Olu Fashanu shined in his New York Jets debut, standing out as one of the team’s best players in its preseason opener against Washington.
Fashanu played left tackle in that game – the same position he has played for his entire football career. Following his impressive performance, the Jets began training Fashanu at right tackle during the following week’s practices. New York’s goal is to get Fashanu ready to back up both sides of the line in his rookie year.
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In the Jets’ second preseason game against Carolina, Fashanu started at right tackle and played the entire first half, logging 28 offensive snaps. It was his first-ever game action at the position.
How did he look? Let’s find out by watching every single one of his plays.
Olu Fashanu pass-blocking film vs. Panthers
Fashanu lines up at right tackle and wears No. 74.
Good rep from Fashanu as he absorbs the bull rush and anchors down with plenty of room between himself and the quarterback.
I included every single rep that Fashanu played, so some of them will not have anything worth evaluating, like this one. This pass is out before Fashanu even engages with a defender. Nothing-burger.
This is Fashanu’s worst rep of the preseason so far, but fret not; although we are early in the review, Fashanu did not have another rep like this in pass protection.
The rusher fires a long-arm move and lands his inside hand on Fashanu’s upper chest. He grabs Fashanu by the collar and tosses him aside. The issue for Fashanu is that he misfires on his two-hand punch. His right hand lands on the rusher’s chest, but his left hand whiffs outside of the rusher’s frame, which leaves Fashanu’s chest exposed to the long-arm move.
Chalk this one up as a loss that Fashanu can learn from.
Nothing-burger for Fashanu as the play rolls away from him. It’s a poor ball from Andrew Peasley on an easy fourth-down throw into the flat, although Braelon Allen still had a shot at it.
Fashanu initially shoots high but does a nice job of re-fitting his hands and getting control of the block. He gets shed late in the rep, but he had already held the rusher at bay for about three full seconds by that point, pushing the rusher multiple yards behind the QB.
The ball is out quickly, but Fashanu does a nice job of holding strong against this bull rush despite Isaiah Davis tripping over him.
Great rep from Fashanu as he absorbs the bull rush and then pushes the rusher up the arc once he tries converting into a rip move. It opens a big lane for Peasley to scramble through.
Another relatively meaningless play for Fashanu, although he appears to drop his man on the ground, which is always a good thing.
Not the best punch from Fashanu as he leans into it and misfires badly with his right hand, but he gets strong enough contact with his left to gain control of the rusher and prevent him from affecting the screen play.
Fashanu gets his hands swatted by the rusher, who turns the corner on Fashanu with a rip move. However, it’s a screen play going in the opposite direction, so it doesn’t affect the play. Fashanu likely played this a bit more aggressively knowing that it was a screen to the other side, so I wouldn’t get on him too much for this.
Fashanu’s hands come in wide, allowing the rusher to get both hands into Fashanu’s chest and create movement on the bull rush. The rusher spins off and nearly gets Peasley for the sack, but Peasley escapes just in time.
On a quick passing play, Fashanu does his job by influencing the rusher up the field, taking him out of the passing lane.
Good hand placement from Fashanu allows him to anchor down on this bull rush.
The rusher shoots his hands quickly, getting both hands into Fashanu’s chest before he can react. Fashanu’s hands land wide (on the shoulders), but he displays great strength to stifle the rusher’s momentum despite non-ideal hand placement.
Yet another screen play, but this time, Fashanu’s block does affect the play. This rusher has enough time to hit the QB if he can beat Fashanu, but Fashanu gets a clutch win to protect his QB and allow the play to transpire. Good hand placement with the right hand, as Fashanu hits the rusher in his chest and slows him down enough to prevent a hit.
Fashanu does a good job of picking up the stunt. Once he sees his man slowing up and turning his head inside, Fashanu knows the stunt is coming. Fashanu turns his head inside, where Chris Glaser is already passing off the defensive tackle (fantastic pass-off from Glaser, who drops the rusher right into Fashanu’s hands). Fashanu picks him up, grasps him by the shoulder pads, and shuts him down.
Overall, this was a solid pass-blocking performance from Fashanu, especially considering it was his first-ever action at right tackle. He was not quite as pristine as he was at left tackle against Washington, but that’s understandable and expected. Fashanu still played well, and with more time to develop at right tackle, he should only get better. Fashanu seems poised to be a solid swing tackle in pass protection this year.
Now, on to the run game, which was a bit shaky.
Olu Fashanu run-blocking film vs. Panthers
Fashanu gets stood up at the front side of this zone run, which has been a common theme throughout each of the first two preseason games. His man comes off the block and is in a good position to stuff the run for a loss. Isaiah Davis makes a great stiff arm to evade the defender’s tackle and get to the edge, but this isn’t ideal from Fashanu.
Nothing-burger for Fashanu, who is on the back side of this play and does not have much to do. For Davis, though, he shows more elusiveness as he jukes a defender out of his shoes.
Some good and bad from Fashanu on the back side of this zone play. He generates about 1.5 yards of vertical displacement while also creating plenty of horizontal movement down the line of scrimmage. There’s a cutback lane behind Fashanu; it’s not Fashanu’s fault that Davis runs into him.
However, Fashanu could have done a better job of getting in between his man and the sideline to prevent him from scraping down the line of scrimmage to make a play. Fashanu lets his defender cross his face.
Poor rep from Fashanu here. He initially creates some movement toward the inside, but since his hands are wide, the defender has his hands on Fashanu’s chest. This allows him to use Fashanu’s momentum against him by tossing him inside; this is called a “hump move.”
The defender gains outside leverage and is there to make the stop on Davis, but Fashanu holds him to prevent a tackle attempt. You cannot see the flag in this clip, but Fashanu was called for holding on this play.
Usually, when an offensive lineman is penalized, the main problem is not the penalty itself (i.e. a “lack of discipline”) but rather that the lineman was initially beaten, causing him to panic and therefore be penalized. In this case, an initial loss led to Fashanu’s penalty.
In this situation, you would prefer to see Fashanu admit defeat and let the defender go. While Fashanu lost outside leverage, there was enough room for Davis to potentially evade the tackle anyway despite Fashanu’s loss. Even if Davis were stuffed, that’s better than a 10-yard penalty.
It is easy for us to sit here and say Fashanu should not have held, but it is incredibly hard to avoid panicking in the heat of the moment there. The best way to avoid penalties is to avoid losing in the first place.
Better job on the front side from Fashanu on this zone play, as he creates some outward movement on the edge defender. However, Fashanu does get shed with a rip move. Luckily, Kenny Yeboah comes out from his fullback alignment to pick him up and create even more movement.
While it does not affect the play, I really like what Fashanu does on the back side. Fashanu initially gets out in front of the DT lined up over him, but then, he also picks up the LB who beat Chris Glaser back-door. Fashanu essentially seals two defenders to the back side. Nice work.
There we go, Olu! Teaming up with Glaser on the combo block (although Fashanu does most of the work), Fashanu drives the 3-tech nearly four yards off the line scrimmage. You can see that Fashanu has nice, tight hand placement between the defender’s shoulders, which gives him the leverage to generate maximum force. Fashanu can be powerful when his hands are placed correctly.
Poor job on the front-side edge defender. Fashanu leans into his block and is immediately shed with total ease, doing nothing to affect the defender.
There is some good here. I like how Fashanu gets low in his stance, and he even comes with low, tight hands that fire upward into the defender’s chest. Unfortunately, he is simply leaning way too far out in front, making it easy for the defender to evade him.
Pretty ho-hum rep on the front side. Not great, not bad.
Fashanu creates inside movement on the combo with Glaser as he blocks down on the 3-tech.
After that, Fashanu tries to peel off and find second-level work. His attention turns to the LB beside him, but Kohl Levao already has him taken care of (great block on the pull by Levao). Fashanu misses the back side LB scraping over the top, who is able to assist on the tackle. Fashanu may not have been in a position to get to him anyway, but I would’ve liked to see him recognize that.
Nonetheless, you like the initial movement that Fashanu helps create on this play.
Fashanu again leans on the front side and is immediately beaten, forcing Allen to cut back right away.
Fashanu gets stood up again. It doesn’t really matter on this play, but we’ll see how it can negatively affect a play in the next clip.
Yet again, Fashanu gets stood up on the front side of the zone play, and this time, his man sheds to make the stop.
Davis cannot cut the run back due to the unblocked defender behind him, so his only option is to take this run to the front-side edge. Fashanu’s lack of horizontal movement creates congestion that gives Davis nowhere to go.
Zone plays are designed to get everybody moving – both the blockers and the defenders – so running lanes can naturally develop, therefore giving the RB multiple options to choose from. If one of the linemen is locked in place, it clogs everything up, forcing the RB into a decision rather than giving him the opportunity to choose.
Fashanu must work on creating more movement as a front-side blocker on zone plays. While the Jets figure to increase their reliance on gap concepts this year, they will still call plenty of zone plays (likely around 50% of the time), so they are still evaluating their linemen’s zone-blocking capabilities, even if it will be slightly less important than in previous years.
Overall takeaways
As we discussed earlier, I thought things went well for Fashanu in pass protection. There were a couple of shaky reps – more than in his first game – but overall, he still played well, making it a tremendous outing when considering his total lack of experience at the position. He set a relatively high floor that puts him on a trajectory to become a solid pass-blocker at both tackle spots in 2024 once he gets more time to develop at right tackle.
The run game was a different story. While I would label Fashanu’s Week 1 run-blocking as a “mixed bag,” it’s fair to say that Fashanu’s run-blocking was “poor” in this one. He had a couple of nice blocks, but he was beaten very often, especially as a front-side blocker on zone plays. It’s in the run game where Fashanu has the most work to do – this is true at both tackle spots, but especially at right tackle.
Overall, I think Jets fans should be encouraged by Fashanu’s body of work over his first two preseason games. Fashanu’s main job in 2024 is to prove he is capable of protecting Aaron Rodgers’ blindside at a solid level for a handful of games if Tyron Smith or Morgan Moses go down. He appears ready to do that.
Fashanu’s run-blocking remains a work in progress, but we expected that based on his draft profile. It might take a year or two for Fashanu to develop into a solid player in that phase and become a complete all-around tackle.
But as it pertains to the 2024 Jets, Fashanu’s run-blocking is not of the utmost importance. The Jets have more than enough run-blocking talent and more than enough talent in the backfield to still run the ball at a high level if Fashanu is out there struggling as a run blocker. What matters more than anything for this football team is keeping Aaron Rodgers safe. And in that regard, Fashanu has looked like he is up to the task so far – at both left tackle and right tackle.
Going forward, I would certainly expect Fashanu to be more reliable at left tackle. Two preseason games will not be enough to match the years of experience he already has on the left side. However, his first start at right tackle suggested he’d still be a better backup option at right tackle than Max Mitchell or Carter Warren, and that is the barometer we should be using as it pertains to the “Olu at RT” discussion.
If the Jets are in a playoff game and Morgan Moses goes down, it would be a shame if they had to go to Mitchell or Warren instead of their talented first-round pick because he can only play left tackle. New York is trying to avoid that scenario, and Saturday was a good start, even if it was imperfect.
