FLORHAM PARK, N.J. (AP) — Morgan Moses was back and he couldn’t help but dance a little to celebrate.
The veteran right tackle practiced Friday for the first time in training camp — marking the first time the New York Jets had all five of their projected starting offensive line on the field together this summer.
“Being able to go out there today and just run around with the guys and feel like you’re 10 years old again playing football,” Moses said with a big smile, “man, it just felt fantastic.”
Moses was the final piece of the Jets’ revamped O-line to practice in team drills after having offseason surgery to repair a torn pectoral with which he played most of last season with Baltimore.
He joined center Joe Tippmann, left tackle Tyron Smith and guards Alijah Vera-Tucker and John Simpson as the starting linemen charged with helping protect quarterback Aaron Rodgers and making the offense run.
“Yeah, it’s been a long road for him trying to get back from that pec,” coach Robert Saleh said. “Excited to get him back.”
Moses’ snaps will be monitored early on, as they were Friday when he didn’t participate in all of the 11-on-11 drills. But getting to this point was a huge step forward for the 33-year-old lineman who’s in his second stint with the Jets after previously playing for them in 2021.
“I feel fantastic, man,” Moses said. “Like I told somebody today, I said, look, man, it doesn’t matter how old you are, it doesn’t matter how many years you’ve been in the league, you still get pregame jitters. So Tyron helped me out today a little bit. He looked at me and said, ‘Hey, just run off the ball.’ And I said, ‘Hey, you right.’
“And then after that, things just started happening.”
While a lot of the focus heading into the season is on the 40-year-old Rodgers, wide receiver Garrett Wilson, running back Breece Hall and the Jets’ solid defense, New York’s offensive line is just as important a factor.
“Everybody in that room wants to win and wants to do it at a high level, too,” Vera-Tucker said. “We all have big expectations, not only for ourselves but for each other. And I think that’s the difference between the last three years I’ve been here. So I’m really excited about this group, man. And given that we’re all healthy, it should be a great one.”
The Jets had a lot of turmoil and turnover with their big men up front on offense the last few seasons. Last year, New York used 13 line combinations in 17 games with 14 players taking turns as starters because of injuries or poor play. From Weeks 5 through 16, there was a different starting five each week.
“I think we all know from what we experienced in the past is that any combination could be out there at any time,” offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett said.
With the line in constant flux and Rodgers out for the season with a torn Achilles tendon, the offense struggled mightily last season. One of general manager Joe Douglas’ top missions in the offseason was to upgrade the O-line.
He acquired Moses from Baltimore, and signed Smith and Simpson as free agents to join holdovers in Tippmann and Vera-Tucker, who also missed much of last season with a torn Achilles tendon. The Jets also drafted Olu Fashanu in the first round, hoping he could sit behind Smith for at least this season and be a primary backup.
Now that Moses is back, the starters will have a chance to practice together with more than a month remaining before the regular-season opener at San Francisco on Sept. 9.
“It’s always beneficial,” Saleh said of having all five starters healthy. “At the same time, the league is chaotic, right? So the odds of us playing with the same five all season are slim to none, so it’s good for them to work with one another and different combinations, as long as we maintain our communication.
“But, to get our Week 1 group out there as quick as possible so they can jell, that definitely can be beneficial.”
NOTES: CB Sauce Gardner was excused from practice for what Saleh said was personal reasons. Gardner posted Thursday on the social platform X that he was at a funeral for a friend. … Saleh acknowledged he was a bit surprised RB Tarik Cohen retired Thursday because “he still has a lot of juice left.” The coach didn’t go into details on what went into Cohen’s decision. “I’ll leave that for him,” Saleh said. “But tremendous person, but I’ll leave it for him.”
