The New York Jets can’t get complacent.
ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter revealed on social media that former Cleveland Browns starting center Ethan Pocic “who tore his Achilles last December, recently was cleared by Dr. Norman Waldrop to participate in training camp. Pocic is a free agent, and is said by a source to be ‘full go.’”
Joe Blewett of Jets X-Factor responded to this post, urging the green and white to make a move:
“Jets NEED to look into this. Walking into the season with [Josh] Myers as the sure fire starter with no competition or a flat out replacement is a mistake,” Blewett argued.
Who Is Pocic?
Pocic, 30, will turn 31 before the start of the 2026 season.
He originally entered the league as the No. 58 overall pick in the second round of the 2017 NFL draft. Pocic spent the first five years of his career with the Seattle Seahawks. Most recently, he has been with the Browns for the last four seasons.
Across his nine years at the NFL level, Pocic has appeared in 114 games and has made 97 starts. Over the last six seasons, he has made at least 10 starts in each of those campaigns.
Pocic’s play has dropped off over the last couple of years. In 2022, he was a top-10 center in the NFL by every major Pro Football Focus grade:
- Overall grade: 78.9 overall (third best among centers)
- Run block grade: 78.9 overall (fifth best among centers)
- Pass block grade: 71.5 overall (ninth best among centers)
This past season with the Browns, he started 13 games before getting hurt. According to PFF, he was a top-25 center by every major PFF grade:
- Overall grade: 63.8 overall (20th best among centers)
- Run block grade: 63.2 overall (23rd best among centers)
- Pass block grade: 62.2 overall (25th best among centers)
In Pocic’s NFL career, he has exclusively played on the interior offensive line per PFF:
- Left guard: 652 career snaps
- Center: 5,229 career snaps
- Right guard: 393 career snaps
Pocic has been playing the center position exclusively since the 2020 season, but before that had some experience at both guard spots.
Jets Should Still Kick the Tires
Those PFF grades from Pocic last season weren’t great, but they were better or competitive with the Jets’ current starting center, Josh Myers.
In 2025, Myers started all 17 games for the Jets at the center position. Here were his grades from PFF:
- Overall grade: 52.9 overall (39th among 40 qualifying centers)
- Run block grade: 51.7 overall (38th among 40 qualifying centers)
- Pass block grade: 62.9 overall (24th among 40 qualifying centers)
The only area that Myers beat Pocic in was pass block grade, and they were separated by 0.7 percentage points via PFF.
During training camp last year, Myers battled with Joe Tippmann for the starting center job. Myers lost that competition and was set to start the season on the bench. The only reason he didn’t is that Alijah Vera-Tucker suffered a season-ending injury days before Week 1.
The Jets called an audible at the line of scrimmage, kicking Tippmann to guard and inserting Myers into the starting lineup.
Myers was a part of an offensive line that started every game together last year. The Jets were the only team to accomplish that feat in the NFL, and the green and white hadn’t done that as a team since 2012.
That’s cool and all, but head coach Aaron Glenn preaches competition. Right now Myers is the unquestioned starter with zero competition for his job. Why should he be handed anything on a silver platter?
Last year, he had to fight for a spot and lost. He ended up playing because of circumstances beyond his control and didn’t perform great according to the analytics.
What do you have to lose by bringing in competition? If Myers wins the job anyway, great, Pocic can now be important depth on the bench.
It’s unlikely that the Jets will go back-to-back seasons with zero injuries to the starting offensive line during the season. They should hope for the best and prepare for the worst.
Kicking the tires on Pocic for what will be inconsequential money makes too much sense. Before training camp, the Jets have $27 million in cap space, which is the 11th most in the NFL, per Over The Cap.
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