The New York Jets must be asking themselves exactly what they did to anger the football gods this much. Just four weeks into the NFL season, the Jets have lost four offensive tackles to significant injury.
The latest is Max Mitchell. The rookie right tackle sustained a knee injury late in the second quarter of their game against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday. Mitchell was carted off the field, and the Jets announced at halftime that he would not return.
#Jets sideline emptying for Mitchell. Can tell how much team loves him pic.twitter.com/SjmFRjtHE9
— Connor Hughes (@Connor_J_Hughes) October 2, 2022
This ugly trend began early in training camp when Mekhi Becton, New York’s first-round pick in 2020, had season-ending knee surgery. His replacement, veteran Duane Brown, was placed on IR prior to the season opener with a shoulder injury. Then George Fant landed on IR after injuring his knee last week.
Mitchell, a fourth-round pick this season, was forced into a starting role and played every offensive snap until his injury Sunday. He had one penalty and allowed two sacks. He was coming off his best game last week against the Cincinnati Bengals, earning a solid 69.8 overall graded by Pro Football Focus.
The Jets continued to play musical chairs on the offensive line after Mitchell went down. They moved right guard Alijah Vera-Tucker to left tackle, had Nate Herbig in at right guard and inserted Connor McDermott at right tackle.
Despite these issues, the Jets led 10-6 at halftime. However, quarterback Zach Wilson was pressured on eight of his 18 drop backs (44.4 percent) in the first half, and it has been a struggle for the quarterback in his return. Two Wilson interceptions helped the Steelers take a 13-10 lead going into the fourth quarter as rookie Kenny Pickett replaced Mitch Trubisky.
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