Football Outsiders: Jets offensive line is as bad as we think

Each year Football Outsiders publishes a book previewing the upcoming football season. They analyze the NFL, college football, and fantasy.

Rivers McCown, who wrote the chapter previewing the 2018 Jets, is answering questions for us this week.

One of the great concerns many Jets fans have is the offensive line. It isn’t just that the line looks shaky on paper. There also doesn’t seem to be much upside.

Today I asked Rivers whether there was any reason to be hopeful about the unit. Sometimes sites like Football Outsiders produce numbers that suggest certain maligned players are underrated.

Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to apply to the Jets’ offensive line.

Is there any reason for hope with this offensive line?

The most optimistic things I can think of for this offensive line are the following: - Kelvin Beachum stays healthy for an entire season- Brandon Shell has some late bloomer development in him ala Derek Newton- Everybody else doesn’t take a step back from their recent performances.

It’s a unit of mostly average-to-bad players that are old enough that any performance swings upwards will be completely unexpected. It’s uh … not ideal.

If you are looking for somebody to have a unique take that would make you feel better about this offensive line, it isn’t going to be Football Outsiders.