What has quickly become the biggest position battle in New York Jets camp is now culminating in a temporary change that could become permanent.
After careful deliberation with his coaches, Jets coach Rex Ryan has announced that young Austin Howard will get the start at right tackle this weekend when the Jets host the Carolina Panthers.
Incumbent starter Wayne Hunter will move back to a familiar role as the Jets’ sixth offensive lineman, his primary role over Ryan’s first two seasons in New York in 2009 and 2010.
“Right now, I believe this is in the best interest of our team,” Ryan said. He told Hunter his decision on Thursday morning before announcing it to the media later that day.
Essentially, Hunter will be the Jets’ extra lineman in unbalanced line sets and jumbo packages and their primary run blocking tight end, a spot they’ve sorely lacked since moving Hunter in the starting lineup.
“The more I went back and looked at where we are at as a football team,” Ryan said, “getting feedback from coaches and knowing the success that Wayne had as a sixth man, I’ve decided that’s the way we’re going to go.”
The pressure is now on Howard to step up and take control of the starting right tackle job, a good challenge for the 25-year-old who’s been impressing coaches all summer.
The Jets have been quietly searching for outside help at right tackle all offseason, but it’s been slim pickings after the Jets’ trade for the Panthers’ Jeff Otah fell through for medical reasons. Otah is currently out of football.
Ryan wouldn’t rule out looking for outside help, especially with the first round of roster cuts coming soon, but at the end of the day, they feel good about Howard and Hunter right now.
“You’re always evaluating your team. If [future Hall of Famer] Jonathan Ogden called me up and said, ‘Rex, I’d like to come back,’ then Ogden’s our starting right tackle,” Ryan joked.
“Right now, I’m thinking that we’re going to be ok,” he said. “We don’t know who’s going to be cut from other teams. I don’t believe you’re going to find somebody right now that can be a starting right tackle ahead of who we have.”
This weekend, the Jets will find out if Austin Howard can handle the heat going forward. He played quite well against the Cincinnati Bengals’ first-team defense two weeks ago and the Jets would like to see him build on that.
Ryan compared Hunter favorably to an NBA player who’s better off the bench as a sixth man than he is as a starter.
That will be Hunter’s role moving forward if Howard can take the reigns. Hunter has excelled in the past as the sixth man on the offensive line, and in a way, it improves the Jets in that spot with this lineup change.
Nothing is set in stone as far as the regular season goes, but one would have to imagine that the starting right tackle job is now Howard’s to lose. All eyes will be on #77 this weekend.
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