The New York Jets thought that their offensive line would be one of their strengths this year. The idea was a young line that stayed healthy all last year and largely returned the same personnel would grow.
In Week 1, that proved to be the case, as the Jets bullied the Tennessee Titans. The Jets rushed for 152 yards and passed for 215, the O-line keeping quarterback Geno Smith’s jersey clean and helping the Jets to an easy 23-10 win.
The Week 2 game was supposed to be more of the same. But nobody sent the Green Bay Packers the memo, as they held the Jets to 67 yards rushing and 218 passing. The game resulted in a 20-17 Packers win in overtime, as the Jets blew a fourth-quarter lead.
Things fell off the cliff for the offensive line in the Week 3 game against the Detroit Lions. The Jets had a paltry 58 yards rushing. Part of that can be attributed to play from behind and needing to catch up, which the Jets did. But the Lions stuffed the Jets too many times to blame that paltry rushing total on game situations. Adding injury to insult, star running back Breece Hall pulled a quad muscle and will likely miss several weeks.
The 31-24 loss to the Lions put the Jets offensive line directly in the finger-pointing spotlight. Left tackle Olu Fashanu was a particular target, giving up 2.5 sacks and five pressures.
Head coach Aaron Glenn tried to smooth things over on that performance for the media mob.
“Listen, we have all the trust in the world in Olu,” Glenn said. “Here’s the reason why, I go back to the offseason and the work that he put in. I go back to watch how him and [Armand] Membou, how they attacked this offseason. These games are not easy. There’s no excuse at all. He knows that he has to protect better and that goes for everybody else on the offensive line. I have all the confidence in the world in that player, and he’ll do a good job for us.”
Fashanu was not alone in the bad day category.
Center Josh Myers gave up one sack, 4 pressures; right guard Joe Tippmann surrendered 1 sack, 3 pressures; Dylan Parham, 4 pressures, and Armand Membou gave up three pressures. In Membou’s defense, he was going against Aidan Hutchinson, one of the best pass rushers in the NFL.
The Jets have their work cut out for them again in the upcoming Chicago Bears game. The Bears defensive line is performing better than expected.
Led by Pro Bowler Montez Sweat, the edge rotation also features Austin Booker, Dayo Odeyingbo, and Daniel Hardy.
The interior line has veteran Grady Jackson, who forms a solid wall with eight-year man Kentavious Street. They join with Neville Gallimore, James Lynch, and rookie Jordan van den Berg to form the Bears wall.
