Completely rebuilt New York Jets offensive line must come together in preseason with no games
From opening day last year to Week 1 in 2020, there will be a completely new offensive line for the New York Jets. The daunting task of getting the line to become a cohesive unit during the span of training camp is made a whole lot more difficult with the restrictions in place due to COVID-19.
Limited practices in pads and no preseason games, the casualties of the coronavirus pandemic, means that the Jets can’t take essentially five new pieces this year and get them actual game reps to accelerate the learning curve.
Free agent signing Greg Van Roten, a guard signed from the Carolina Panthers and a projected starter for Week 1 at the Buffalo Bills, is one of those players who needs to assimilate into the new offense. Instead of having preseason games to help the process, he and the rest of the newbies on the Jets offensive line need to do so in what is a most unusual of preseasons.
“I’m sure we’re going to find way to replicate that intensity and that environment in practice leading up to Week 1,” Van Roten said last week in a conference call with the media.
“We’re already at 80 guys, the roster is a little bit smaller. Instead of having those preseason games where, OK, we’re preparing for one team this week, one week next week and whatever. Now we kind of have four-and-a-half, five, six weeks to get ready for Buffalo in Week 1.”
The one holdover from last year, left guard Alex Lewis, saw only reps on special teams at the start of 2019. Acquired in a trade with the Baltimore Ravens days before the season opener, he won the starting job by Week 4.
As the returning veteran and now the old man of the offensive line, Lewis has a certain level of seniority among the rebuilt group. He sees the difficulties in acclimating and coming together but said that the unit is doing their best under these circumstances.
“We were very limited this offseason, everybody was spread across the country. So we relied heavily on Zoom meetings,” Lewis said.
“But now that we are back in the facility together, we are doing everything we can to build that chemistry whether we’re on the field, getting after it, competing against one another, each other. We have group chats going on with each other to build-up that chemistry and then we’re talking through the playbook with each other after our runs, in the locker room and quizzing each other. Just pushing one another and that’s the best way you can build chemistry right now, we’re very limited still. We’re trying to take full advantage of the time we have together.”
The offensive line was considered among the worst in the NFL last year and rebuilding it was a priority of general manager Joe Douglas in his first full offseason with the team.
Despite all the changes, Lewis said that the best course of action is to understand his own role and not worry about what is going on along the rest of the offensive line. It is the one thing he is able to control.
“I’ll go back to just doing my job. Not worrying about what the right tackle is doing if he’s new in there or the left tackle or the center, it’s taking away your focus,” Lewis said.
“So when you get in there and there’s a new line and a new player, you have to focus on what your job title is. Because it takes all 11 guys to win football games.”
As Lewis notes, it does take 11 guys to win in football. It just is a task not made easier when five players at a crucial position group have never played together and won’t officially till the start of the season.
