When Draft season kicked off we had Olu Fashanu as our Top OT prospect and even went as far as calling him “the safest OT” in the class. When we did a rescout of him Post Combine, he fell hard down our board. Similar to Alt, we had a Round 2 grade on Fashanu, but thought he could justify the 1st round grades by going to the right team. From a scheme standpoint, we don’t know if the Jets are the best fit, but from a situation standpoint we love the fit.

After new QB Aaron Rodgers played all of 4 downs in 2023, the Jets finally addressed the OL seriously to start the offseason. They traded for Ravens RT Morgan Moses, who hadn’t missed a game until last year, and signed future HOFer Tyron Smith from the Cowboys. Now this is all well and good, but Morgan Moses Tore his Pec toward the end of last season, which is a pretty significant injury. On the other hand, Tyron Smith hasn’t played a full season since 2015. His injury history is so bad that the Jets incentivized 60% of Smith’s contract.

Smith is guaranteed $6.5 million($2 mil base, with $4.5 mil signing bonus), which is pocket change for a franchise LT. The other $12 million is broken down into 2 tiers of incentives.

• Tier 1
  • 38% of snaps- $750,000
  • 44% of snaps- $1.75 million
  • 50% of snaps- $2.75 million
  • 56% of snaps- $3.75 million
  • 62% of snaps- $4.75 million
  • 68% of snaps- $5.75 million
• Tier 2
  • 74% of snaps- $1.25 million
  • 80% of snaps- $2.5 million
  • 86% of snaps- $3.75 million
  • 92% of snaps- $5 million
  • 98% of snaps- $6.25 million

The money from Tier 2 would be on top of the $5.75 million he get from Tier 1. We can’t remember a time where a team has ever incentivized a contract quite like this… it’s actually quite wild. 

Now, going back to what this was originally about. IF(and that’s a massive if), Moses comes back 100% and Tyron Smith somehow plays most the season, Fashanu will have the time to sit and develop under two of the better/more consistent tackles in the NFL over the last X amount of seasons. Fashanu NEEDS time to clean up his game a little bit. If he is able to sit most or even all his rookie year we think the Jets could have a franchise LT, if he plays earlier than expected it could end up being more like his Penn State film where he flashes more than he is consistent.