A BLOCK CHAIN
Trade brings tackle back to Jets as latest former Raven O-line add
The Jets traded for a familiar face from a familiar place.
Right tackle Morgan Moses, who started 16 games for the Jets in 2021, is returning as part of a trade with the Ravens, The Post confirmed. The Jets are moving down 22 spots in the fourth round of the 2024 draft (from No. 112 to No. 134) and giving up a sixth-round pick (No. 218).
So general manager Joe Douglas has filled two of three vacant starting jobs on the offensive line by pulling from the organization where he once spent 15 years in scouting. He also signed former Ravens left guard John Simpson to a two-year contract this week.
The Ravens led the NFL in rushing yards and allowed the fifth-fewest quarterback pressures last season, according to Pro Football Focus.
Moses is due $5.5 million in nonguaranteed salary during the final year of the three-year contract that he signed when the Jets let him walk in free agency over a relatively small price gap, and chose to go with Mekhi Becton and George Fant as the tackles. It was a mistake in hindsight because right tackle turned into a revolving door over the past two seasons.
Ravens coach John Harbaugh said after the season that Moses was undecided on whether to undergo offseason surgery after playing through pain for four months, and it was not immediately clear Wednesday if a decision has been made. Moses allowed six sacks on 524 pass-blocking snaps in 14 games last season, ranking as the No. 10 tackle in the league by PFF.
The offensive line puzzle now has four pieces in place — Moses, Simpson, center Joe Tippmann and presumptive right guard Alijah Vera-Tucker — but is missing the biggest, left tackle. Unless the Jets decide to move VeraTucker there, that hole still looms large.
The versatile VeraTucker has moved from guard to tackle in each of the past two seasons but subsequently has suffered season-ending injuries both times. The plan is to let him entrench at one position in 2024.
Tyron Smith, the top free-agent left tackle, remains unsigned. So does Aaron Rodgers’ close friend David Bakhtiari.
Smith, a 33-year-old eight-time Pro Bowler with the Cowboys, still is dominant when healthy, but he hasn’t played a full season since 2015, missing 37 of 50 games from 2020-22 and four more last season. Bakhtiari, a 32-year-old three-time Pro Bowler with the Packers, has missed 38 of 51 games over the past three seasons. Both oftinjured veterans give off vibes of fivetime Pro Bowler Duane Brown, who started 15 of 34 games at left tackle after he was acquired.
The Jets also have tackles Max Mitchell and Carter Warren — fourthround picks in the past two drafts — waiting in tow. Becton and Brown are free agents not expected to return.
What’s interesting about trading for Moses is that the Jets most commonly are linked to drafting Oregon State’s Taliese Fuaga with pick No. 10. Fuaga started 25 games at right tackle (zero at left tackle) in college, though NFL Network draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah — a former colleague of Douglas’ with the Ravens — thinks Fuaga is capable of switching sides.
Penn State’s Olu Fashanu, a consensus top-10 pick, has the coveted left tackle experience but could be selected before the Jets are on the clock. Alabama’s JC Latham, another first-round option, started the past two seasons at right tackle just like Fuaga.