New York Jets: Three players who must earn their 2019 jobs
Spencer Long
I think everybody knows that Spencer Long should be on this list. He was brought here to make the line better. It wouldn’t be hard to argue that he has made things worse.
Wesley Johnson made everyone cringe in 2017. He essentially was a turnstile. So Mike Maccagnan spent some of the team’s off-season riches on Spencer Long. Long signed a four-year, $27.4 million contract including $6 million guaranteed (per Spotrac).
Spencer Long is the 36th best center in the league, per Pro Football Focus, with a grade of 41.1. Keep in mind folks, there are only 32 starting centers. So he has been so bad he’s not even ranked among the starting centers in this league.
His pass blocking grade is 33.9. The only center with a lower grade on the PFF board is a player that has only taken four snaps in 2018.
That doesn’t even account for the snap problems. Oh, the snap problems. It came to a point against the Dolphins where it didn’t seem like he could execute two good snaps in a row.
If things don’t get better, the Jets can get out. According to Spotrac, they can let Long go without any dead cap money in 2019.
If he wants to stay, Long had better get it together and fast.