The 2009-10 New York Jets represent the best two-year run in the franchise’s history.
Not only is it the only time New York has ever won a playoff game in back-to-back seasons, but they won four of them, making up one-third of the franchise’s 12 all-time playoff victories. They also went 20-12 in the regular season while outscoring their opponents by 175 points.
While the 2008 squad failed to make the playoffs, that team was no slouch in its own right, finishing 9-7 with a +49 point differential despite Brett Favre’s late-season injury. That team set the table for the playoff magic that was to come.
Ultimately, the 2008-10 Jets represent one of the best three-year runs in franchise history. Their +224 point differential over that span is the second-best over three years in team history, trailing only the legendary Joe Namath-led teams from 1967-69 (+265).
The anchor of that success? A dominant offensive line.
New York’s 2008-10 offensive line is fondly remembered as not only the best unit in franchise history, but one of the NFL’s best units in recent history. It was overflowing with talent, augmented by a tenacious mentality under OL coach Bill Callahan.
These lines were anchored by center Nick Mangold and left tackle D’Brickashaw Ferguson, the Jets’ two first-round picks in the 2006 draft. By this point, they were entering their primes. Both players were 24 years old when the 2008 season kicked off.
Right guard Brandon Moore was the third core player under 30 years old. Discovered by the Jets as an undrafted free agent in 2002, Moore emerged as a yearly 16-game starter for eight consecutive seasons from 2005-12, earning one Pro Bowl trip along the way.
The Jets made substantial veteran additions at left guard and right tackle ahead of the 2008 season. They signed future Hall-of-Fame left guard Alan Faneca (age 32) to a five-year, $40 million deal, making him the NFL’s highest-paid offensive lineman at the time. New York also added former Pro Bowl right tackle Damien Woody (age 31), inking him to a five-year, $25.5 million deal.
From 2008-09, the Jets received a perfect 32 of 32 starts from this five-man unit:
- LT D’Brickashaw Ferguson
- LG Alan Faneca
- C Nick Mangold
- RG Brandon Moore
- RT Damien Woody
In 2010, the Jets released Faneca (who was entering his age-34 season) and replaced him with Matt Slauson, a sixth-round pick from 2009.
To anyone who tuned in for a Jets football game from 2008-10, the offensive line’s impact was palpable. New York recorded three top-10 finishes in rushing yards per game. That includes first and fourth-place finishes in 2009 and 2010, despite opponents honing in on that part of the offense due to Mark Sanchez’s struggles.
In the passing game, Favre and Sanchez consistently received cushy pockets that allowed them to pump-fake their way into explosive deep shots.
With gaudy talent on paper, tremendous durability, and excellent team-wide results in areas influenced by the offensive line, one cannot help but wonder: Is this unit among the greatest NFL offensive lines of the 21st century?
Let’s review the 2008-10 Jets offensive line’s individual metrics to find out.
2008-10 Jets Offensive Line Stats
Using data from Pro Football Focus, we can isolate the 2008-10 Jets in metrics that are more directly related to the offensive line than team-wide metrics like rushing yards.
Yards Before Contact
In the run game, one of the best metrics for evaluating the offensive line’s impact is yards before contact.
It is not a perfect metric for evaluating the offensive line. Running backs take some ownership for it as a product of their vision, while the coaches play a role through their ability to scheme up favorable blocking angles. Still, over a three-year sample, it likely correlates strongly with the offensive line’s true run-blocking impact.
And for the Jets, the numbers back up the eye test in this category.
From 2008-10, New York’s running backs combined for 2,598 rushing yards before contact, the most of any running back unit in the NFL. On a per-carry basis, they averaged 1.94 yards before contact, which placed third-best behind the Titans (1.98) and Chiefs (2.09).
It is worth noting, though, that Kansas City and Tennessee had two of the league’s all-time greatest breakaway runners in Jamaal Charles and Chris Johnson, respectively. Their home-run speed allowed their teams to rack up massive chunks of yardage to balloon the offensive line’s yards-before-contact totals. If Charles or Johnson received a crease to dart through at their own 10-yard line, they were going 90 yards untouched.
The Jets did not have a breakaway running back of this caliber; instead, they built their offense around power runners like Thomas Jones and Shonn Greene. LaDainian Tomlinson came along in 2010, but he was already 31 years old. With this running back unit, the Jets’ run game focused more on moving the chains and controlling the clock than amassing big plays, which is less conducive to yards-per-carry metrics.
Therefore, it is a testament to the Jets’ offensive line that the team’s running backs were only outdone in yards before contact per carry by two teams with legendary home-run hitters.
In fact, no team over this span relied more heavily on its offensive line to drive the run game. From 2008-10, the Jets’ running backs gained 43.4% of their total rushing yards on yards before contact, the highest rate in the NFL.
Based on the numbers, it is fair to say New York had the best run-blocking offensive line in the NFL from 2008-10.
Were they similarly successful in the passing game?
Pressure rate
For pass protection, we will simply look at pressure rate: the percentage of dropbacks in which the quarterback was pressured.
From 2008-10, the Jets’ quarterbacks were pressured on just 24.3% of their dropbacks, the lowest rate in the NFL.
Nobody in their stratosphere
Here is a scatter plot of how each team performed in yards before carry rate and pressure rate from 2008-10.
New York’s offensive line was in a class of its own. Not only did they lead the league in both categories, but none of their rivals in either category was nearly as effective in the other.
Teams like the Chiefs, Eagles, and Broncos were close behind in YBC rate, but none were close to the Jets in pressure rate. The Colts, Saints, and Patriots were excellent at minimizing pressure, but their offensive lines did not create nearly as much yardage before contact.
With sustained league-leading dominance in both phases of the game over a three-year span, the 2008-10 Jets offensive line is undoubtedly one of the best in recent NFL history.
If the 2025 Jets offensive line comes even remotely close to the production of that fabled unit, New York should be in for a fun season.