OL Stefen Wisniewski visits with Jets, leaves without deal

Free agent offensive lineman Stefen Wisniewski visited with the New York Jets early in the week and left without a deal leaving the Jets center situation still up in the air.

The New York Jets have been doing their due diligence this offseason exploring the free agent market for centers but have come up relatively empty to this point.

The team did manage to re-sign the versatile Jonotthan Harrison but he’s best served as a primary backup as opposed to a full-fledged starting option. Elsewhere, the Jets looked at signing some of the top-tier free agent options in Matt Paradis and Mitch Morse but were unable to strike a deal with either of them leaving the team in a bit of a bind.

One of the few viable options remaining on the free agent market is veteran Stefen Wisniewski and the Jets have made it clear that they are interested in bringing aboard the former Philadelphia Eagles interior lineman.

Wisniewski visited with the Jets earlier in the week but unfortunately left without a deal. The eight-year NFL veteran has lined up visits with other teams such as the New York Giants while the Minnesota Vikings also remain interested.

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Still, Wisniewski remains unsigned at the moment meaning that a potential deal with the Jets is not out of the question.

The Penn State product originally entered the league as a second-round pick of the Oakland Raiders back in 2011. Wisniewski would spend the first four years of his career in Oakland starting three seasons at center and one, his rookie year, at left guard.

From there, Wisniewski would spend one year in Jacksonville before signing on with the Philadelphia Eagles, a team he would play with for three seasons helping them win Super Bowl LII along the way.

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The soon-to-be 30-year-old would start 24 games and play in 46 over his three seasons with the Eagles playing mostly left guard. While his best seasons were certainly in Oakland, Wisniewski still managed a respectable 55.5 Pro Football Focus rating in 2018 placing him as the No. 58 guard in the NFL.

Wisniewski has experience playing both center and left guard and, if signed, would immediately step in and compete for the starting center position. He would likely be given the edge over the aforementioned Harrison due to his abundance of prior starting experience.

Now, if the Jets fail to sign Wisniewski, as they have essentially every other center option this offseason, they will still have options to address the position. Another free agent target could be aging veteran John Sullivan who has spent the last two seasons as the starting center for the Los Angeles Rams.

If not, the draft could be an option with top prospects being NC State’s Garrett Bradbury, Mississippi State’s Elgton Jenkins, and Texas A&M’s Erik McCoy. Even if the Jets do sign a veteran such as Wisniewski or Sullivan, it would be wise to address the position in the draft for the betterment of the long-term success of the offensive line as a whole.

That being said, Wisniewski would absolutely be an upgrade at this stage of free agency and it’s a signing the Jets should heavily consider. At this point though, all they could do is wait and bide their time.