The Houston Texans already stole one former New York Jets player this week, could they dive right back into those waters?
That was the suggestion that was made by Alex Ballentine of Bleacher Report in a column posted on Monday, December 4.
He urged the Texans to steal former Pro Bowl offensive lineman Rodger Saffold off of the Jets practice squad.
“The Texans were dealt yet another blow to their offensive line depth last week when Tytus Howard went down with a knee injury that put him on the injured reserve for the second time this season. With his year over, the Texans have even less depth on the offensive line than they did before,” Ballentine explained.
“Rodger Saffold is no longer as good as he once was at 35 years old, but he’s an experienced vet who started 16 games last season and is just sitting on the Jets practice squad.”
There are no longer practice squad protections in the NFL. Any player at any time can be scooped up off of another team’s practice squad as long as they bring said player onto the 53-man roster.
Jets Aren’t Using Saffold in 2023
Saffold, 35, signed a deal with the Jets back on October 31 ahead of the NFL trade deadline.
However, he has remained on the practice squad and hasn’t been promoted to the 53-man roster.
The Jets coaching staff said they needed to get Saffold into football shape. The former two-time Pro Bowler had been on the couch before joining the green and white.
Saffold was most recently with the Buffalo Bills during the 2022 season, but he didn’t re-sign with them this past offseason.
The Jets have dealt with an unbelievable amount of offensive line injuries this season. Head coach Robert Saleh said he didn’t have words to describe the level of volatility when speaking with the media on Friday, December 8.
Ahead of the Week 14 matchup against the Texans, the Jets will be experiencing even more musical chairs on the offensive line.
Starting right guard Wes Schweitzer was ruled out by Saleh for this game. Rich Cimini of ESPN said that means the Jets will trot out a different starting unit for, “The 9th straight game.”
Gang Green has had three different left tackle starters, two different center starters, six different right guard starters, and five different right tackle starters so far this season, per Cimini. There is still five games left in the season.
Jets Are Preparing to Look in Mirror vs. Texans on Sunday
Week 14 is going to be very odd for the Jets.
New York will host the Texans in a game featuring two head coaches who both came from the San Francisco 49ers.
Saleh and DeMeco Ryans share the same defensive scheme from their days with San Francisco.
Saleh joking with the media said it’ll be like that “Spider-Man meme.”
“There’s a lot of similarities: language, signals, calls, technique, rules, all of it is damn near the same,” Saleh explained.
The Texans opened as a 6-point favorite over the Jets, but the line has shrunk to 3.5.
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Texans Urged to Steal Ex-Pro Bowl Veteran Away From Jets