Jets Country

Jets' Alijah Vera-Tucker Out For Rest of Season in Another Crushing Injury Blow

Running back Breece Hall is also out for the season with a torn ACL.

Max Goodman

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The Jets lost two of their best players for the season during their win over the Broncos in Denver on Sunday.

Not only is running back Breece Hall out for the rest of the year, suffering a torn ACL, but offensive lineman Alijah Vera-Tucker is also done for the season with a triceps injury that will require surgery.

Vera-Tucker, a former-first round pick in his second season in green and white, has been New York's most reliable and versatile offensive lineman through the first seven weeks of the season.

The Jets continue to lose key contributors on the offensive line to injury as well. As much as Duane Brown is back at left tackle after his trip to the injured reserve, New York is still missing Mekhi Becton, Max Mitchell, George Fant and now, Vera-Tucker.

Vera-Tucker began the year at right guard, shifting over from left guard (where he lined up as a rookie) to make room for Laken Tomlinson. Due to those other injuries, Vera-Tucker made appearances at both right and left tackle this season as well, producing everywhere he played.

It's hard to quantify just how much of a blow these injuries are for the Jets, losing both Hall and Vera-Tucker. Forget the advanced analytics. Just by watching these Jets play and begin to rattle off wins in 2022, it's easy hard to see how important they were to New York's surging offense. In fact, you can make the argument that Hall and Vera-Tucker were the two best players on offense for Gang Green this year.

New York lost both of them to season-ending injuries in the same game. 

Now, the Jets will need to rely on a next-man up mentality throughout the second half of the season if they want to continue winning. It's encouraging to see how well this team was playing with both of those guys healthy—they'll be around for a long time beginning next fall—but it's debilitating for a franchise that hadn't tasted this type of start to a season in over a decade, knowing they won't be able to contribute the rest of the way.

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Max Goodman
MAX GOODMAN

Max Goodman covers the New York Jets for Sports Illustrated and FanNation. He also covers the New York Yankees, publisher  of Sports Illustrated and FanNation's Yankees site, Inside The Pinstripes. Before starting out with SI, Goodman attended Northwestern University and the Medill School of Journalism. He earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Broadcast Journalism and Master’s Degree in Sports Media, graduating in 2019. While at school, Goodman gathered valuable experience as an anchor and reporter on NNN SportsNight and played on the club baseball team. Goodman previously interned at MLB.com as an associate reporter covering the Miami Marlins. He also interned with ESPN, working as an associate reporter on Mike Greenberg's Get Up. Goodman is from New York City. He grew up in Hell's Kitchen. Follow Goodman on Twitter @MaxTGoodman and connect with him via email by reaching out at maxgoodmansports@gmail.com.

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