In a season filled with offensive line shuffling, including possibly some more Sunday, Keith Carter has one decision that he’s dreading.
Mekhi Becton started the season at right tackle and shifted to left tackle when Duane Brown went on injured reserve, and Becton previously blamed a shift from left to right for his injury last year. Brown was the starting left tackle before getting injured.
“I almost wish one of them would say, ‘I don’t want to move’ to make the decision easier,” said Carter, the Jets’ offensive line coach and run game coordinator.
Brown (hip), who Saleh said Wednesday was “closer” to returning, practiced fully Thursday — one week after his 21-day window opened to get activated from injured reserve.
When he returns, the Jets will need to balance Brown’s recovery with Becton’s preference and injury history.
“Right now, with everything going on, it’s how do we find our best five day-to-day and week-to-week,” Carter said, “And I think that decision will be a little bit more game-time decision as Duane works his way back in practice and stuff and feels like he can trust his body and be ready to go.”
Though Brown’s status for Sunday remains unclear, the Jets likely will need to tweak their offensive line again with Billy Turner — who didn’t practice Thursday — recovering from a finger injury.
He started at right tackle Monday, a shift outside that Carter attributed to his history protecting against Chargers edge rusher Khalil Mack when their stints in Green Bay and Chicago, respectively, overlapped.
The Jets could move Max Mitchell back outside from right guard, but they’d still need to add another new starter.
Special teams coordinator Brant Boyer called the Chargers’ punt-return touchdown “unacceptable” and acknowledged Los Angeles’ scheme and returner Derius Davis for doing a “hell of a job.”
“When that kinda stuff happens … it’s truly an overall team effort,” Boyer said. “Coaching wasn’t good enough, and we gotta get it fixed. That’s what it comes down to.”
Jets defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich played against Raiders interim head coach Antonio Pierce and later recruited his players when they overlapped in 2014, with Pierce at Long Beach Polytechnic High School and Ulbrich at UCLA.
And because of that, Ulbrich wasn’t surprised the Raiders got “rolling and maybe demonstrated a little bit more energy than they had” last Sunday against the Giants.
“It felt as though that there was a little spark energy from the team,” Ulbrich said. “Sometimes, that’s just change, and when change occurs, sometimes that can provide a little spark.”
When Ulbrich was the Falcons’ assistant head coach and linebackers coach in 2020, they started 0-5 but won four of their next six games after Dan Quinn’s firing. This year, the Raiders crushed the Giants. There were victory cigars. A chaotic stretch that followed the firings of head coach Josh McDaniels and general manager Dave Ziegler finally had some stability.
Becton (knee) was upgraded from a limited to full participant on the injury report. LB Chazz Surratt (ankle) didn’t practice.
WR Allen Lazard (knee), TE Jeremy Ruckert (shoulder) and LB Quincy Williams (knee) were limited participants.