To the surprise of nobody who watched their preseason games closely, the New York Jets made a cutdown-day move to bolster their flimsy depth along the interior offensive line.

New York swapped a 2027 sixth-round pick for a 2029 seventh-round pick to acquire center/guard Jordan Meredith from the Las Vegas Raiders.

Who are the Jets getting in Meredith? Is he a quality pickup for the team’s backup offensive line?

Let’s dig into Meredith’s player profile.

Build/Athleticism

Listed at 6-foot-2 and 301 pounds, Meredith is on the smaller side for a center. He also has short arms at 31 inches.

However, Meredith is an excellent athlete for the position. Boasting a 5.08 forty-yard dash time, a 32-inch vertical jump, and a 109-inch broad jump, Meredith earned a 9.36 Relative Athletic Score coming out of Kentucky in 2021.

Entering the draft, scouts praised Meredith for his quickness and movement skills, lining up with his athletic testing. His NFL.com scouting report includes the following strengths: “Gets out of his stance quickly on skip pulls,” “Patient on the move, staying within himself,” and “Foot quickness to mirror.”

The negatives in Meredith’s game concerned his frame and strength, which also correlate with his undersized billing. Weaknesses listed on his scouting report include: “Not much steam behind his pads into first contact,” “Pad level limits leverage as drive blocker,” and “Below-average range in pass protection.”

NFL career: Bright flashes as a backup guard, struggles at center

Meredith signed with the Los Angeles Rams as an undrafted free agent in 2021. He was released as part of final cuts and did not land on a roster.

In February 2022, Meredith signed with the Las Vegas Raiders and made the team’s practice squad. He played one game in the regular season.

In 2023, Meredith made the Raiders’ roster and established himself as a backup guard and special teams player (field goal protection). He played in all 17 games, starting once, and totaling 93 offensive snaps.

Still serving as a backup guard, the 2024 season called for Meredith to play extended action at both guard spots. He started eight games and finished the season with 574 offensive snaps, including 365 at left guard and 209 at right guard.

Out of nowhere, Meredith emerged as one of the league’s most effective guards of the 2024 season, at least statistically. According to Pro Football Focus’ grading system, Meredith’s 80.8 overall grade ranked sixth-best among guards with at least 500 snaps, one spot behind Quenton Nelson.

Meredith was a stalwart in pass protection. Over 399 pass-blocking snaps, he allowed no sacks, one hit, and eight hurries (9 total pressures). His 2.3% allowed pressure rate was the third-best mark among qualified guards, trailing only Brock Hoffman and Quinn Meinerz.

He also earned a 78.4 grade for his run blocking, while he was decent in the penalty department, being called for three flags across his 574 snaps.

In 2025, Meredith earned the Raiders’ starting center job going into the regular season. He started the team’s first 11 games, but struggled mightily in the new role, especially in pass protection.

Meredith’s 48.3 pass-blocking grade was the second-worst among qualified centers (min. 500 snaps). On 439 pass-blocking snaps, he yielded four sacks, two hits, and 14 hurries (20 total pressures).

As a run blocker, Meredith earned a mediocre 61.2 grade, placing 24th out of 34 qualifiers. He committed four penalties on 676 offensive snaps.

Meredith’s 57.7 overall grade ranked 29th out of 34 centers. For what it’s worth, that’s four spots ahead of Jets starter Josh Myers (52.9).

After suffering an ankle injury, Meredith was shut down for the rest of the season.

Lining up with his college film, Meredith’s best attribute with the Raiders seemed to be his work as a zone blocker on the move. Meanwhile, his size, length, and strength were limitations.

Matt Holder of Sliver And Black Pride wrote of Meredith in June, “He isn’t very big, long or strong, which makes him more reliant on positioning and technique in the trenches. But the four-year veteran is quick and a good zone-run blocker to help fit into Klint Kubiak’s offense and give him a chance to win a job.”

Going into 2026, Meredith was part of a roster crunch in Las Vegas due to the team’s significant investments in the interior of the offensive line. The Raiders signed center Tyler Linderbaum to a massive free-agent contract and also drafted Trey Zuhn III in the third round. They also have Caleb Rogers, a third-round pick from 2025. With Zuhn and Rogers both slated to be primary backups, Meredith was looking at being the third interior backup at best.

Jets outlook and role

Meredith will immediately walk into Florham Park as the most reliable backup interior offensive lineman on the team, simply because of his massive advantage in experience. He has four times as many career starts (20) as the rest of the Jets’ backup interior linemen had combined (5, all from Xavier Newman, who was released).

The Jets will happily slide Meredith into a key backup role on their depth chart solely due to his experience, but he also brings intriguing upside to the table. His production as a guard in 2024 should not be overlooked. Over an eight-start sample, while rotating between both sides of the line, he put up some of the NFL’s best numbers at his position, especially in pass protection.

Meredith can be expected to provide insurance at both guard and center, but based on his numbers over the past two seasons, it seems clear that he is more reliable at guard. With sixth-round rookie Anez Cooper battling a shoulder injury (with an unknown timeline for a return), Meredith will likely immediately slide into the Jets’ No. 1 backup spot at guard. If Joe Tippmann or Dylan Parham goes down, Meredith will be the next man up.

The question is whether the Jets also see Meredith as their top backup at center. Before his release, Xavier Newman was set to be among the weakest projected backup centers in the NFL. So, the bar to clear is not very high, but Meredith did struggle as a starting center in 2025, especially as a pass-blocker, which is what matters most for a team with Geno Smith under center, a veteran pocket-passer who still thrives in a clean pocket but will struggle if pressured.

With Newman gone, the Jets may still add another center, while allowing Meredith to focus on guard.

Another possibility is that if Josh Myers goes down, the Jets could slide Tippmann to center and insert Meredith at guard, rather than forcing Meredith to play his position of weakness. Without Meredith, that wasn’t much of an option, given the Jets’ lack of appealing options to replace Tippmann at right guard, but Meredith affords them that route.

For a measly late-round pick swap, Meredith is certainly a worthwhile addition to the Jets’ second-string offensive line.