Jets offensive line has ‘up and down’ day against Giants’ pass rush

The Jets-Giants joint practice on Tuesday did not feature any fights, but it did have a main event.

The matchup everyone had their eyes on in Florham Park was the Jets offensive line vs. the Giants defensive line. 

In the end, it was hard to declare a winner. Let’s call it a draw, and like all good boxing matches, we’ll have a rematch Wednesday in East Rutherford. 

The Jets offensive line features three first-round picks, and the team is counting on it to lead the way this season. The Giants defensive line features four first-round picks and is widely considered the strength of their team.

Sacks are often in the eye of the beholder at practices because you can’t tackle the quarterback. Sometimes the referees whistle a play dead. Sometimes they let the play continue. Unofficially, the Giants had three sacks and two others that looked like they may have been sacks.

The Jets came out firing in 11-on-11 drills with Justin Fields completing his first five passes. Then, the Giants pass rush took over before the Jets rebounded with a touchdown in a red zone period to end practice.

“I thought it was up and down,” Jets coach Aaron Glenn said. “I really did. I thought there were sometimes where we protected real well, but there were some times where we got beat, too.”

These joint practices are a great test for a Jets offensive line that enters the 2025 season with high expectations. The Jets have used back-to-back first-round picks on tackles Olu Fashanu last year and Armand Membou this year. They join right guard Alijah Vera-Tucker, a 2021 first-rounder, center Joe Tippmann, a 2023 second-rounder, and John Simpson, a key free agent pickup last year. 

The Jets will face plenty of tough pass rushers this season, including T.J. Watt with the Steelers in Week 1. Seeing a line like the Giants’ that has first-rounders Dexter Lawrence, Brian Burns, Kayvon Thibodeaux and Abdul Carter should prepare them for anyone.

Burns had the best day Tuesday, with what might have been three sacks. He gave the rookie Membou a bit of an education. 

“They have some really good players on that side of the ball, and that’s the good thing about going against that team,” Glenn said. “And it’s good for offense too, to be able to see that, because you don’t go against a front like that on an everyday basis and an every week basis for the most part. For us to get the chance to get tested by those guys, I thought it was good. But again, we were jockeying for position for the most part. They got their wins, and we got our wins. I can’t wait to look at the tape and really see exactly what happened so I can nail that down.” 

Fields was unable to escape the pocket much Tuesday, unlike what he showed in the Jets preseason win over the Packers on Saturday. Instead, he tried to stay in the pocket and make throws. Sometimes it worked, other times he would have been hit hard by the Giants if he wasn’t wearing a red no-contact jersey. The Jets are working on him knowing when to get rid of the ball versus taking off running. 

“The one thing we got to do is, when we see a guy, let’s get it out,” Glenn said. “Then there’s other times, man, I want him to use his legs like he did. … Just from the naked eye, I thought it was a little bit of both. Man, sometimes you got to get it out, but there’s also times I liked the way he used his legs.”

While the pass protection got the attention Tuesday, the Jets offensive line is also trying to establish itself in the run game. They ran decently on Tuesday with Breece Hall and Braelon Allen getting the carries, but it’s hard to tell completely in training camp practices with no tackling. 

Their better showing was in the preseason game with the Packers when they opened up some big holes and showed what the formula will be for the Jets this year. 

“I think that’s what it’s supposed to look like for every team, especially when you’ve got an offensive line with as much talent like us,” Vera-Tucker said. “It’s up to us to put that talent together and execute at a high level and to run the rock as much as we can.”