On paper, as the beginning of training camp inches closer by the day, the Jets offensive line promises to be stronger, steady and more consistent than in recent memory. In recent years, the organization has made a determined effort to solidify an often-fluid group up front.
It could be different in the 2025 NFL season as the team introduces a new, versatile quarterback in Justin Fields along with a new offensive coordinator in Tanner Engstrand.
"I like the room," Engstrand said during mandatory minicamp in late June. "We have a bunch of good people and guys that are willing to take the coaching and willing to work hard, and that's really what it starts with. Are they talented? Yeah. We have some talented players in that room, clearly, but they're just good guys to be around. They're good with teammates and I believe that we'll be able to lean on those guys."
Case in point: In the past two drafts alone, the Jets spent their top picks on two promising trench warriors -- LT Olu Fashanu (6-6, 312) in 2024 and RT Armand Membou (6-4, 332) this past April. They join a group that includes C Joe Tippmann (6-6, 313; entering his third NFL season), RG Alijah Vera-Tucker (6-5, 308) and the veteran LG John Simpson (6-4, 330). In free agency, the team added C Josh Myers (6-5, 310) and T Chukwuma Okorafor (6-6, 320) to work with a group of holdovers including Max Mitchell (6-6, 307), Carter Warren (6-5, 311) and Xavier Newman (6-2, 297).
"You'd love to say that you have the five right away and you know it, but in reality, you're going to play 10 guys maybe, eight, nine, 10 guys throughout the season, so they're all going to have to learn how to play with each other," Engstand said. "But we don't have a specific timeframe or a specific date and training camp to say that by practice 12, we got to have it. That'll make itself clear when it does."
Through OTAs and minicamp Membou, the No. 7 overall pick in this year's NFL Draft, has been impressive with his strength, speed and the way he's quickly adapted to the professional game.
"I think everybody, not just the rookies, everybody, as we're getting to learn this system, there's going to be some thinking going on as we get used to the terminology and how we want to do things," Engstrand said. "I've got to know the play, and then I've got to know the technique that coach wants, but what's the defense? There's a lot of different variables that go on. So, I think everybody has a little bit of that to some degree, I don't want to just call out the rookies on some of that stuff."
DC Steve Wilks Wants Sauce Gardner to Be 'Dominant'
Defensive coordinator Steve Wilks has observed star CB Sauce Gardner from afar. Now that he's been up close with the two-time Pro Bowl player, he's made his expectations clear and to the point.
"He's very gifted, and I told him, 'Sometimes your greatest strength is your greatest weakness,' " Wilks said. "He's a guy that sometimes at 85 percent, he's still better than everybody around him. So his thing is -- and I told him, 'compete against yourself.' That's where he has to get better, which he will."
Gardner, the No. 4 overall selection in the 2022 NFL Draft, was the league's Defensive Rookie of the Year and first-team All-Pro his first season. Last season was challenging for the entire defense as it dealt with injuries (Jermaine Johnson and Michael Carter II, for example) and had difficulty in stopping the opposition on crucial plays.
But for Wilks, that was then. And in Gardner he clearly trusts.
"It's so many things that I feel like Sauce can do," Wilks said. "Again, the word consistent. He's been a Pro Bowl player, how consistent can he be to take it to another level, and that's one of the things that I challenged him on Day 1 when we had our conversation. I felt like, and you guys [reporters] feel the same way, that he's one of the top corners in the league, but that consistency of being that dominant player each and every week, that's what we're looking for and that's been his challenge this offseason."
ST Coordinator Chris Banjo Knows What It Takes
Chris Banjo was never a star in his 10-year NFL career playing with three teams. But he knows what it takes to succeed. After a collegiate career at SMU, Banjo, 35, bounced from the Green Bay to New Orleans to Arizona before hanging up his cleats and signing on as Denver's special teams assistant in 2023.
"I was a real, real long shot," he said. "So, a little bit about my story. My first year that I came out of SMU, I did two rookie minicamp tryouts, one with Pittsburgh and one with Oakland at the time and that was it. I wasn't invited to training camp, so I was out of football for a whole year. I was fortunate enough to know, the following year, to sign in Jacksonville, and now fast-forward to what [I] was able to do, apparently I wasn't able to do enough because they cut me the day before training camp."
For so many hopeful players, their willingness and prowess on special teams are often a route -- sometimes the only route -- to making the 53-man roster.
"But all jokes aside, the biggest thing is, especially in this time, just being consistent, being coachable," he said. "The biggest thing I try to stress to my guys right now is just being a pro in everything and their approach on a day-to-day basis, and I think guys are starting to perceive that well."
