New York Jets Coach Rex Ryan Feeling Good About the Offensive Line

May 10, 2013; Florham Park, NJ, USA; New York Jets head coach Rex Ryan looks on during New York Jets rookie minicamp at the Atlantic Health Jets Training Center. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

As we all know, a lot of improvement has been needed to this Jets’ roster. There are deficiencies at almost very position on the team, and the offensive line is no exception.

John Idzik, to his credit, has armed coach Ryan with several new bodies at offensive line, both through the draft, and undrafted free agent signings. Rex isn’t making any predictions about these kids, but he likes what he sees so far:

I think certainly when you look at it out there as I’m sure all of us have seen, it looks way better than it has the last couple of years when like you said, you don’t want your kid playing quarterback in that second half of a preseason game. With some of that group that we had out there a lot of times, there might (have been) one or two good ones, but as a unit, this clearly looks a lot different. Even from the center we have, Dalton (Freeman) from Clemson was a First-Team All-American. He looks good. Obviously, the draft picks, all three of the draft picks (look good). It’s a good-looking group, there’s no doubt. And there are some players in that group, so when you line up there and that’s your second offensive line, that looks pretty impressive to me.

He then went on with some specific praise:

The (Will) Campbell kid is the one (who) really intrigues me when you look at him because you know what you’re going to get with the big Kent State kid (Brian Winters), you know what you’re going to get there. This is going to be a solid guy that’s going to look a lot better when we put the pads on and he’s able to throw people down than right now. But, he’s an impressive guy. I think Oday looks pretty good. He’s going to be a swing tackle, left tackle (and) right tackle. We’re working him on the left side in this camp, but with Campbell, here’s a guy with that defensive background and yet we’re moving him to offense, projecting him as a guard. Mike Devlin is an outstanding coach, but I’m surprised (Campbell) is not making mistakes. He seems like he’s been doing it his whole life, so I think that’s been impressive to me. I’ve been really impressed with him. I see that 65, hopefully he can have half the success that Brandon Moore had at that position. I think we’d all sign up for that.

It sounds as if coach has some real reason to be exciting. What’s even more exciting? He has learned how to praise, without sending them to Canton after one day.