The New York Jets had two in-house options to fill their hole at left guard: John Simpson and Alijah Vera-Tucker.
They chose to allow both to walk in free agency, leaving them to explore outside additions at the position.
Not only did they find a quality replacement who is arguably a better value than either player, but he might be the Jets’ best value signing of free agency so far.
Jets’ Parham signing vindicates Simpson and AVT calls
On Wednesday, the Jets agreed to a deal with former Las Vegas Raiders left guard Dylan Parham. It’s a two-year, $16 million contract worth up to $20 million, with only $7.5 million guaranteed.
Comparatively, Simpson joined the Ravens on a three-year, $30 million contract (the guarantees have yet to be reported), while Vera-Tucker joined the Patriots on a three-year, $42 million contract with $21 million guaranteed.
The value of Parham’s contract blows both of those deals out of the water.
Simply put, Parham projects as a better player than Simpson moving forward. In Pro Football Focus’ rankings, Parham ranked 14th among left guards (min. 500 snaps), while Simpson ranked 20th. That’s with Parham (26) being two years younger than Simpson (28). It is a steal for the Jets to land Parham on a contract that presumably has around half the guaranteed money.
Vera-Tucker is clearly the most talented of the three players. He was a first-round pick in 2021 and has played up to that level when healthy; most recently, Vera-Tucker finished as PFF’s seventh-ranked right guard in 2024.
However, given that Vera-Tucker has played in just 27 of 68 possible games over the last four seasons, New England is taking a major gamble by committing such a lofty guaranteed total to Vera-Tucker over three years. Meanwhile, Parham has a great track record of durability, playing in 64 of 68 possible games since he was drafted in 2022.
Considering the combination of talent, age, and durability, Parham’s two-year, $16 million contract has a strong case as the best of the three. It goes down as another victory for Jets general manager Darren Mougey in the value department.
The next step for Mougey is to watch his team translate on-paper value to victories, something that did not happen in 2025 despite Mougey earning similar praise for his ability to find value in free agency, trades, and the draft.
The good news? Parham is a piece who can help make that happen.
New York’s Parham signing is not just appealing because of the dollars and cents. The man is a flat-out football player who can help flip losses to wins on Sundays.
Dylan Parham can change the Jets’ offense
While the Jets’ offensive line was New York’s most competent offensive or defensive unit in 2025, it was still far from great. According to PFF’s rankings, the Jets finished 17th in team-wide pass-blocking grade and 12th in team-wide run-blocking grade.
Those are decent numbers, especially for a team with three of its five starters under 25 years old. The Jets should be expected to trend up.
However, the middling nature of the Jets’ blocking rankings points to the fact that their line did have some holes in it.
The young trio of left tackle Olu Fashanu, right guard Joe Tippmann, and right tackle Armand Membou anchored the line. These three players should only get even better in 2026. However, the veterans of the group, left guard John Simpson and center Josh Myers, were the weak links who got in the way of New York leaping from good to great.
Simpson was PFF’s 20th-ranked left guard out of 31 qualifiers (min. 500 snaps). Myers was the 29th-ranked center out of 31 qualifiers.
The Jets still have work to do at center. In the meantime, though, Parham offers an instant upgrade over Simpson at left guard, and on a cheaper contract, to boot. That discount opens up extra resources that can be allocated to the center position.
Not to mention, Parham is two years younger than Simpson with two fewer years of NFL experience, which places Parham on a more promising trajectory going into the 2026 season.
A third-round talent in the 2022 draft, Parham was thrown directly into the fire by Las Vegas, starting 34 games over his first two seasons. He underwent the typical growing pains of a young lineman.
But since the 2024 season, Parham has leaped into plus-starter territory. Playing right guard in 2024, Parham finished as PFF’s No. 10 right guard (min. 500 snaps). Switching sides in 2025, Parham ranked as PFF’s 14th-best left guard.
That’s back-to-back seasons of above-average play from a third-round talent who is only entering his fifth NFL season. There is a good chance that Parham’s best days are ahead of him.
Further building the case for Parham’s future leap is the context of where he was playing. Parham produced his above-average rankings within a horrible situation in Las Vegas.
In 2025, Parham was the lone bright spot on the Raiders’ offensive line. Of the five Las Vegas offensive linemen who played at least 500 snaps, Parham was the only one who finished in the top 16 players at his position, per PFF’s rankings.
It is extremely impressive for a young lineman to stand out amidst a situation like that. Offensive linemen work hand-in-hand more closely than any other pairs of teammates on the football field. Playing alongside struggling teammates can drag a lineman down, while playing alongside excellent teammates can prop a lineman up.
Parham’s above-average production within Las Vegas’ carousel of weak linemen is a testament to his difference-making ability. Upon joining a Jets offensive line that will surround him with much better talent than what he played with in the desert, Parham’s production could skyrocket to all-new levels.
What Parham brings to the table
Parham displayed excellent athleticism coming out of Memphis in the 2022 draft.
Weighing 311 pounds at the time, Parham ran the forty in a remarkable 4.93 seconds, highlighted by an absurd 1.66 ten-yard split. For context, that’s a measly four-hundredths of a second slower than what 251-pound Texas Tech edge rusher David Bailey ran at this year’s combine (1.62).
Parham now weighs 332 pounds, a gain that has helped him curb concerns about his mass that followed him entering the league. Despite the 21-pound gain since he blazed through Indianapolis in 2022, Parham’s movement skills continue to pop off the tape.
Parham stands out as an athletic run blocker. He is quick out of his stance, has smooth hips, and is nimble in space. These traits help him excel on reach blocks; he consistently shows the ability to cross a defender’s face and flip his hips to seal the defender out of the lane.
All of these things are displayed in the following reel of run blocks from Parham’s 2025 season.
Parham is not the nastiest lineman you will ever watch, but he will eagerly finish a play to the ground if he has the opportunity, as shown a couple of times in the reel above.
Run blocking has been the strength of Parham’s game over the last two seasons. In 2024, he ranked as PFF’s eighth-best run-blocker at right guard with a 75.6 grade, slotting him just one spot behind Vera-Tucker. In 2025, his run-blocking grade dropped to 63.1, but that was still good enough for 15th among left guards.
As a pass blocker, Parham has room to improve, although he is competent. In 2024, he placed 14th in PFF’s pass-blocking grade among right guards (67.5), and in 2025, he ranked 18th among left guards (62.3).
An underrated positive in Parham’s game is his cleanliness in the penalty department. Over the last two seasons, he committed just eight penalties over 30 starts. One of those was for being an ineligible man downfield on a play where the ball should have been out faster.
Take that one out, and Parham has committed only seven penalties on 1,725 offensive snaps over the past two years. That’s an average of 4.1 penalties per 1,000 snaps, significantly less frequent than the 2025 league average for guards (6.1). Compare that to Simpson, who committed a whopping 10 penalties on 1,014 snaps for the Jets this past season (this total excludes one ineligible man downfield flag).
Overall, in Parham, the Jets nabbed a starting left guard for cheaper than Simpson and Vera-Tucker, despite him being younger and (arguably) better than Simpson and far more reliable than Vera-Tucker. New York can comfortably expect to get 15-to-17 starts of above-average play at left guard, which would be a strong value for Parham’s price tag, especially relative to the alternatives.
However, given Parham’s age, upward trajectory, and the fact that he is about to play in a far better unit than the one he hails from, his contract could go down as an even better value than it already is. Top-10 play at left guard is not far out of reach for the 26-year-old.
If the Jets end up getting a top-10 left guard in his prime for a two-year, $16 million deal, it will be one of the NFL’s best free agent steals of 2026.
