For the first time in over a decade, the New York Jets offensive line is being talked about as a legitimate strength, and rightfully so. This time, it's not just optimistic Jets fans saying it either.
Pro Football Focus ranked the Jets as the ninth-best offensive line in the NFL heading into the 2025 season, a staggering rise for a unit that sat near the bottom of the league not long ago. Just two years ago, they were 31st in these same PFF rankings.
The Jets still have more questions than answers at most positions. This is not a team expected to compete in 2025. But if their offensive line lives up to the hype, their floor this season might be higher than many expect.
Because if nothing else, this team can block. The Jets finally have a good offensive line again.
The Jets have a top-10 offensive line in the NFL
The Jets’ projected starting offensive line in 2025 features two recent first-round picks, a pair of high-level guards entering contract years, and one of the league’s most underrated young centers.
It’s the best group the team has assembled since the glory days of the Rex Ryan era when dominant trench play powered consecutive AFC Championship Game appearances.
Let’s start with the bookends. Olu Fashanu, drafted 11th overall in 2024, returns for his second season and is firmly entrenched as the team’s starting left tackle.
He struggled early as a rookie while playing out of position at right tackle, but once the Jets moved him back to his natural left tackle spot, he looked far more comfortable. The team expects a sophomore leap in Year 2.
Opposite Fashanu is Armand Membou, the seventh overall pick in this year’s draft and another hopeful long-term cornerstone. Membou is expected to start right away at right tackle, though the Jets did add veteran Chukwuma Okorafor for depth. Membou's development will be critical, but the physical tools are there.
On the interior, Joe Tippmann quietly became one of the league’s better centers last season. He played every offensive snap and finished with a 73.4 overall Pro Football Focus grade, which ranked eighth-best among qualified centers.
His 77.3 run-blocking grade ranked seventh. The idea that he’s in a “competition” with newly signed Josh Myers feels more like lip service than reality. Tippmann should be the starting center in 2025.
John Simpson, a bargain-bin free agent signing in 2024, turned out to be one of the Jets’ best players last season. After reviving his career in Baltimore, Simpson came to New York and posted a 77.3 PFF grade, ranking 11th among guards leaguewide.
His 79.2 run-blocking grade placed him eighth. Simpson was initially viewed as the weak link of the entire offensive line, but ended up outperforming expectations by a mile. He may have been the Jets' best offensive lineman in 2024.
On the other side is Alijah Vera-Tucker, who finally enjoyed a healthy season after back-to-back years cut short by injury. When healthy, he looked every bit like the Pro-Bowl-caliber player the Jets hoped he’d be. His 77.7 PFF grade was 10th among all guards and second-highest on the Jets’ entire offense behind only Garrett Wilson.
It’s not just the players that have changed, either. The Jets also moved on from widely criticized offensive line coach and run-game coordinator Keith Carter, whose firing was long overdue.
Despite Carter’s presence and the declining play of Tyron Smith, who started at left tackle for much of the year, the Jets finished the 2024 season ranked 17th in PFF’s OL grades. With competent coaching and another year of development, the ceiling is considerably higher.
After years of revolving doors, stopgap veterans, and draft misses, the Jets enter 2025 with a top-10 offensive line and legitimate optimism that the group can anchor their transition-era offense.
It might not be a Super Bowl-caliber roster, but it’s no longer a disaster either, and the offensive line is a big reason why.
