Jets' Wall Crumbles Against Panthers, Showing Why Joe Douglas Has Some Work to Do

With the Jets’ fate all but sealed, down 11 with less than three minutes to go, Zach Wilson laid on his back in agony.

The victim of Carolina’s sixth sack and tenth quarterback hit of the day, it was hard to tell if the rookie’s uneasiness getting to his feet was a result of his head slamming against the turf or just a general accumulation of punishment.

After the game, Wilson said that he had whiplash, and had also gotten the wind knocked out of him from that late fourth-quarter hit by Yetur Gross-Matos and Derrick Brown.

“It felt like I got hit by a truck,” he said.

If the Panthers’ front four was the truck, the Jets’ offensive line was a faulty set of brakes. New York failed to protect its rookie quarterback time and time again on Sunday afternoon, leaving him beaten, battered and limping to the finish line. And if this offensive line doesn’t figure things out quickly, it’s only a matter of time before Wilson gets seriously hurt.

The tragedy on Sunday was that if not for the poor offensive line play, the Jets could have won this game. Wilson, to his credit, was outstanding. He completed 20-of-37 passes for 258 yards, tossing two touchdowns and one interception. Those numbers came with five drops, constant pressure and absent two receivers. An undermanned and extremely young defense bent but didn’t break, giving up just 19 points to a Carolina offense full of playmakers, including Christian McCaffery in top form.

READ: Jets' Zach Wilson Shows Resolve in Debut, But Can't Complete Comeback Against Panthers

The game was there for the taking, but the offensive line, the linchpin of this team that Joe Douglas constantly promised he’d improve, held Gang Green back.

“This is a game of wills, and we’re going to try to build a team that can impose their will on other teams,” Douglas said the day he was introduced as general manager back in 2019. “To do that, you have to be strong up front.”

That was Douglas’s mantra. Since then, he has hand-picked his line. All five starters are from his tenure as GM. He drafted Mekhi Becton (66.5 Pro Football Focus Grade on Sunday) with his first ever draft pick. He traded up in the first round to select Alijah Vera-Tucker (65.1). He spent money on Connor McGovern (45.4), Greg Van Roten (54.3) and George Fant (60.1) in the 2020 offseason.

Those were New York’s five starters on Sunday. Four of them were starters a year ago. And all of them were at the mercy of Carolina’s four-man rush, who completely disrupted the run game before it could even get started and forced Zach Wilson to flee the pocket or continue to take licks.

Of course, there were signs of these struggles in training camp. By all reports, the Packers and Eagles ran laps around the Jets’ offensive front in joint practices. Before suffering a season-ending Achilles’ tear, Carl Lawson was scoring multiple sacks per day on Becton in Florham Park. Vera-Tucker’s insertion into the lineup after missing training camp may have meant the Jets would need to develop chemistry more quickly, but this performance wasn’t a one-off.

It’s been the norm.

The Jets’ problems up front were further exacerbated by Becton’s MCL sprain in the second half, which will require surgery and force the big left tackle to miss even more time than he already has. They’ll hope to have him back after the bye week, which means Fant will slide to the left side and Morgan Moses—who was New York’s best lineman when he stepped in on Sunday—will play right tackle.

Barring further injuries, the Jets line isn’t changing any time soon. Fant, Vera-Tucker, McGovern, Van Roten and Moses will be the five trotting out there for the foreseeable future in the hopes that enough chemistry can develop to, at the very least, keep their rookie quarterback upright long enough to prove what he’s capable of.

If they can’t, Douglas will enter the 2022 offseason tasked with fixing a problem he’s failed to fix for nearly three years. Maybe then, the idea of opening up the checkbook for Jack Conklin, Trent Williams, Joe Thuney or Corey Linsley won’t seem as distasteful. Because you can’t cut corners when it comes to protecting your most valuable asset, and that’s what Douglas has done thus far.

And the Jets’ most valuable asset looked incredibly valuable this past weekend. Save for one interception over the middle of the field, Wilson looked like a seasoned veteran, rolling out of the pocket and flicking the ball deep down the field with ease. When he had time, he delivered darts over the middle for first downs. He made the short throws without hesitation. He went through his reads calmly. His chemistry with Corey Davis that led to two touchdowns was a sight for sore eyes.

With Jamison Crowder and Keelan Cole expected to return to the lineup next week, and Elijah Moore with a game under his belt, Wilson clearly has more talent independently and around him than Sam Darnold ever did with the Jets. But if he doesn’t have time to throw, he might end up suffering the same fate.

Because the shiny toys won’t matter if the wall can’t hold. And New England is coming to try to knock that wall over again next Sunday.

MORE:

• Mekhi Becton Needs Knee Surgery, Will Miss 4-6 Weeks
• Jets' Lamarcus Joyner Likely Out For Season With Elbow Injury
• Robert Saleh Takes Unique Pregame Tradition to Head Coaching Debut

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