The cross-training started during the third week of training camp for Olu Fashanu, but it still kept him at tackle.
The Jets took him during the first round of April’s draft with the intention of making him their left tackle of the future.
The 21-year-old would spend a year studying behind Tyron Smith before eventually inheriting the task of protecting the Gang Green quarterback’s blindside.
If all went according to plan, Fashanu wouldn’t need to play much in 2024.
That provided the flexibility to teach him another spot on the opposite side of the line.
By Week 4, though, the Jets needed Fashanu to start at right tackle when Morgan Moses injured his knee.
And Thursday, during their 21-13 win over the Texans, they needed Fashanu to play the final 37 snaps at right guard after injuries to Jake Hanson and John Simpson — along with starting right guard Alijah Vera-Tucker missing his second consecutive game — forced the Jets to scramble.
Fashanu had never practiced a live rep at right guard, interim head coach Jeff Ulbrich said, and Max Mitchell, who replaced Simpson at left guard, logged his first extended time of 2024 at a position he hadn’t previously played one regular-season snap.
Last season, when injury after injury forced the Jets to constantly tweak their offensive line, the unit eventually imploded.
It became a glaring weakness in an offense filled with them.
But faced with their most pressing crisis so far this year, the line allowed just two sacks against the Texans and provided enough time for Aaron Rodgers to orchestrate his best stretch of the season.
That served as a microcosm of the unit’s recent progress, when they’ve allowed just six sacks across their last four games.
“Remarkable is one of the only words I can give it,” Ulbrich said Friday of Fashanu. “Here’s a guy that, you know, minus walk-through reps, and minus drill work at practice, that’s his only exposure to this position. No live reps, no team reps, and to go in there and function like he did, it’s unbelievable.”
As the Jets navigated their offensive line disaster last season, Fashanu was in the middle of his final season as Penn State’s left tackle, scripting the final chapter of a collegiate career in which he didn’t allow a single sack.
That helped him settle near the top of draft boards among linemen and, eventually, land on the Jets’ radar.
They, perhaps more than most teams, needed help in front of Rodgers.
Gang Green started 13 different combinations — featuring players from Billy Turner and Xavier Newman to rookie Carter Warren and mainstay Laken Tomlinson — and collected the third- and sixth-worst pass and blocking grades, respectively, in 2023.
They allowed the fourth-most sacks (64), and the first one became the most consequential after Rodgers tore his Achilles on just the fourth offensive snap of the season.
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That turned the unit into one general manager Joe Douglas needed to upgrade during the offseason. He landed Smith, 33 years old but a two-time first-team All-Pro.
He executed a deal with the Ravens to bring back Moses.
He signed Simpson, too.
Those were all short-term fixes, designed to help the Jets in their win-now window with Rodgers as their signal-caller, but Douglas’ decision to draft Fashanu over skill position players reflected his move with the most long-term upside.
Fashanu’s first 196 career snaps have all occurred on the right side of the line, though.
Offseason transactions can only account for so many injuries and so much scrambling.
When Moses exited the Week 3 win against the Patriots, Fashanu took over, and he started the next two games until Moses returned.
Then, after the injuries Thursday, Fashanu stepped in and impressed during his snaps — though he did commit a holding penalty that wiped out Rodgers’ scramble for a first down in the red zone.
“It’s a testament to [offensive line coach Keith Carter], and it’s a testament to that entire offensive line, the depth that we have,” Ulbrich said Thursday. “The fact that guys stepped in and played as well as they did, it’s really cool.”
It might not be sustainable.
Fashanu’s success at a new position might hit roadblocks.
Mitchell, in his third NFL season, could encounter that, too.
Ulbrich didn’t provide any clarity on the status of Simpson or Hanson on Friday, and Vera-Tucker didn’t practice at all during the short week leading up to the Texans game.
But after a yearlong debacle, the Jets reinforcements demonstrated that they could, at least for now, adjust on the fly — with the most unexpected concoctions possible, too — and hold their own.
Linebacker Jamien Sherwood was fined $6,354 for unnecessary roughness for using his helmet on a Week 8 hit that forced Patriots quarterback Drake Maye out with a concussion.
