The first time Mawae met Parcells, earlier this year, the coach told him: \u201cI\u2019m 56. I\u2019m getting old. I\u2019ve won two Super Bowls. I want to win one more.\u201d<\/p>\n
And then Parcells explained what major role he had for the center, who was a free agent after four seasons with the Seattle Seahawks.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want you because you\u2019re going to face Ted Washington twice a year,\u201d Parcells said.<\/p>\n
We old timers know Ted Washington was a really good reason to sign Kevin Mawae. (I think I\u2019ve been around long enough to refer to myself as an \u201cold timer.\u201d Right?)<\/p>\n
Washington was a 360 pound mountain of a defensive tackle in the middle of the Buffalo Bills\u2019 3-4 defense.<\/p>\n
The 3-4 was growing in popularity in this era, and a player like Washington was the centerpiece of the system.<\/p>\n
A tackle like Ted Washington would line up at nose tackle over the center (or shaded in the gap between the center and one of the guards). For lack of a better description, his job was to essentially dominate the center.<\/p>\n
If the center could not block the nose tackle one on one, a guard would need to help on a double team. That meant the guard couldn\u2019t block the guy he was assigned to block. It led to a domino effect of failure for the offense.<\/p>\n Washington was one of the most difficult nose tackles for offense to face in this era, but he wasn\u2019t the only one who caused problems. Teams were adopting the 3-4 all over the league with their own space clogging nose tackles. (And there were some teams who adopted the 3-4 without that space eating nose tackle. A pre-old timer version of John B complained incessantly about Eric Mangini installing a 3-4 when he had nobody better than Dewayne Robertson to play the nose tackle spot).<\/p>\n The Jets made the Playoffs in half of Mawae\u2019s eight seasons with the team. It is fair to say that having him around to handle elite nose tackles gave the Jets an advantage few teams had in this era.<\/p>\n The space eating nose tackle isn\u2019t exactly extinct in today\u2019s NFL, but he is no longer the centerpiece of a defense.<\/p>\n Defenses have adapted and now favor linemen who can penetrate and get into the backfield. They had to adapt to combat the modern passing game.<\/p>\n Now nobody should think that the center position has become irrelevant in the modern game. I watched a recent three year stretch where the Jets ran Wesley Johnson, Spencer Long, Jonotthan Harrison, and a freshly off his couch Ryan Kalil out at center. The respective poor performances of those players played a big role in sinking Jets offenses.<\/p>\n I do, however, think it\u2019s fair to say that center play is less important in today\u2019s NFL than it was in Mawae\u2019s era. There aren\u2019t many dominant nose tackles anchoring the middle of the defense line. These days, a defensive lineman is setting up directly across from center<\/a> less than 5 percent of the time.<\/p>\n Last week the Jets\u2019 starting left guard John Simpson suffered an injury. It kept him out of the team\u2019s preseason opener against the Green Bay Packers.<\/p>\n The Jets moved last year\u2019s starting center Joe Tippmann at left guard and slid in projected backup center Josh Myers in Tippmann\u2019s spot at center.<\/p>\n I will be honest. When I first heard about this, I wasn\u2019t thrilled. We all have been through the Alijah Vera-Tucker experience. The Jets shifted AVT around four of the five offensive line positions in his first two years in the league. In back to back seasons he suffered a season-ending injury after being shifted from guard to tackle. We can\u2019t say for sure how much changing positions had to do with him suffering injuries. Still, the big takeaway seemed to be don\u2019t move a young lineman after he finds a position where he has success.<\/p>\n Still the more I thought about it, the more I couldn\u2019t shake the idea that perhaps Tippmann\u2019s talents aren\u2019t fully utilized at center. He\u2019s so big and so strong. He could be a legitimate road grating offensive linemen. Yet with this modern shift in defenses, guards get to utilize their one on one blocking skills while centers are typically helping with a double team.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/3-4defense.png\"\/)
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