Jets offensive tackle Duane Brown is eligible to return from injured reserve this week. The Jets will have to decide how they want to configure offensive line when he is eventually activated. Head coach Robert Saleh didn’t tip his hand yesterday as to what the team plans to do.
While we don’t know exactly what they will do yet, there’s an idea of what they should do and it doesn’t take much thinking at all: keep the status quo.
Ever since Mekhi Becton moved back to left tackle following Brown’s placement on injured reserve, Becton has been very comfortable and has finally been able to stay healthy and show why the Jets took him with the 11th overall pick in the 2020 draft. Remember that the Jets declined to pick up his fifth-year option. Understandably so as Becton had played one game in the past two seasons due to knee injuries.
But now Becton is playing much better and there is no reason to fix what isn’t broke. Same goes for the rest of the offensive line. The only change you could maybe consider would be putting Brown at right tackle, in place of Max Mitchell. But Brown has never played right tackle and it’s hard to imagine he would be willing to do so at 38 years old.
Brown can give the Jets extra backup along the offensive line, but the Jets would be doing themselves a ton of disservice by putting Brown back in the starting lineup and ruining all of the momentum they have built up over the past few weeks.