Ripple Effects: How will Jets adjust after Alijah Vera-Tucker’s injury?

The Jets came away from Denver with a hard-fought win, but it came at a cost. For the second year in a row, beating the Broncos was tainted by the fact that they lost offensive lineman Alijah Vera-Tucker to a season-ending injury.

Last year, Vera-Tucker suffered a torn tricep with the Jets off to a 5-2 start. The Jets, who also lost running back Breece Hall to a torn ACL that day, went on to lose eight of their last 10 games.

Losing AVT is another huge blow to a Jets team that has been reeling from the loss of new quarterback Aaron Rodgers in the season-opener due to the same injury. Vera-Tucker, despite only being in his third season, is already regarded by most Jets players and coaches as the team’s best offensive lineman.

Gang Green will miss his leadership and versatility for the second year in a row. He was again the initial solution to injury concerns by being able to move to offensive tackle, but now leaves a massive hole as he has been lost for the year.

The Jets’ offensive line had started playing well over the past few games and continued to do a solid job even after Vera-Tucker was knocked out of Sunday’s game. However, it’s still been a bit of a work in progress, even with Vera-Tucker in there. Gang Green now needs to regroup and decide how to proceed.

General manager Joe Douglas spoke in the offseason about wanting to find five guys who could play the whole season, but the team had already been forced to place Duane Brown on injured reserve, which is why Vera-Tucker had to kick outside. Robert Saleh has spoken about wanting to put the best five on the field, so what could this group look like without Vera-Tucker?

On Sunday, the Jets opted to replace Vera-Tucker with Max Mitchell at right tackle, and he played quite well. Mitchell started five games as a rookie in 2022 as players like George Fant, Becton, Brown, and Vera-Tucker all missed time. 

The most obvious solution, at least in the short term, would be to keep the rest of the line intact and leave Mitchell at right tackle so that the group that finished Sunday’s game can stay together.

Based on their rotations in the preseason, the Jets may have Billy Turner ahead of Mitchell in their pecking order, but if Turner has been practicing on the left with Mitchell on the right it could make more sense for Mitchell to continue to fill in on that side. They each took preseason reps on both sides, though, so Turner could potentially be prepped to be the right tackle, perhaps after the bye week.

Another possibility down the road is that Brown could be re-inserted into the starting lineup. Having been placed on injured reserve due to a hip injury after the second game, he will be eligible to return after the bye week and, if healthy, it’s likely he will be considered one of the best five available.

The question here is whether the Jets would ask Mekhi Becton to move back to right tackle after he has started to find his feet in his preferred left tackle position -- or ask Brown to play on the right side for the first time since 2007 when he was in college.

It’s telling that the Jets could have put Mitchell or Turner in at tackle after Brown was injured, but instead opted to move Vera-Tucker outside and bring in a reserve at guard. Even when veteran Wes Schweitzer, presumably their first choice for that role, suffered a concussion, they still opted to proceed with this plan, putting rookie Joe Tippmann in at right guard instead.

Tippmann has played quite well, so they will likely keep him in the lineup ahead of Schweitzer as long as that continues to be the case. He won’t have the advantage of Vera-Tucker lining up on his outside shoulder anymore, though.

The Jets still have plenty of flexibility on the line, despite losing their most versatile player, but continuity and chemistry on the line is important -- so they may opt for a solution that creates minimal disruption.

Nobody wanted to go through the constant changes the Jets had to endure in 2022 again, but at least those players who were around last year have experience dealing with such scenarios.