was outstanding to see Darnold and the Jets make something out of nothing in the second half and manage to win seven games.