New York Jets statistical scouting report: Alijah Vera-Tucker

New York Jets offensive lineman Alijah Vera-Tucker boasts a highly intriguing track record of production at the guard position. While Alijah Vera-Tucker played left tackle for the USC Trojans as a redshirt junior in 2020, it appears his New York Jets future will be at the guard position. Playing on the inside will be nothing new for the Oakland, California native, who enjoyed a full season of elite production at left guard as a redshirt sophomore in 2019. Let's dig into the numbers behind Vera-Tucker's impressive campaign at the guard position. Background information Vera-Tucker played offensive tackle and defensive end at Bishop O’Dowd High School in Oakland. He was a four-star recruit and ranked as the nation's No. 14 tackle prospect in the 2017 class by 247Sports. To begin his Trojans career, Vera-Tucker redshirted his 2017 freshman season. In 2018, he appeared on special teams in all 12 of USC's games and got occasional action as a backup guard on offense, logging 141 snaps at right guard over nine appearances, none of which were starts. In 2019, Vera-Tucker was promoted to USC's starting left guard spot. Vera-Tucker started all 13 games and tied for the team lead with 926 offensive snaps played, missing only 12 snaps all season (none of those were due to injury). He played alongside left tackle Austin Jackson, who wound up being selected by the Dolphins with the 18th overall pick in the 2020 draft. At the USC football team's annual awards banquet, Vera-Tucker was named the Trojans' 2019 Offensive Lineman of the Year over the NFL-bound Jackson. So, keep in mind that all of this elite production from Vera-Tucker in 2019 came in his first season as a collegiate starter and his first-ever season as a starting guard. Run blocking Vera-Tucker earned a run blocking grade of 76.7 at Pro Football Focus in 2019. That ranked at the 94th percentile among qualified FBS guards and tops among all Pac-12 guards. USC's offense was extremely zone-heavy in 2019, as 76.8% of Vera-Tucker's run blocking snaps came on a zone-blocking concept. Vera-Tucker thrived in that offense, playing his best football when he was asked to frequently get on the move rather than play with power. Three of Vera-Tucker's four highest-graded performances as a run blocker came in games where USC ran a zone concept over 85% of the time. The Trojans averaged 8.3 yards per carry when they ran into the left-side B-gap (towards the left guard's outside shoulder), by far their best average in any particular direction. They picked up a first down or a touchdown on 63.0% of their attempts to Vera-Tucker's outside shoulder, a rate that is simply out of this world. USC's next-best conversion rate towards a particular gap was their 41.3% rate to the left-side edge. For perspective, rushes typically convert about a quarter of the time - 25.8% of all NFL rush attempts in 2020 resulted in a conversion. For USC to be successful on over 60% of their runs to Vera-Tucker's outside shoulder is mind-boggling. The Jets' newest running back, Michael Carter, could feed off of Vera-Tucker's successful track record as a producer of big runs. In 2020, Carter rushed for 12.0 yards per carry and a 42.9% conversion rate when aiming for the left-side B-gap. Surely, Mike LaFleur is having frequent daydreams about Carter taking wide-zone handoffs to the left side behind Vera-Tucker. Pass protection Vera-Tucker coughed up only seven pressures over 590 protection snaps in 2019, a pressure rate of 1.2% that ranked at the 99th percentile among qualified FBS guards and second-best among Power-5 guards (trailing only Kentucky's Logan Stenberg, a 2020 fourth-round pick of the Lions). When we look only at Vera-Tucker's "true pass sets" - which excludes plays with less than 4 rushers, play action, screens, short dropbacks, or a time-to-throw under 2 seconds - he was still fantastic. He gave up four pressures across 151 true pass sets, a rate of 2.6% that is substantially lower than the national average for guards (7.2%). Overall, PFF scored Vera-Tucker with a pass blocking grade of 87.9, which placed at the 99th percentile among qualified FBS guards and second-best among Power-5 guards (trailing only Michigan's Ben Bredeson, a 2020 fourth-round pick of the Ravens). Vera-Tucker allowed zero pressures in seven games and one pressure in six. His worst game featured a mere two pressures allowed against Notre Dame. Against a Utah defensive line that featured three 2020 draft picks (John Penisini, Leki Fotu, Bradlee Anae), Vera-Tucker allowed one pressure. However, it's worth noting that he struggled in the run game that day, posting a season-low run blocking grade of 50.5. On the positive side, when Vera-Tucker faced off against Stanford and future NFL defensive end Casey Toohill, he posted his second-best run blocking grade of the season (78.6) and allowed only one pressure. Other notes Vera-Tucker was durable for the Trojans. He started all 19 of the team's games from 2019-20, tied for the team lead in offensive snaps in both seasons, and never left a game for an injury-related reason. Penalty minimization is a strength for Vera-Tucker. He was called for only four penalties over 1,533 offensive snaps in his Trojans career. At guard from 2017-18, Vera-Tucker committed two penalties over 1,067 snaps. That's an average of 1.9 penalties per 1,000 snaps, less than half of the 2020 NFL average for guards (4.3). While Vera-Tucker's season at guard in 2019 was more impressive, it should be noted he was no slouch at left tackle in 2020. Here are some of his numbers and ranks at left tackle: 2.8% pressure rate (86th percentile among FBS OT) 2.5% true pass set pressure rate (OT average: 9.5%) 76.3 run blocking grade (80th) 84.2 pass blocking grade (95th) Vera-Tucker's production at left tackle in 2020 inspires confidence that he could play on the outside at some point down the line, but the big question mark regarding his future at tackle is his arm length. His arms were measured at 32.1 inches, which is substantially below the ideal threshold for an offensive tackle (it ranks at the 9th percentile among offensive linemen all-time). The Jets entered the draft with a gaping hole at guard, so they got aggressive and made sure they would not miss out on the best guard prospect in the draft. At 20 years old, in his first season as a collegiate starter, and starting at guard for the very first time, Vera-Tucker was a superstar throughout the 2019 season. Based on what he showed that year, his potential at the guard position is limitless.