Regardless of who is playing quarterback for the New York Jets in 2025, they will need some protection.
NFL draft analyst Bucky Brooks helped add some more in his latest mock draft for the NFL Media Group. With the No. 7 overall pick, he predicted that the green and white would select LSU offensive lineman Will Campbell.
“Building up the trenches is a part of the Jets’ plan to compete with the AFC’s heavyweights. Campbell is a rock-solid offensive tackle prospect with the size, strength, and skill to dominate on the edges from Day 1,” Brooks wrote.
Campbell was the first OL off the board in Brooks’ simulation. The massive LSU hog molly is listed at 6-foot-6 and tips the scales at 323 pounds, per the LSU athletics website.
Campbell Could Be the Final Piece to the Jets O-Line Puzzle
The Jets’ offensive line is actually considered a strength for once heading into the offseason. Four of the five starters are under contract.
Olu Fashanu at left tackle, John Simpson at left guard, Joe Tippmann at center, and you have Alijah Vera-Tucker at right guard. The only question mark is who will be playing right tackle in 2025.
Morgan Moses was the starter for the majority of the year but he is scheduled to hit the open market of free agency in March.
Moses has expressed a desire to return, but a new regime is in charge with Aaron Glenn at head coach and Darren Mougey at general manager.
The Jets would provide themselves a lot more flexibility heading into the draft if they brought Moses back. For example, last season the Jets signed Tyron Smith in free agency to play left tackle. That provided the team flexibility on draft day to go with the best player available, which happened to be Fashanu.
This provided the Jets with the luxury to slowly develop Fashanu instead of just throwing him into the fire from day one. The Jets could employ the same strategy with Campbell by re-signing Moses.
Jets Would Be Adding Elite Player to the Trenches
NFL draft analyst Russell Brown of Fantasy Pros and Betting Pros also mocked Campbell to the Jets on “Boy Green Daily.”
“I know I said I haven’t graded everybody out [from this draft class], but Will Campbell is going to be one of the two or three best players on my board without question. This would be the player that I would select. I think he is a safe pick,” Brown explained to me. “I don’t know who the quarterback is going to be but if I’m them, I’m taking Will Campbell and that would be the guy. He is so consistent.
His stance is kind of sloppy – he looks like he just crawled out of bed but he is just so consistent with his post foot, his set foot, and he is able to create some separation there and keep guys at bay and keep them away from the quarterback. I love the way he strikes, I love the way he can climb, I think he can move in space. It’s a boring pick but we are talking about protecting your franchise.”
The Jets haven’t used a first-round pick in back-to-back years on an offensive lineman since 2020-2021. Gang Green took Mekhi Becton and Alijah Vera-Tucker in consecutive drafts.
In 2006 the Jets used both of their first-round draft choices that year on offensive linemen with Nick Mangold and D’Brickashaw Ferguson.
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