Willie Colon Talks About Fight for Starting Job

Kimberly Martin has an interesting piece about Willie Colon. Even though the veteran is coming off a fairly strong season, he does not see it as a forgone conclusion he will be starting.

"I wouldn't be surprised if you see Oday, Winters and, even me -- all three of us -- kind of fighting it out," Colon told Newsday after the team's first mandatory minicamp practice Tuesday. "It's just a matter of you want to play your best five [offensive linemen].

"I always put myself in the competition battle," added the Bronx native and Hofstra product. "I don't take it for granted. And I think for me, coming off a knee [injury], it's just the way I think. It's just a sense of urgency I have. So whoever's the best three in the middle -- obviously we know [center] Nick [Mangold] is going to be in there -- but we're all up for grabs."

Insert generic comment about Idzik and the Jets getting competitiony.

I'm not sure how much of Oday Aboushi's reported improvement is going to carry over into real games, but I do think the best case scenario would probably be him winning the job over Colon. At this point it seems like a stretch to think Colon can stay healthy in a full-time role. The Jets would probably be better off with him as the primary backup for the guard and tackle positions. Ideally he would be able to avoid injuries playing in situations where he would probably fill in for a game or two at a time. It also would be nice to have proven veteran depth on the line for once.