NY Jets OL embarrassed in joint practice with Buccaneers

The NY Jets' offensive line has been the talk of the summer for all the wrong reasons, and their poor performance carried over to the team's joint practice with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Wednesday.

It was bad — really bad. The Jets' first-team offense struggled to get anything going for pretty much the entirety of the day. Aaron Rodgers was left running for his life and was sacked a total of six times throughout the afternoon.

The Jets were without both starting guards, Alijah Vera-Tucker and Laken Tomlinson. Vera-Tucker is nursing an ankle injury, while Tomlinson is dealing with a minor "leg injury." The team also doesn't have starting left tackle Duane Brown just yet.

Regardless, it was a brutal day for the Jets' offensive line. It's not time to panic yet, but there are many reasons to be concerned.

How concerned should we be about the NY Jets offensive line?

The starting five for the Jets on Sunday consisted of, in order from left to right: Max Mitchell, Joe Tippmann, Connor McGovern, Wes Schweitzer, and Billy Turner. It goes without saying, but that's not even close to the starting five the Jets want to trot out come Week 1.

In fact, none of those players are even locks to start at this stage. Mitchell and Turner were, predictably, the primary culprits of the constant pressure Rodgers felt. Bucs pass rushers Shaquil Barrett and Joe Tryon-Shoyinka made life very difficult for the Jets' two tackles.

There was a portion of practice that saw Rodgers get sacked on four of his seven drop-backs. The only three non-sacks were quick completions where Rodgers was forced to get the ball out almost immediately.

The Jets didn't really run any long-developing plays with their first-team offense on Wednesday because they just couldn't. The offensive line didn't allow for anything other than quick passes.

The hope remains that Brown, Vera-Tucker, and Tomlinson can help solidify the unit, but there's still a lot to figure out. Who is going to start at right tackle? Who will be the Week 1 center? How long is Vera-Tucker going to remain at right guard? Will Brown even be ready for the start of the season?

The Jets have more questions than answers regarding their offensive line at this stage. Head coach Robert Saleh previously told reporters that he wanted to have the starting offensive line figured out by the time the Jets played the Carolina Panthers last Saturday.

We're not a few days removed from that game, and there's even more uncertainty with the unit than when Saleh originally spoke. The Jets are no closer to finding a solution than they were a few weeks ago.

There's still time to figure things out, and today's practice without arguably the team's three best offensive linemen shouldn't cause immediate panic. But concern is valid. There are reasons to be worried.

The Jets invested too much time and too many resources into this roster for their season to be sunk by an inept offensive line. They have 26 days to make sense of their unsettling offensive line situation. Time is ticking.