Position Reset for '25
Assembling an offensive line through the draft can be a painful process from the outside looking in as bigger-named skill players, edge rushers and ballhawks go flying off the big board in back-to-back years while your team is focused in Round 1 on tackle, guard or center.
But first-year head coach Aaron Glenn made his intentions clear from the start. As he said after the Jets draft that began with the seventh overall pick of Missouri T Armand Membou: "I'm a firm believer that you start it inside out, so if we can build our line, just as much as our defensive line also, that only helps you as a team. It helps your quarterback, it helps your running backs, it helps your passing game, and it just creates an identity within your team that you're trying to make sure that every team, when they watch film, they see that."
The Jets have tried different formulas for reconstituting their O-line from one season to the next, but real OL stability has been hard to come by since the end of the Nick {Mangold) and Brick (D[Brickashaw Ferguson) heyday that ended in 2015.
Now the line has twentysomething starters returning at four of five positions — Olu Fashanu (22), last year's first-round pick, at LT, John Simpson (28 in August) at LG, Joe Tippmann (24) at C and Alijah Vera-Tucker (26) at RG — and with a spirited competition ahead for RT. Sixth-year pro Simpson, suddenly among the graybeards in the room, suggests with quiet confidence: "I think we can be one of the better groups in the NFL, and that says a lot." AVT added about the Jets' OL: "I think this is a great group."
| Jets OL | '24 Team | Exper in '25 | '24 GP-GS-DNP-IA | '24 O-ST-TotSnaps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Joe Tippmann (C) | NYJ | 3rd | 17 - 17 - 0 - 0 | 1066 - 60 - 1126 |
| John Simpson (G) | NYJ | 5th | 17 - 17 - 0 - 0 | 1019 - 57 - 1076 |
| Josh Myers (C) | GB | 5th | 16 - 16 - 0 - 1 | 1008 - 12 - 1020 |
| Alijah Vera-Tucker (G) | NYJ | 5th | 15 - 15 - 0 - 2 | 915 - 6 - 921 |
| Olu Fashanu (T) | NYJ | 2nd | 15 - 7 - 0 - 0 | 533 - 51 - 584 |
| Max Mitchell (OL) | NYJ | 4th | 10 - 2 - 0 - 7 | 224 - 36 - 260 |
| Carter Warren (T) | NYJ | 3rd | 6 - 1 - 2 - 9 | 141 - 11 - 152 |
| Xavier Newman (OL) | NYJ | 3rd | 9 - 0 - 1 - 3 | 11 - 31 - 42 |
| Chuks Okorafor (T) | NE | 7th | 1 - 1 - 0 - 0 | 12 - 0 - 12 |
| Obinna Eze (OL) | NYJ | 1st | .......... | .......... |
| Marquis Hayes | 3 teams | 1st | .......... | .......... |
| Kohl Levao (OL) | NYJ | 1st | .......... | .......... |
| Armand Membou (T) | Missouri | R | .......... | .......... |
| Gus Hartwig (OL) | Purdue | R | .......... | .......... |
| *Leander Wiegand (OL) | C. Florida | R | .......... | .......... |
*International Player Pathway Program signee.
Storylines to Watch
Two words: right tackle. Armand Membou was taken with the seventh overall pick in April and impressed his Green & White family with his offseason work. OC Tanner Engstrand said Membou "loves football, and that's what you want. We want a team of a bunch of guys that love football and that's been glaring for me with that player."
But Membou will have to reign supreme among his fellow teammates and competitors during camp. Veteran Chukwuma Okorafor has 60 pro starts and 3,950 offensive snaps in his first seven NFL seasons, virtually all of that with Pittsburgh from 2018-23. Max Mitchell has 14 starts in his three Jets seasons, Carter Warren 6 starts in his two seasons in green and white.
One other competition hotspot will be at center. Joe Tippmann played every offensive snap, 1,066 in all, last season. Yet the Jets brought in during free agency Green Bay C Josh Myers, who started 56 of the Packers' 57 regular-season games the past three seasons, each of those seasons registering 1,000-plus snaps.
What They're Saying
Engstrand on determining the Jets' starting five O-linemen
"Sure, you'd love to say that you have the five right away and you know it. But in reality, you're going to play eight, nine, 10 guys throughout the season, so they're all going to have to learn how to play with each other. We don't have a specific timeframe or a specific date in training camp, 'By practice 12, we've got to have it.' That will make itself clear when it does."
OL Trivia
If Membou wins the RT gig, he and Olu Fashanu would form the Jets' first pair of first-round bookend tackles since RT Marvin Powell (fourth overall pick in 1977) and LT Chris Ward (fourth overall in '78) played 85 starts together, including playoffs, from 1978-83. Powell notched 135 starts, including playoffs, in the Jets' 140 games from 1977-85, while Ward had streaks of 40 consecutive starts to open his Jets career and 51 straight when it came to an end in '83.
