How do the New York Jets’ OT draft targets stack up in each facet of offensive line play?
Jets X-Factor’s Joe Blewett has been hard at work on this year’s top draft prospects, thoroughly grinding the film of each player who has a chance to be drafted by the New York Jets in the first round.
With all of the work Blewett has done on the draft, we (as in the Cool Your Jets podcast duo) were curious to get his opinion on something: How would he rank the top offensive tackle prospects in five specific categories of offensive line play? Forget an overall ranking – let’s solely focus on how these guys stack up in important facets of the position.
On the latest episode of the Cool Your Jets podcast, Blewett ranked the Jets’ top offensive tackle targets in five specific categories of offensive line play: athleticism, anchor, hands in pass protection, drive in the run game, and mentality.
Here are Blewett’s rankings of the 2024 draft’s consensus top-five tackle prospects in the aforementioned five categories.
Athleticism
- Troy Fautanu
- JC Latham
- Olu Fashanu
- Joe Alt
- Taliese Fuaga
While Blewett ranked Fautanu as the best athlete of the bunch, he questioned whether Fautanu could maximize that athleticism at the next level.
“The thing with Fautanu is, yeah, he’s a great athlete, but I’m not sure how great his anchor is. And that’s part of your athleticism as well. He’s number one, but with an asterisk, because I really didn’t see as much in terms of power in his game that I necessarily wanted to.”
Anchor
- Latham
- Fuaga
- Fashanu
- Alt
- Fautanu
Blewett debated between Latham and Fuaga for the No. 1 spot here but ultimately decided on Latham, saying that while he thinks Fuaga “has the necessary power,” he doesn’t think he “gets as low” as Latham. Blewett emphasized there is a “very, very large gap” between Latham/Fuaga and the other three players.
Hands in pass protection
- Fashanu
- Latham
- Alt
- Fautanu
- Fuaga
Blewett specifically criticized Fuaga’s hand placement. “He really carries that outside hand pretty low. His hands really frequently land wide and then when he doesn’t have control of your chest and they move lateral, he has a really hard time with that redirect lateral ability.”
Drive in run game
- Latham
- Fuaga
- Fautanu
- Alt
- Fashanu
Blewett raved about Latham’s ability to drive defenders in the run game, saying he would be a great fit in the Jets’ transition to a power run scheme.
“Mauler. We’ve seen that in the run game. The dude is an absolute monster. He’s such a good fit for power [run schemes].”
Mindset
- Latham
- Fuaga
- Fautanu
- Alt
- Fashanu
Blewett grouped the top three players in this category together, saying Latham, Fuaga, and Fautanu all have “an elite aggressive mindset.” Between those three players and the bottom two, Blewett said he believes there is a “very, very massive gap.”
Speaking about Alt and Fashanu, Blewett said they “lack nasty.”
“They’re guys who, like, they’ll see guys go on the turf, and not that they’ll help them up, but they’re closer to helping them up than they are to burn their face in the turf, which really, really turns me off on prospects.”
Average
Here are the average rankings of the five prospects.
- 1. Latham (1.4)
- T2. Fuaga (3.2)
- T2. Fautanu (3.2)
- 4. Fashanu (3.4)
- 5. Alt (3.8)
Latham is far-and-away Blewett’s favorite tackle prospect in this draft. That will sound like a scorching hot take to many people out there. If you’re one of those people, just give Blewett’s Latham breakdown a watch and allow him to show you the evidence that led him to rank Latham as OT1.
