On shaky ground at tackle for months, the Jets are looking into additional help at the position. Veterans Ty Nsekhe and Zach Banner worked out for the team Monday, Aaron Wilson of KPRC2 tweets.
Nsekhe spent last season with the Rams, while Banner was once eyed as a Steelers starter. Banner spent last season out of football, seeing a September 2020 ACL tear sidetrack his career. The Jets are also dealing with injuries at tackle, though their situation has been murky for months.
Since the Steelers hopped in front of them to draft Broderick Jones at No. 14, the Jets have seen the injury issues affecting Duane Brown and Mekhi Becton qualify as bigger problems. Finishing off his rehab from offseason shoulder surgery, Brown remains on the team’s active/PUP list. Becton, who has missed 33 games since a September 2021 knee injury, took himself out of the Jets’ Hall of Fame Game matchup. But the former left tackle starter played 27 snaps in the Jets’ second preseason game Saturday, providing hope this comeback can lead to a regular-season role. Even considering this and Becton’s significant weight loss, the 2020 first-round pick has been one of the NFL’s least reliable players this decade.
In Brown, the Jets already roster the NFL’s oldest tackle. The former Pro Bowler will turn 38 this season. But so will Nsekhe, who will turn 38 in October. The longtime swing tackle/spot starter entered last season without a gig, but the Rams added him amid injury trouble on their O-line. Nsekhe started eight games for the battered defending champions last season. Despite the former UDFA not signing until mid-October, the eight starts marked a career-high total. Pro Football Focus viewed Nsekhe as a decent option there, ranking him 33rd among tackles in 2022.
Banner, 29, played seven Steelers games in 2021 but did so at less than 100%. The Steelers planned to use the 6-foot-9 blocker as their starting right tackle in 2020, but the knee injury removed him from that equation. The Steelers drafted Dan Moore in the 2021 third round. Moore and Chukwuma Okorafor have been Pittsburgh’s starting tackles since, though Jones is attempting to make his way into the lineup as a rookie.
The Jets signed Billy Turner this offseason and have Max Mitchell, a 2022 fourth-round pick, coming back from a blood clot issue that ended his rookie season. The team also circled back to its tackle need in the draft, selecting Carter Warren in Round 4. Still, the team has serious questions at tackle ahead of Aaron Rodgers‘ first season in New York.
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