Eight games into the 2026 season, the much-anticipated New York Jets offensive line has been more of a roller-coaster ride than the brick wall that some believed it had the potential to be. At times, it has looked stellar, and at others, it has looked like the entrance to a subway station.
Amidst this first-half-ish stretch, though, two potential star-level building blocks have emerged for New York.
One of them is easy to identify: Right tackle Armand Membou, the seventh overall pick of the 2026 NFL draft. The other, though, probably isn’t who you’re thinking. It isn’t the freshly extended Joe Tippmann, although the right guard has been mostly solid. It also isn’t former first-round left tackle Olu Fashanu, who is still working on his consistency.
Rather, it’s left guard Dylan Parham.
New York’s overlooked free-agent pickup has been playing like a game-changing piece up front, joining Membou and Tippmann among the unit’s surefire long-term solutions.
Parham, Membou anchor Jets offensive line
Let’s start with Membou, who entered 2026 with high expectations after playing like an above-average starting right tackle as a 21-year-old rookie.
Membou got off to a shaky start through three games, but over the last five weeks, he has looked every bit like the up-and-coming star he was expected to be. From Weeks 4-8, Membou earned an 81.2 overall grade at Pro Football Focus, ranking first among NFL right tackles. The film backs it up, as Membou has been a stalwart in pass protection while paving the road for plenty of big Braelon Allen runs.
Parham, though, is the unit’s most surprising standout.
Signed to a two-year, $16 million deal, the former Raider was expected to be a middle-of-the-road starter for the Jets, but he has vastly exceeded that level of play, a jump that is not completely shocking to those who closely analyzed Parham’s play in Las Vegas. His deeper analytics with the Raiders suggested that a jump in production was possible.
In four starts with the Jets, Parham has registered an overall grade of 87.9 at PFF. It leads left guards and ranks second among all guards, trailing only perennial All-Pro Chris Lindstrom of the Falcons.
Parham got off to a red-hot start through two-and-a-half games before a knee injury in Week 3 landed him on the sidelines for four games. He returned in Week 8 and picked up right where he left off, contributing to the Jets’ strong offensive outing against the Raiders.
If you don’t buy into PFF grades or think that Parham’s supposed leap to elite status is a bit far-fetched, just take a look at his impact on the offensive line’s performance. With Parham healthy, the offensive line has looked tremendous, but with him sidelined—and his absence being the only change to the lineup—the unit has struggled mightily.
This applies to both phases. We’ll start with the run game, where the Parham-anchored units have generated plenty of space to run, while the units with Jordan Meredith in place of Parham have forced Braelon Allen to essentially do everything on his own.
In four games with Parham on the field, New York’s running backs have gained 173 yards before contact on 96 carries, an average of 1.8 yards before contact per carry. That’s an elite mark; the 2026 NFL average for running backs is 1.15, and over the course of the first eight weeks, 1.8 would rank third in the league, trailing the Rams (1.87) and Bills (2.13).
Compare that to the Jets’ four games without Parham: the running backs gained 63 yards before contact on 82 carries, a paltry 0.77 yards before contact per carry. Not only is that well below half of their average with Parham, but it would rank 28th among NFL teams this season, between the Saints and Raiders.
In those four games without Parham, Allen gained a whopping 84.7% of his yards after contact. In four games with him, Allen’s job was much easier, with just 50.5% of his yards coming after contact.
Parham’s presence has aided the Jets’ pass protection, too. Geno Smith was pressured on 38.7% of his dropbacks over his four games without Parham, compared to 33.1% in four games with Parham. Those numbers would rank 13th-highest and 24th-highest, respectively, out of 35 qualified quarterbacks this season.
Even more impressive is that the drop in pressure rate occurred alongside Smith holding the ball longer. Without Parham, Smith averaged 2.93 seconds to throw, but with Parham, that number jumps to 3.03. If a quarterback is taking pressure on a lower percentage of his dropbacks despite holding the ball longer, it’s an indicator of much better pass protection.
Ultimately, the Jets’ entire offense has played its best football with Parham on the field. On snaps without Parham, the Jets are averaging -0.014 EPA per play, which would rank 21st between the Steelers and Broncos. On snaps with Parham on the field, they are averaging 0.074 EPA per play, which would rank eighth between the Chiefs and Bears.
These splits aren’t anything new for Parham, who made a similar impact for the Raiders last year. Las Vegas averaged 0.248 more EPA (Expected Points Added) per play with Parham on the field (-0.154) than when he was off (-0.402), representing the second-largest disparity in the NFL among guards who had at least 150 snaps both on and off the field.
When the Jets signed Parham to a two-year, $16 million deal in March, his advanced metrics instantly painted the picture of a player who could go down as a massive free-agent steal. So far, he’s lived up to that billing. While he only has a four-game sample so far, the four games with him off the field did a lot to show the impact of his presence on the Jets’ offensive line.
Parham needs to keep this going before any statues of Darren Mougey are commissioned, but as we approach the halfway point of the 2026 season, this looks like an example of an excellent process leading to an excellent result. The Jets’ front office and scouting staff identified a player whose resume suggested that his potential impact could far exceed his market value, and things are panning out as hoped.
