And C Connor McGovern’s knee injury in Game 7 began a domino effect, not at center but at right guard as second-round rookie Joe Tippmann shifted from guard to center. The RG position went eight consecutive games with a different starter than the game before. For the season, seven different players started at the position and eight players got playing time there.
“Going back and looking at the performance and availability of this group, I feel like I spent so much time trying to prevent the storm from actually coming when it comes to injuries,” Douglas said. “I think certain injuries are unpreventable. I feel like we’ve done a lot better job in terms of soft-tissue injuries.”
But Douglas second-guessed himself on another issue. The Jets began the season with nine OL players on the roster, with a 10th, rookie T Carter Warren, beginning the season on IR. But after the Week 6 bye, they were in a weekly personnel loop of moving three players up and down their rosters. Xavier Newman, Chris Glaser and Jake Hanson each was elevated from the practice squad the maximum three times, each played in at least four games with at least one start, each, and all ended up at some point on the active roster, a cohort of the 13 players who played on the OL in ’23.
“Candidly, one of the things I could’ve done better is keeping an extra offensive lineman, not going into the year with nine offensive linemen but maybe keeping an extra body in there,” the GM sad. “We still would’ve [been] short four or five guys with all the offensive linemen we played,
“It’s going to be going back to every single decision-making process, because we have gotten some decisions right there,” he said of the OL successes, in free agency with LG rock Laken Tomlinson, who started every one of the offense’s 1,101 snaps, and in the draft with Vera-Tucker, Tippman and Warren. Former No. 1 pick Mekhi Becton started 16 of 17 games, 14 of the last 15 at left…
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