AUGUST 14: Fant will indeed be moved to RT, head coach Robert Saleh confirmed (Twitter link via Rich Cimini of ESPN.com). That will leave the door open for Brown to assume his familiar role on the blindside.
Saleh acknowledged that Becton is expected to miss the entire season, but Becton is traveling to Los Angeles for a consultation to confirm that prognosis (Twitter link via Cimini).
AUGUST 11: Not long after visiting the team, Duane Brown is indeed joining the Jets. New York is signing the veteran offensive tackle to a two-year deal, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter (Twitter link). He adds that the contract is worth $22MM (Twitter link).
Brown, 36, met with the Jets last week, leading to speculation that a contract could be forthcoming. The five-time Pro Bowler had been in Seattle since midway through the 2017 season. The Seahawks’ addition of Charles Cross with their first-round pick in this year’s draft left Brown on the open market deep into training camp.
Further reason for the Jets to add the Virginia Tech product came earlier this week, as it was learned that Mekhi Becton is dealing with another major knee injury which is expected to keep him sidelined for the entire 2022 campaign. With an opening needing to be filled quickly, Brown became a logical candidate to step into a starter’s role once again.
Given the fact that Becton will be under contract through at least 2023 (or one year beyond that, in the increasingly unlikely event the Jets exercise his fifth-year option), the fact that Brown is receiving a two-year deal is significant. He will, in all likelihood, slide into the left tackle spot which was set to go to George Fant for a second consecutive season, although Brian Costello of the New York Post tweets that no decision has been made yet. In any case, the former Seahawks teammates will form the bookends of New York’s o-line, which also added Laken Tomlinson on a lucrative free agent pact. How much the addition of the latter, and now Brown, affects Fant’s contact status with the Jets will be worth watching throughout the year.
As a Pro Bowl alternate last season, Brown demonstrated that he can still operate at a high level despite his age. The Jets will be counting on him to remain an effective blindside blocker for the immediate future. With Becton’s long-term health even more of a question mark, Brown could prove to be a wise stop-gap investment as the team looks to take a significant step forward on offense this year.
I’m guessing since it’s a two-year deal, more salary will go into the second year with a significant amount of it guaranteed. They had $3M-$4M left in cap space for the top 51 contracts according to Spotrac, last I checked.
That’s a big boy
Excellent signing lucky to get him at this stage of offseason
seems like a massive contract for a 36 year old
Becton is a bust, Wilson is a bust, and the Jets just signed a 37yo tackle. Progress.
Shush, jets fans don’t want to hear how bad that team is going to be.
Well, I was looking forward to seeing what Fant could do a consistent Day One LT, but Brown should certainly be an upgrade. The thing is, Fant is worse on the right than he is on the left. We’ll see what happens, but I hope it works well for Fant and New York.