Joe Tippmann’s latest comments point to a clearer picture of how the New York Jets may be thinking about their offensive line in 2026.
The big takeaway: Tippmann sounds like a guard now, not a center. Asked Wednesday when he last snapped a football after being shifted to guard for the 2025 season, he said, “I was jokingly snapping a couple at practice the other day to see if I still had it.”
That’s a telling answer for a player who looked like the Jets’ center of the future not long ago. After a strong 2024 season at center, Tippmann was expected to hold that job again in 2025. Instead, a season-ending injury to right guard Alijah Vera-Tucker ahead of Week 1 forced him into Vera-Tucker’s spot.
Once he settled in, Tippmann turned in a very strong year at guard and later earned a four-year extension. At this point, the Jets appear to view him as a long-term guard, even if his ability to move around the line still matters.
And that’s where the real roster wrinkle comes in. If Tippmann hasn’t been getting any center work, it suggests the Jets may not be planning to send him back there if starting center Josh Myers gets hurt. In that scenario, the more likely move would be sliding newly acquired Jordan Meredith to center, even though Meredith has been better as a guard.
The Jets managed to keep the same starting offensive line intact for all 17 games last season, but doing that again in 2026 seems unlikely. It would be the ideal outcome, just not a realistic one.
That makes depth a major issue. Before the team added Meredith on the cutdown day market, that part of the roster looked thin. Even now, there’s a strong argument that Gang Green should still be searching for another depth piece.
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