Joe Tippmann can become the NY Jets' best offensive lineman in 2024

In the sea of ineptitude and injury-riddled despair that was the NY Jets offensive line in 2023, rookie center Joe Tippmann stood out among the rest as one of the lone bright spots in an otherwise dismal unit.

A second-round pick in last year's draft, Tippmann wasn't expected to start as a rookie, at least not at the beginning of the season. The Wisconsin product spent essentially the entire summer working as the second and sometimes third-string center behind Connor McGovern and veteran journeyman Wes Schweitzer.

But as the Jets quickly came to realize in 2023, things don't always go as planned. Injuries forced Tippmann into the starting lineup, first at right guard in place of Alijah Vera-Tucker and later at center once McGovern went down with an injury of his own.

Tippmann was forced to switch positions on multiple occasions while being paired alongside arguably the worst offensive line in the NFL, a unit that saw 14 different players appear in at least one game last season.

Through it all, Tippmann more than proved to be a starting-caliber center as a rookie, and there's every reason to believe the best is yet to come. But just how much of a leap can he take in 2024?

Can Joe Tippmann become a future Pro Bowler for the NY Jets?

The Jets have an outstanding history of stellar centers over the years. From the days of John Schmitt and Joe Fields to Kevin Mawae and Nick Mangold, the Jets organization has almost exclusively found success when they've rostered a star center.

It would be unfair to ask Tippmann to fill the shoes of the All-Pros and Hall of Famers who came before him, but the Jets believe the second-year center has genuine Pro Bowl potential. His rookie season shows why that is.

Tippmann's 3.3 percent pressure rate as a center in 2023 ranked 13th-best among 31 qualified players at the position. This was despite playing next to statistically the worst pass-blocking left guard in the NFL, Laken Tomlinson, and a rotating door of practice squad right guards.

The Jets were forced to start the likes of Xavier Newman, Jake Hanson, and Chris Glaser, all of whom were freshly signed off the practice squad with little-to-no NFL experience, at right guard. Tippmann was put in a near-impossible situation for a rookie.

Throw in horrific quarterback play, an absence of many playmakers, and a poor offensive coaching staff and it doesn't get much worse for a rookie center. Despite this, Tippmann was an above-average pass-blocker as a rookie.

His run-block numbers were roughly league-average, posting a 63.7 Pro Football Focus run-block grade in his 10 starts at center. That ranked 18th among 32 qualifiers, but it's worth noting that Tippmann continued to improve as the season progressed.

Over the final five games of the 2023 season, Tippmann registered a 71.9 PFF run-block grade which ranked just outside the top 10 at his position. His best game might have come against Washington on Christmas Eve when he surrendered zero total pressures on 51 pass-block snaps.

That not only set a new Jets record (tracked since 2006) for the most pass-block snaps by a rookie offensive lineman in a game without allowing a pressure, but it was also the second-most snaps played by a rookie lineman on any team in 2023 without allowing a pressure.

Joe Tippmann laid the foundation for a successful NFL career as a rookie despite his terrible situation. He showed signs of continued development throughout the course of his season, playing at an above-average level over the final few weeks of the year.

While it's too early to put Tippmann in the same camp as his Jets center predecessors, the signs are there for a breakout campaign in 2024. Don't be surprised if Tippmann garners Pro Bowl consideration by the end of the season. That breakout year is coming.

This article is part of the "Summer Spotlight" series on The Jet Press, dedicated to highlighting individual players on the Jets roster throughout the summer. Stay tuned for more features as we provide in-depth profiles and insights on various Jets players before the season kicks off.

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