Offensive line depth was among the New York Jets’ many needs entering the 2025 free agency period. Their right tackle spot was vacant due to Morgan Moses’ contract expiration, while their interior depth was severely thin.
Before free agency, a reunion between Moses and the Jets seemed plausible. However, Moses bolted to the New England Patriots on the first day of free agency, and the Jets’ need for offensive line depth became even greater.
New York addressed the interior depth in a solid way by signing former Packers starter Josh Myers to an affordable one-year, $3.5 million deal. However, their lone addition at tackle leaves much to be desired.
The Jets signed former Patriots tackle Chukuma Okorafor on Wednesday. While the move has already been officially announced by the team, the terms of the contract are yet to be reported.
Unless the Jets make another move, Okorafor currently projects to fill the role Moses would have held if he were re-signed. That would be a veteran stopgap right tackle who might be asked to start but does not cripple the Jets’ long-term cap or prevent them from drafting a potential upgrade.
This is not promising news for Jets fans. They had better hope another move is in store, because if Okorafor is the team’s plan for the stopgap right tackle role, it is troubling.
Let’s make one thing clear: the bar for a stopgap/backup tackle is not high. It is unrealistic to expect anything more than decent play out of someone in this role; if they were any good, they would be making more money. Nobody is asking the Jets to sign a “stud” here. Yet, Okorafor does not meet this low bar. His 2024 season was nothing short of embarrassing.
Okorafor started the Patriots’ season opener at left tackle. After getting beaten on five consecutive pass-block reps within New England’s first six dropbacks – and displaying putrid effort while doing so – Okorafor was benched in the middle of a first-quarter drive.
After the game, Okorafor informed the Patriots he was leaving the team. This landed him on the exempt/left squad list. Since he did not return to the team within five days, he was moved to the reserve/left squad list, which prevented him from playing again in the 2024 season.
A player could hardly have a worse season than that. Nonetheless, it is just one season. If his full body of work is strong enough, he could still be valuable to an NFL team. Maybe Okorafor has more to offer than his one quarter in New England suggests.
However, this was the second consecutive season in which Okorafor was benched for poor play.
A third-round pick of the Steelers in 2018, Okorafor emerged as Pittsburgh’s starting right tackle in 2020. He held the job down until he was benched following Week 8 of the 2023 season. After committing at least one penalty in six of his first seven starts – tying for the third-most penalties among right tackles over that span (7) – Okorafor was replaced by rookie Broderick Jones, whom the Steelers drafted in the first round to replace Okorafor.
Okorafor’s overall body of work is not exactly horrendous, but it is not what teams should aim for, even among veteran stopgaps. For his career, Okorafor’s composite offensive grade at Pro Football Focus (weighted for snaps) is 59.9. To put that into perspective, it would have ranked 55th out of 67 qualified tackles in the 2024 season. There is no exciting peak to be reclaimed, either, as his career-high grade is 62.2.
Perhaps you can argue that this is an adequate level of production for a player in the role New York is looking to fill. However, the element of Okorafor quitting on his team drags his value down even further below his actual on-field play. Not to mention, there are many free agent tackles remaining on the market who offer a more reliable body of work than Okorafor without entering into starter-tier money, including Jedrick Wills, George Fant, Kendall Lamm, D.J. Humphries, and Joe Noteboom, among others.
As with any contract, the terms will be crucial in judging this deal. If the Jets gave Okorafor anything close to what Moses earned (three years, $24 million), it is a gross overpay. If his contract is a one-year deal at a low cost, similar to Josh Myers, it is passable.
But the Jets should not stop at Okorafor as they solidify their offensive line depth prior to the draft. While he is experienced and decent enough to have on your roster as a backup, he is currently positioned to start for the Jets in Week 1 if nothing else changes. Okorafor should be viewed as an OT4 at best after what he did over the last two seasons, especially 2024. Sticking with him as your placeholder at right tackle is alarmingly complacent, even for a “retooling” team like New York that is trying to be economical and maintain long-term flexibility.
The offensive line is the one position group you can never afford to skimp on, even when you are not looking to compete for a championship. Its strength is essential for evaluating the rest of the offense, especially the quarterback position, where the Jets invested a lofty chunk of guaranteed money into a dice roll on Justin Fields. Settling for a mediocre player who was benched in back-to-back seasons and quit on his team last year is never the way to go about things.
New York could upgrade its tackle position in the draft, but you never know how the board is going to fall. It is unwise to leave a roster hole unaddressed and rely on the draft to fill it. While it might be easy for fans to make a shopping list and check off every box in a mock draft, the real draft does not work that way. Reaching for needs is the path to building a roster with depleted overall talent.
Darren Mougey should take the Jets’ tackle position a little more seriously before the draft. If he stops here, the Jets’ offensive line will be walking on thin ice, putting Fields’ breakout chances – however slim they already are – in jeopardy.
