Jets rookie Olu Fashanu's first of many starts at left tackle?
Jets offensive lineman Olu Fashanu performs non-contact agility drills during Day 1 of the team's rookie minicamp at the Atlantic Health Jets Training Center in Florham Park, N.J. on May 3. Credit: James Escher
FLORHAM PARK, N.J.
If Olu Fashanu had any doubts about his continued status as a lowly rookie on the Jets’ roster — even if he was their first-round pick in April — it was confirmed on Thursday. A few reporters gathered at his locker to speak with him, and the rest of the team began razzing him for his sudden celebrity. They chanted his name. They suggested their own questions. They began filming the proceedings with their cellphones. Even Aaron Rodgers wandered over, curious to see what the hubbub was about.
“I take it as a good sign,” Fashanu said with a huge smile. “I feel like if they didn’t do that, then maybe I’m not doing my rookie duties.”
Come Sunday, that mild hazing should become a thing of the past. Fashanu is preparing to make his first career start at the most important spot on the offensive line, stepping in for injured future Hall of Famer Tyron Smith at left tackle. In a season in which he’s already displayed his versatility by making starts at right tackle and even stepped in at guard in an emergency situation against the Texans two weeks ago, Fashanu is coming home.
“That’s his comfort zone,” Jets passing game coordinator and offensive play-caller Todd Downing said of Fashanu at left tackle. “When Joe [Douglas, the general manager] was turning in his card, that is probably what he saw as the future there.”
That future seems to be now.
Depending on how long Smith is out — he suffered a neck injury last week against the Cardinals and has been undergoing a battery of tests this week to determine the severity of his situation, although he has yet to be ruled out for Sunday — this could be Fashanu’s first in a long line of career starts at the position he seemingly was born to play. He took over in the second half of the game in Arizona when Smith initially was injured.
“It’s never easy,” Fashanu said, “but that is what I am most familiar with. There is a sense of familiarity going back to the position I played in college and high school . . . It definitely felt a bit different going in at left tackle, but that’s where I’ve been playing for most of my life, so it’s all natural at the end of the day.”
“I thought he played well,” interim coach Jeff Ulbrich said. “I mean, he had his rookie moments for sure. He’s going to have some bumps in the road here and there, but I thought he showed a ton of promise. He’s a guy that thank God we got him because we knew we were going to potentially need him this year. The way he’s filled in has been amazing for a rookie, and the more he gets to play, the better he’ll be.”
Fashanu said he hasn’t given much thought to any of the big-picture significance of this moment. He doesn’t even think about whether he’ll start and is focused only on the preparation. Nor does he allow himself to gawk at replacing Smith and protecting the blind side of Rodgers, two future residents of Canton.
“When you do think about it, it definitely is big shoes to fill,” he said. “But I just take everything day by day and have the mentality of coming in the facility every day and maximizing all I can out of it.”
That’s served him well. Even the Jets who were giving him a hard time because of the media attention he was receiving have been amazed by his attitude and abilities . . . although their praise still comes with a healthy dose of good-natured taunting.
“I hate him, man, he’s so athletic,” right tackle Morgan Moses said. “The way he comes into the building every day and concentrates on what needs to be concentrated on and goes out there and tries to perfect it, that he listens to the vets and listens to the coaches, he’s just a well-rounded football player and a human being. You couldn’t ask for anything more from your rookie . . . He doesn’t blink, he just goes in and does the job to the best of his abilities.”
There will be a lot riding on this game for Fashanu and the Jets. They’ve lost six of their last seven and need to head into their bye week with a victory to retain any hope at all of contending for an AFC playoff spot. They’ve also had lackluster production from their running game and their downfield passing attack, two elements that obviously rely heavily on offensive lines. Even before Smith was injured, he was struggling, having allowed five sacks in 10 games. He allowed a combined 5.5 between 2018 and 2023.
“At the end of the day, we’re going to play the best player, the guy that’s best capable to play, and everything goes into that decision: injury, experience, all of it,” Ulbrich said of the left tackle job for the rest of the season. “The guy that gives us the best opportunity to win will be the guy that plays.”
That almost certainly will be Fashanu on Sunday. Maybe for a long time after that, too.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.