How will Jets reshape offensive line following Alijah Vera-Tucker's arm injury?

TheJets have suffered a major blow before their season even started with right guard Alijah Vera-Tucker possibly needingsurgery on an arm injury, which means he will miss significant time and could be sidelined for the entire 2025 season.

There's no sugar-coating this -- it's a disaster for the player and the team, and the timing couldn't be much worse.

Vera-Tucker was hurt at practice on Tuesday and is reportedly seeking a second opinion to get confirmation as to whether surgery will be required.

In the short term, this leaves the Jets with a huge hole on their interior line, which was expected to be one of their strengths. It was anticipated that the team was going to lean heavily on their running game this year with the interior line, led by Vera-Tucker as one of the main drivers.

It will also hurt them in pass protection -- in terms of Vera-Tucker's replacement being an individual downgrade, but also because the time spent developing the chemistry and communication on the line will have gone to waste. The Jets will now have to start from scratch and take some time to gel as a group.

As to how that group will look without him in there, it's most likely that Josh Myers will step into the lineup as the new starting center and Joe Tippmann will move over to replace Vera-Tucker at right guard. The Jets had experimented with something similar during the preseason while left guard John Simpson was nursing an injured back.

That's clearly the main reason they got Myers, so that they had another experienced starter who could step in if there was an injury on the interior. However, losing arguably their best offensive lineman before a ball has been snapped this season is a crushing blow for New York.

The timing of the injury is obviously awful, as it derails their plans right before the season gets underway. But if there's a silver lining, it's that they at least have this week to prepare so that they can start out with the new configuration rather than having to adjust on the fly.

It's ironic that Myers looks likely to end up as the starting center after fans and media had been critical of Aaron Glenn's refusal to name a starter at the position after an offseason competition where it seemed clear that Tippmann had comfortably beaten out the free agent Myers.

They could, of course, opt to leave Tippmann at center. If they do, it's unlikely Myers would step in at guard, as he lacks experience there. In this scenario, it would be someone like Xavier Newman who would move into the starting lineup.

As the season progresses, if the Jets' offensive line depth is compromised any further, they may have to explore a trade for a veteran. However, you would struggle to find a quality starter in the middle of the season -- and that new player would take some time to assimilate, so it's a far from ideal scenario.

For Vera-Tucker, who was just named as one of the Jets' captains a few days ago, his rookie contract expires at the end of the season. There had been multiple reports about the team's desire to ink him to a long-term extension, which was certain to be at or near the top of the market for the guard position.

In fact, just this week, one projection from Bleacher Report had Vera-Tucker getting a four-year deal worth almost $18 million per season -- and the reaction from most was that it was probably too low.

It will be the 26-year old Vera-Tucker's third major injury in five seasons, so the best he can hope for on the open market when his contract expires at the end of the season will probably be a highly-incentivized one-year, prove-it deal. Whether the Jets will be one of the teams offering that remains to be seen, but they may instead look to make retaining Simpson a priority.

Some Jets fans might feel that the team has dodged a bullet by not giving Vera-Tucker a long-term extension with significant guaranteed money right before this happened. However, it doesn't make much difference in the short term because his fifth-year option of over $15 million in 2025 is guaranteed for injury. So they will still be paying that and accounting for it in full on their salary cap with no real return.

As for Glenn, it gives him and the rest of his coaching staff some significant adversity to deal with before they've even played their first game. One of the things that solidified his head coaching credentials last season was how well his Lions defense was able to cope with a series of injuries, but it's not going to be easy to repeat the trick with a Jets roster that lacks the same kind of depth and continuity.