Add an injury to the list of problems the Jets offensive line is dealing with. Starting left guard Kelechi Osemele missed practice Thursday after suffering a shoulder injury during individual drills on Wednesday.
Osemele, already bothered by a knee injury, is getting further evaluations, coach Adam Gase said.
“He’s pretty banged up right now,” Gase said.
Before Osemele got hurt, Gase was planning to look at different combinations on the offensive line, with a potential shake-up in mind. If Osemele can’t play, Alex Lewis would likely step in for him.
“[Wednesday] kind of threw things for a little bit of a loop with when he goes down and now we kind of have to shuffle some things around,” Gase said.
The offensive line has struggled mightily, allowing 13 sacks and averaging 3.0 yards per rushing attempt. Among other changes could be rookie Chuma Edoga replacing Brandon Shell at right tackle, Tom Compton starting at right guard over Brandon Winters and center Ryan Kalil losing playing time for Jonotthan Harrison. But nothing has been decided yet.
“There’s a lot of capable guys in the room, and so keep moving pieces — and rightfully so — until we figure out the best group to get it done,” Kalil said. “It’s a production-based business, so that’s what we got to do.”
Rookie defensive lineman Quinnen Williams sounds ready to return. The first-round draft pick out of Alabama suffered an ankle injury in the season-opening loss to the Bills and hasn’t played since. But after spending the bye week getting treatment and rehabbing, he practiced on a limited basis the past two days.
“Every day we came early, stayed late, just making sure I got back to 100 percent,” Williams said. “I feel great, man. I’m rolling.”
Before the Jets separated for the bye week, Gase had the entire team watch film together. Mistakes were shown on a big screen.
“Everybody was held accountable,” running back Le’Veon Bell said. “I think that kind of helped. Just by the fact that offense kind of understands a little better what the defense is doing and the defense understands a little better what special teams is doing, and everybody gets on the same page to see what’s going wrong.”
This was the first team the entire team sat down together and watched film in which specific mistakes were pointed out, according to the star running back.
“As long as we’re able to hold each other accountable and push each other to keep getting better, that’s only going to help our team,” Bell said.
Wide receiver Demaryius Thomas (hamstring) and running back Trenton Cannon (hamstring/ankle) were limited Thursday after not practicing Wednesday. Linebackers C.J. Mosley (groin) and Jordan Jenkins (calf) remained out and tight end Dan Brown (ankle), wide receiver Josh Bellamy (shoulder) and linebacker Tarell Basham (dehydration) were limited.