The New York Jets enter Sunday at 2-4 with their season hanging by a thread, and the meeting with the 0-5 Miami Dolphins gives them a chance to stop the slide before it gets much worse.
If there’s one unit that should see this as an opportunity, it’s the Jets offensive line. The group opened the year with a strong Week 1, then spent the next few weeks searching for any kind of steady rhythm. Sunday may not be easy, but it does set up as a game where the line can do more than it has lately.
Miami’s defense has been ugly in the standings, but the run defense has been one of the better parts of the unit so far. The Dolphins are sitting at a league-worst -62-point differential, yet they rank fourth in defensive EPA per rush at -0.16. That makes life tricky for New York on the ground, even with the Jets having found some success rushing the ball over the past few weeks after a slow start.
The bigger issue has been pass protection. It has lagged behind the run blocking and, at times, has been flat-out damaging.
From Weeks 2-6, Geno Smith has been sacked 19 times, the most in the league. Smith has to own some of that, but the line has also left him exposed far too often.
His three sacks in under 2.5 seconds are also the most in the NFL, a sign that the Jets have been beaten quickly and cleanly too many times.
That’s what makes this matchup so important. The Dolphins have only generated four sacks all season, and every one of them came in Week 4. No other team in the league has fewer than eight.
As Jets X-Factor’s Connor Long broke down, it’s an interesting matchup that Smith could certainly take advantage of.
There’s also a chance the Jets get help on the interior. Left guard Dylan Parham is questionable after missing the past three weeks with a knee injury. If he is back, that would be a clear upgrade over Jordan Meredith, who has filled in for him.
The edges look vulnerable too, which could open the door for the Jets’ tackles to have a cleaner day, especially Olu Fashanu. He has struggled in pass protection after a rough start to the season, allowing a league-high seven sacks and posting an 8.3% pressure rate. With a decision on his fifth-year option coming this spring, he still has a lot to prove.
For Fashanu, Sunday is a chance to change the conversation. To show he can be a real building block for the Jets, he needs a better performance than what he’s delivered so far. This game could be where that starts.
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