Jets Land 8-Year NFL Veteran, New OL Protection for Aaron Rodgers

Heavy on Jets

It’s another family reunion for the New York Jets this season.

Gang Green announced on social media that they claimed eight-year NFL veteran offensive lineman Connor McGovern off of waivers. He was cut this week by the New Orleans Saints after appearing in six games and making five starts.

This provides some additional protection for veteran quarterback Aaron Rodgers.

Some Much Needed Depth Returns to the Jets Trenches

McGovern originally joined the Jets back in 2020 on a three-year deal for $27 million. During that initial run, McGovern started in 55 of 57 games at the center position. After his contract expired, the green and white allowed him to become an unrestricted free agent.

Months went by with no action but just ahead of the 2023 NFL draft, the Jets re-signed him and then selected Joe Tippmann.

In that fourth season (2023), he started seven games before being lost for the season due to injury. Tippmann took over and the rest is history.

McGovern strongly considered retirement this offseason, but the opportunity to return to the Jets midseason got him off the couch.

He signed to the Jets’ practice squad in September. A month later the Saints signed him off of the practice squad to the active roster in October because of injury issues. Now McGovern has returned to the Jets again.

McGovern doesn’t have a clear path to a starting gig but he will provide invaluable depth and experience. McGovern has experience at both center and right guard if the Jets have more injury issues.

Jets Got to Get Better at Protecting Rodgers

According to Fantasy Pros, Rodgers has been knocked down 38 times this season, the third-most in the NFL. Teams are trying to get after him, and he has been blitzed 102 times through the first 10 games, the second-highest figure in the league.

The Jets aren’t protecting Rodgers which is limiting what they can do on offense. They aren’t taking shots down the field which is allowing defenses to hover around the line of scrimmage and all they have to do is tackle. If they do that this Jets’ offense, which is averaging five yards per offensive play this season (No. 22 in the NFL), doesn’t move very far.

Fans want the Jets offense to take shots, to be able to do that, they have to hold up in protection.

“We would like to take more shots as an offense. On Sunday we ran into some protection stuff early on there that got us out of some of the downfield stuff shots and play action shots. We got to be committed to it, we gotta be better [in] protection, and we gotta execute when we do protect and we get it blocked up right,” interim Jets head coach Jeff Ulbrich explained on Wednesday, November 13.

In Week 10 against the Arizona Cardinals, Rodgers completed only one pass that traveled more than 10 yards in the air, per ESPN’s Rich Cimini.

“His 4.3 yards per attempt was his worst mark in any start with multiple pass attempts since 2019; it was the fourth lowest of his career. His longest completion went for only 15 yards, a dump-off to running back Breece Hall. This was one of only four games this season where a team had no plays of least 16 yards,” Cimini revealed.