Jets “Remain Interested” in Morgan Moses and have “Made Strides” in signing him
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The offensive line has been a big talking point for the Jets this off-season, they may have missed out on the big fish in Joe Thuney, but the selection of AVT has undoubtedly improved the protection in front of Zach Wilson.
Last week we reported that Morgan Moses had visited with the Jets, but had left for Chicago without a contract. Following his visit with the Bears, Jeremy Fowler reports that “teams” remain interested and have made strides in securing the former Washington tackles signature.
Robert Saleh mentioned last week that Jets starting left tackle Mekhi Becton was suffering from plantar fasciitis, a nagging kind of injury that can linger. Becton has already missed some time in his young career with a shoulder injury, it’s far too early to talk about being injury prone considering Becton played 14 games last season, but the depth behind the franchise tackle is spotty at best.
If Becton were to miss time, the responsibility of protecting Wilson would fall on the shoulders of Chuma Edoga, Conor McDermott or even Cameron Clark, that’s what we call a risk factor. I don’t think there are too many people at one Jets drive that would be comfortable with that set-up.
If the Jets were to sign Moses, he could fill in at left tackle like he did at Washington last year, or he could be inserted at right tackle for George Fant to shift over to left tackle. Chances are if Morgan was signed, he’d be pushing Fant to start at right tackle anyway, and while that would make Fant a very expensive swing tackle ($9.8 million cap hit), it would offer the Jets a little depth and a little insurance.
Washington decided to move on from Moses after selecting Sam Cosmi out of Texas in the 2nd round of the 2021 NFL Draft, but 2020 was his best statistical season according to Pro Football Focus who gave him an overall grade of 80.6 (85.9 in run blocking and 70.8 in pass protection).
2020 was a little bit of a renaissance for the former Virginia man as he was rated as average in both 2019 (65.2), 2018 (64.4) and 2017 (67.2), so you do have to be slightly wary about buying high on a player who’s only had one really good season over the last 4 years.
While I don’t think Morgan Moses is the slam dunk signing that many others do, I do think the depth he would bring would be valuable to a line that has to improve to give their rookie QB a chance, and his ability to block for the running game would instantly vault the production of the Jets backs.
It sounds as though the Jets are still interested and with $27 million in cap space available in 2021, money shouldn’t be an obstacle. How long they want to commit to the 30-year-old and how much guaranteed cash they want to put on the table may be the sticking point in negotiations. Morgan signed a deal with Washington that averaged $7.7 million over the course of the contract, so that likely gives you a ball-park figure for what he’d be looking for from either the Jets or Bears.
