During the first week of training camp, the Jets starting offensive line hadn’t practiced together during team drills.
That finally changed Friday after right tackle Morgan Moses, who had been rehabbing from offseason pectoral surgery, participated in 11-on-11 drills.
“Fantastic man,” Moses said about being back on the field. “I’m never one to just sit on the side and have to work through things. But it is all about timing and stuff.
“But being able to go out there and run around with the guys and just feels like you’re 10 years old again. Playing football, it just felt fantastic.
“As athletes, we always want things to happen fast for us and sometimes we have to slow ourselves down from ourselves and realize it is a marathon and not a [sprint]. I think the first day I was in here, I was complaining and Aaron [Rodgers] was like, ‘Hey, man, we don’t need you right now.’ And I was like, ‘Oh yeah, right, OK, all right, let me take my time.’”
This is Moses’ second stint with the Jets. After seven seasons with the Commanders, Moses played one season with the Jets in 2021 before signing a three-year, $15 million contract with the Ravens in 2022.
In March, the Jets reacquired Moses, 33, in a trade with the Ravens. During the OTAs, mandatory minicamp, and the first week of training camp, Moses was on the practice field but did not participate in 11-on-11 drills.
Despite being a veteran, Moses says he still got nervous on his first day working with the rest of the team.
“I told somebody today, ‘Look, man, it doesn’t matter how old you are, it doesn’t how many years you have been in the league, you still get pregame jitters,’” Moses said. “Tyron [Smith] helped me out the day a little bit.
“The mood out there with the guys, just the atmosphere to be out there in practice. It feels amazing to be back when you all had those pregame jitters.”
Moses hopes to bring stability to a Jets offensive line that has had anything but the last couple of seasons.
In 2022, 11 different players started games on Gang Green’s offensive line. Last year, the Jets used 14 different offensive line combinations in 17 games, the most in the league.
While he is now participating in team drills, Moses will be on a pitch count throughout training camp. The Jets will hope to preserve him for the long grind of the NFL season.
Moses is one of the four new additions to the Jets offensive line. They also signed Smith and left guard John Simpson, who played with Moses in Baltimore. The Jets selected left tackle Olu Fashanu 11th overall in April’s draft.
Now that the Jets have their starting offensive line practicing together during team drills, they can build chemistry and continuity on the field before the Monday Night Football season opener against the 49ers on Sept. 9.
“It’s got a chance to be a really good group,” Jets coach Robert Saleh said about the O-line. “I’ll even talk about the second half of the season last year, that group and the amount of reps and playing time that they all got, and how much better they got over the course of the year.
“Remember, we played the two best-run defenses in football a year ago to finish the season and rushed for a lot of yards. So, all the experience that they got, we feel really good about not only the front five but the next six or seven guys, eight guys even.”
The last two seasons, Moses blocked for Lamar Jackson, who won the 2023 NFL MVP and helped Baltimore reach the AFC title game last year before losing to Kansas City.
Moses went from playing with one elite quarterback to now blocking for a future Hall of Famer in Rodgers, who has won four NFL MVP awards. During training camp practices, Rodgers holds players to a high standard daily, including the offensive linemen.
“Like the way he approaches the game, the way he helps, like we talk about great teammates, right, and what a hell of a teammate Aaron is because he makes everybody better around him,” Moses said. “He takes the time and teaches you what he wants, what he expects out of you.
“Now it’s up to you to get to gravitate to that and get on the same page as him. But you talking about a guy that just sees the game way ahead of schedule.
“When you go out there, and you expect greatness from yourself, and he expects greatness from you, man, it just a contagious, contagious feeling.”
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