Early in training camp veteran offensive lineman Morgan Moses sheepishly found himself apologizing to quarterback Aaron Rodgers for his absence on the field at 1 Jets Drive.
"The first day I was in here I was complaining," Moses said after his first practice in pads on Friday. "And Aaron was like, 'hey man, we don't need you right now.' And I was like, 'oh yeah, right, OK, Aaron said that's OK. Right, let me take my time.' But you know, you need that reminder especially as a veteran because all you know is work, work, work. You need that reminder sometimes to stay out of the way of yourself sometimes."
Few would ever accuse Moses, 33, of being a slacker on or off the football field. He played seven seasons in Washington after being selected in the third round (No. 66 overall) of the 2014 NFL Draft, rarely missing a game after his rookie season. He was with the Jets in 2021, where he encountered a rookie O-lineman -- Alijah Vera-Tucker -- who will be at right guard, next to Moses in his reunion tour with the Green & White.
"I've played with AVT when he was a rookie and now to see him flourish and have that veteran mindset him being on the line and predetermined things before the ball is snapped," Moses said.
In the coming season, Moses and Tyron Smith will form the veteran bookends on the projected starting offensive line that includes AVT, LG John Simpson and second-year center Joe Tippmann. While Moses toiled in Washington, two times every season he got to stand on the sideline and watch Smith as he did his thing at left tackle for the Cowboys.
"Watching Tyron, we've been in the same division [NFC East] for quite some time when I was in Washington," he said. "So to be able to see him play and the things that he's done. We've had the same mindset because we've been coached by the same offensive line coach [Bill Callahan] the majority of our careers, so we can relate to things off the field and talk about technique and things like that. When you have conversations off the field with guys like that it's iron sharpening iron. Your IQ is always rising because you're talking ball on the field and you're talking ball off the field. He's definitely been a bright spot here for me to learn from, the younger guys to learn from. To have him out there, his techniques and how he sees the game the way he approaches the game is definitely a blessing."
Out there on a sweltering Friday morning, for the first time since the start of training camp, Moses was part of the prospective starting five on the O-line.
"It's always beneficial to have them out there at the same time, the league is chaotic," head coach Robert Saleh said. "The odds of us playing the same five all season are slim and none. So it's good for them to work with one another and different combinations, but as long as we maintain our communication. To get our Week 1 group out there as quick as possible so they can jell would definitely be beneficial." He added: "He's an elite human ,his locker room presence, the way he prepares. ... He's very conscientious of his body and he is not afraid to bring young with him."
Moses, who is coming off a pectoral injury that had an impact last season (though he played and started in all 17 regular season games for Baltimore) said nothing that would contradict his coach. Like Saleh, he also emphasized the importance of depth on the O-line who said: "I'll even talk about the second half of the season last year ... that group and the amount of reps and playing time that they all got and how much better they got over the course of the year."
Moses said: "The offensive line is like the one group besides the quarterbacks that never come off the field. It's good for us as well because you've got quality reps that's Olu's [Fashanu] gotten with the first guys, Max [Mitchell] has done an amazing job, Carter's [Warren] done an amazing job that's just polishing up the offensive line because you've got because you never know we play a sport every day we're crashing into the front seven. To have them get reps throughout training camp and the preseason is important to everybody."
