Twenty-eight years ago Aaron Glenn wasn’t the head coach of the New York Jets. He was starting at cornerback.
Bill Parcells was the head coach and general manager. It was his second offseason with with the team. That offseason Parcells made a decision that changed the course of franchise history. He signed Seattle Seahawks center Kevin Mawae in free agency.
The signing of Mawae is a well-known part of Jets lore. He played the best years of a Hall of Fame career in green and white. The year Mawae left
the Jets drafted Nick Mangold. This meant the signing of Mawae started an almost two decade run where the Jets had elite level play at the center position.
The reason Parcells targeted Mawae in free agency is discussed less frequently.
The first time Mawae met Parcells, earlier this year, the coach told him: ”I’m 56. I’m getting old. I’ve won two Super Bowls. I want to win one more.”
And then Parcells explained what major role he had for the center, who was a free agent after four seasons with the Seattle Seahawks.
”We want you because you’re going to face Ted Washington twice a year,” Parcells said.
We old timers know Ted Washington was a really good reason to sign Kevin Mawae. (I think I’ve been around long enough to refer to myself as an “old timer.” Right?)
Washington was a 360 pound mountain of a defensive tackle in the middle of the Buffalo Bills’ 3-4 defense.
The 3-4 was growing in popularity in this era, and a player like Washington was the centerpiece of the system.
A tackle like Ted Washington would line up at nose tackle over the center (or shaded in the gap between the center and one of the guards). For lack of a better description, his job was to essentially dominate the center.
If the center could not block the nose tackle one on one, a guard would need to help on a double team. That meant the guard couldn’t block the guy he was assigned to block. It led to a domino effect of failure for the offense.
Washington was one of the most difficult nose tackles for offense to face in this era, but he wasn’t the only one who caused problems. Teams were adopting the 3-4 all over the league with their own space clogging nose tackles. (And there were some teams who adopted the 3-4 without that space eating nose tackle. A pre-old timer version of John B complained incessantly about Eric Mangini installing a 3-4 when he had nobody better than Dewayne Robertson to play the nose tackle spot).
The Jets made the Playoffs in half of Mawae’s eight seasons with the team. It is fair to say that having him around to handle elite nose tackles gave the Jets an advantage few teams had in this era.
The space eating nose tackle isn’t exactly extinct in today’s NFL, but he is no longer the centerpiece of a defense.
Defenses have adapted and now favor linemen who can penetrate and get into the backfield. They had to adapt to combat the modern passing game.
Now nobody should think that the center position has become irrelevant in the modern game. I watched a recent three year stretch where the Jets ran Wesley Johnson, Spencer Long, Jonotthan Harrison, and a freshly off his couch Ryan Kalil out at center. The respective poor performances of those players played a big role in sinking Jets offenses.
I do, however, think it’s fair to say that center play is less important in today’s NFL than it was in Mawae’s era. There aren’t many dominant nose tackles anchoring the middle of the defense line. These days, a defensive lineman is setting up directly across from center less than 5 percent of the time.
Last week the Jets’ starting left guard John Simpson suffered an injury. It kept him out of the team’s preseason opener against the Green Bay Packers.
The Jets moved last year’s starting center Joe Tippmann at left guard and slid in projected backup center Josh Myers in Tippmann’s spot at center.
I will be honest. When I first heard about this, I wasn’t thrilled. We all have been through the Alijah Vera-Tucker experience. The Jets shifted AVT around four of the five offensive line positions in his first two years in the league. In back to back seasons he suffered a season-ending injury after being shifted from guard to tackle. We can’t say for sure how much changing positions had to do with him suffering injuries. Still, the big takeaway seemed to be don’t move a young lineman after he finds a position where he has success.
Still the more I thought about it, the more I couldn’t shake the idea that perhaps Tippmann’s talents aren’t fully utilized at center. He’s so big and so strong. He could be a legitimate road grating offensive linemen. Yet with this modern shift in defenses, guards get to utilize their one on one blocking skills while centers are typically helping with a double team.
Tippmann did play some guard in his rookie season. Here is a play where he blew open a hole for a long Breece Hall touchdown run.
Of course it would be silly to suggest centers are irrelevant or that a center will never block one on one. However, I do wonder whether the Jets are not fully taking advantage of Tippmann’s blocking abilities by not playing him at guard where he will have more one on one opportunities.
These days the center position is more about working with the quarterback to make sure the line is blocking the right guys, executing the snap, helping a guard, and picking up a blitzer up the middle.
If it was still the NFL of 1998, there’s little doubt that Tippmann would be more valuable to the Jets at center.
It also wouldn’t be a discussion in the world where the Jets had no other viable option to play center. However, they signed Josh Myers, who has 56 starts under his belt this offseason.
Is it possible that an offensive line with Tippmann at left guard and Myers at center would be superior to an offensive line with John Simpson at left guard and Tippmann at center?
Most Jets fans would reflexively say no.
I think there are three reasons for this.
First, is the AVT comparison. The Jets had a talented young offensive lineman change positions and was worse for the wear.
I can understand the trepidation, but what if Tippmann’s skills can have a bigger impact at guard? There are plenty of players who have successfully shifted to a new spot on the offensive line without suffering the AVT outcome (and this is if we even conclude AVT’s injuries were the result of his position changes which is not a sure thing).
I think the two other reasons are based on questions Jets fans would ask.
Is John Simpson a quality starter?
Is Joe Tippmann a better center than Josh Myers?
The answer to both is yes.
These are fair questions, but I’m not sure it’s quite that simple. It’s practically a cliche to say offensive lines function as a unit, and the whole can be greater or less than the parts.
Given the drop in impact the center position has in today’s NFL, would a team be impacted much by dropping from a good starter in Tippmann to an ok starter in Myers?
Is it possible that going from good in Simpson to very good in Tippmann at left guard could add more value than the drop from Tippmann to Myers subtracts?
I don’t know.
I’ll level with you. If I had to choose, I’d still probably say the Jets are better off with the Plan A of Simpson and Tippmann starting with Myers as the top backup on the interior offensive line.
You might have read this article and be saying to yourself, “All that, and you conclude the Jets aren’t better off with Tippmann at guard after all?”
Yes, but after thinking about the evolution of the center position and Tippmann’s skillset, I feel far less conviction in that opinion than I had a week ago.
