Where does the NY Jets’ offensive line rank out of 32 NFL units?

Where does the NY Jets' offensive line rank league-wide following the addition of right tackle Morgan Moses? The signing of highly-regarded former Washington Football Team right tackle Morgan Moses signals just another step in New York Jets general manager Joe Douglas' offensive line overhaul. Assuming that Moses takes George Fant's spot at right tackle, Douglas' projected starting lineup now features two of his own first-round picks (Mekhi Becton and Alijah Vera-Tucker), two free-agent acquisitions who came to the Jets after ranking among the top 10 best players at their position the prior season (Connor McGovern, Moses), and a decent stopgap (Greg Van Roten). How does this starting five compare to the other 31 units in the league? To answer that question, I compiled data for the projected starters on all 32 teams in the league, painting a picture of exactly where the Jets' offensive line stands in the NFL landscape. Method I took the 2020 Pro Football Focus grades of every projected starting offensive lineman in the league - run blocking, pass blocking, and overall - and averaged together the numbers of the five players on each unit to rank all 32 teams. If a player played an insufficient number of snaps in 2020, I went back to the most recent season in which they played a significant amount of snaps and used those numbers. For rookies, I used placeholder marks that were calculated by agglomerating the average rookie-year grades of all qualified rookies in recent history who played the same position and were drafted in the same round (i.e. rookie first-round guards for Alijah Vera-Tucker). Run blocking Checking in at No. 8, the Jets' offensive line has a ton of potential in the run game. Moses is the driving force behind this ranking. His 85.9 run-blocking grade in 2020 ranked second-best among right tackles, trailing only San Francisco's Mike McGlinchey (91.3). It places him third among projected starting right tackles, as Dallas' La'el Collins posted an 89.4 run-blocking grade in 2019 but missed the 2020 season. The addition of Moses changes everything here. If you swapped out Moses' 85.9 grade for Fant's 56.9 grade (which would currently rank 4th-worst among projected starting RTs), the Jets' overall run blocking score would drop to 64.7, which would place them 20th on the list above. Becton's 73.9 run-blocking grade places him 11th among projected starting left tackles while McGovern's 70.5 grade places him 12th among projected starting centers. Van Roten has not been regarded as a good producer in the run game. His 54.4 run-blocking grade in 2020 places him 27th among projected starting right guards. Vera-Tucker's placeholder run-blocking grade was a 67.7, dropping him in at 16th among left guards. Rookie guards selected in the first round have generally fared rather decently in recent years. Quenton Nelson, Zack Martin, Kyle Long, and Brandon Scherff are just a few of the first-round guards who have been immediate-impact players. Pass blocking It's clear that the strength of the Jets' offensive line is the run game. They have legitimate top-tier potential in that phase, while in the passing game, there are significantly more questions that need answering. Regardless, the unit still appears to be past its days as a league-worst pass-protecting group, settling into the middle of the pack on paper with a 19th-ranked score of 65.7. Fielding the league's 19th-best offensive line in pass protection would represent meaningful progress. As a team, the Jets have not ranked that highly in PFF's pass-blocking grade since ranking 16th in 2016. Moses provides a sizable upgrade over Fant in pass protection, although it is not nearly as large as the upgrade he provides in the run game. Moses' 70.8 pass-blocking grade ranks 18th among projected starting right tackles. Fant posted a 61.8 pass-blocking grade last year, which would currently put him 26th. Van Roten is considered a stopgap, but at least in terms of PFF's grading system, he is the Jets' best pass protector relative to his position. He posted a 71.5 pass-blocking grade last year, which ranked seventh among qualified right guards and sixth among right guards who are projected to start in 2021 (due to David DeCastro's release from Pittsburgh). Becton posted a 76.0 pass-blocking grade that was the best of any offensive lineman on the Jets last year and remains the best of any lineman currently on the roster (excluding rookies). However, that ranks only 18th among projected starting left tackles. The bar is high for pass protection at left tackle, as the average pass-blocking grade among projected starting left tackles is 75.4. These rankings do not account for how players may project into the future, but Becton is in a position for a big leap considering he was a slightly above-average pass protector as a 21-year-old rookie and is loaded with physical upside. For now, though, he can comfortably be considered perfectly average at worst. McGovern is the primary concern here. He posted a 42.7 pass-blocking grade that ranks third-worst among projected starting centers. The Jets badly need him to return to his 2019 form. That year, he earned an 82.5 pass-blocking grade that ranked fifth-best at the position. Vera-Tucker's placeholder pass-blocking grade was a very solid 67.6, placing him 13th among projected starting left guards. Once again, rookie first-round guards have tended to play quite well, so the odds are fairly strong that Vera-Tucker will have a good 2021 season. Overall Finally, here is how the 32 units stack up when it comes to the average overall PFF grade amongst their five projected starters. Also shown is their ranking in run blocking and pass blocking. Whether the Fant-to-Moses upgrade is actually this substantial or if it is being oversold by PFF's grading system is a debate for another day, but at least according to this system, Moses elevates the Jets' offensive line to a whole new level. If you swapped Moses' 80.6 overall grade (6th-best among projected starting RTs) for Fant's 61.6 overall grade (would be 3rd-worst among projected starting RTs), the average overall grade of the Jets' starting five would decrease from 69.8 to 66.0, dropping them from 15th-best in the league to 21st. Last year, the Jets' offensive line was marginally better than the horrible units that preceded it from 2018-19, but it was still fairly poor overall. Now, the pieces are in place for the Jets' offensive line to finally start taking significant steps forward. This unit is about league average on paper and has the potential to be even better thanks to the upside of its two first-round picks and the possibility of a turnaround from McGovern. The Jets have the right man in place to maximize that potential. Offensive line coach John Benton has already proven that he is capable of turning around a downtrodden unit. Benton spent the last four years (2017-20) in San Francisco with Robert Saleh and Mike LaFleur. In 2016, the year prior to Benton's arrival, San Francisco's offensive linemen combined for an overall PFF grade of 63.8, which ranked 29th in the NFL. Under Benton's leadership over the next four years, San Francisco's offensive linemen combined for an overall PFF grade of 69.8, which ranked seventh-best in the NFL over that span. As a team, the 49ers ranked 27th in run blocking grade and 29th in pass blocking grade in 2016. Then, Benton comes along, and in his first season at the helm of the offensive line, they leaped to 6th and 14th in those two categories, respectively. Going into Benton's first season, San Francisco returned three of the same starters and added two new ones - just as the Jets will most likely be doing. If Benton can work the same magic in East Rutherford that he did in Santa Clara, the Jets will have a bright future offensively.