After learning more about Denninson and Bates I wouldn't be surprised if James Carpenter is let go. He didn't have a great year and zone blocking offenses like guys that can move. By releasing him the Jets save 4 million on the cap. Wouldn't be surprised if we sign a center and a guard in free agency and draft another guard and tackle in the draft.
I’m not sure you need good lineman as much as you need the right linemen. Buffalo had good linemen but they were good in the power scheme and struggled with the zone. The one thing I remember about the old Denver teams was they could find linemen in the deeper rounds of the draft that were successful with their particular style.
Carpenter definitely does not fit the zone blocking scheme, however I'm not so sure Winters does either. They're kinda "stuck" with Winters due to his recent contract extension, but I could see Carpenter being a goner and if Kirk Cousins is brought in via Free Agency, I wouldn't be so shocked if the G from Notre Dame, Nelson, was the pick at 6.
If the Jets sign Cousins get a couple of pieces on the Oline and Nelson they could go from an ok oline to an above average one. Nelson could be like Zack Martin is for the Cowboys. I'd be ok with that. Not a sexy pick or what fans want but we had the best oline for a number of years when we had Brick and Mangold. Go back to basics. Build that oline. A better oline makes everyone better around them.
Exactly. Fans need to look no further than the Eagles and Patriots, but especially the Eagles. Without their OL, which was one of the best in football even without Jason Peters, Foles would not have had anywhere near the same success he had, ditto for Wentz. Teams win in one of two ways, and the best teams in both ways: a good to great OL along with a good to great DL and/or a good to great QB. You can have all the WR's and CB's you want, but they're useless when it matters most unless you have that OL, DL and QB.
It's clear that to win consistently you need a great OL, but that OL is also helped by having a great QB, RB, WR, TE. IOW, it's a team game. So which comes first, the "chicken or the egg"? I would say whichever one you find first. If you have a very high draft pick (and #6 is on the borderline of that), I'd argue that you try to get the QB or another great skill player...in rare cases a great LT might be available that year and could be the best choice, but this year that's not the case from what I've seen. If you're drafting lower, where OL are more usually taken, then you go with that, and either hope you can find a QB later, or keep your powder dry until the next year's draft. And then there's a third way, which is if you hold a high draft pick and trade down to collect more picks, and then looking at OL with your lower picks makes more sense. I don't think it's clear yet which way the Jets should,or will, go. It might not be clear until the clock starts ticking on draft night. My personal hope is that they can trade up and get Rosen, or Mayfield, or get lucky and see them (or maybe Darnold or Jackson) drop to them. Failing finding their QB, my next hope is that they could get Barkley. If all that fails, then I'm thinking trade down and look at OL and a "Tier 2" QB. But no matter how they get there, they will have to vastly upgrade their OL if they want to win a championship.