{"id":314864,"date":"2025-08-24T22:51:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-24T22:51:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/314864\/"},"modified":"2025-08-24T22:51:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-24T22:51:09","slug":"jeremy-ruckerts-bulldozing-blocking-ability-aligns-with-philosophy-of-jets-coach-aaron-glenn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/314864\/","title":{"rendered":"Jeremy Ruckert’s bulldozing blocking ability aligns with philosophy of Jets coach Aaron Glenn"},"content":{"rendered":"

For most of his career Jeremy Ruckert<\/a> has been a player who tantalized coaches with what he might be able to do, sometimes to the point of overlooking the things he actually did do. They tried to turn the 6-5, 250-pound tight end with long arms and good hands into a weapon in the passing game. Ruckert obliged, of course, and has contributed as much as possible in that area throughout his time as a Jet. In three seasons as a backup he has caught 35 passes for 264 yards.<\/p>\n

His true strength all along, though, has been his ability to block. That was what made him a success at Ohio State, what made him a draft pick of the previous Jets regime, and now, at the end of his fourth preseason with the team he grew up rooting for, what he believes endears him to his new head coach, Aaron Glenn.<\/p>\n

This staff wants to be physical, violent, and run the ball with regularity and ferocity.<\/p>\n

Those just happen to be Ruckert\u2019s strengths. So he\u2019s settling in as the sixth offensive lineman with a group that figures to be doing quite a bit of straight-ahead bulldozing now that the regular season is approaching.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s no secret that in order to win in this league you have to be able to run the football,\u201d Ruckert told Newsday after Friday night\u2019s preseason finale against the Eagles<\/a>. \u201cMy role specifically is to win that C gap and play every down and feel comfortable out there doing whatever they ask\u2026 I feel good about it, feel good about the direction we\u2019re going with these running backs and Justin (Fields at quarterback). I\u2019m excited about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The C gap, by the way, is the space just beyond the offensive tackle. That\u2019s now Ruckert\u2019s office. See gap, clear gap.<\/p>\n

The Jets have other players in the tight end room who can handle the pass catching. They drafted Mason Taylor for that role. Taylor will likely be listed as the starting tight end when the 53-man depth chart is published later this week. But Ruckert\u2019s role could be more important.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe one thing I like more than anything, he\u2019s a true Y tight end, meaning he\u2019s a guy who can get in line and move people off the ball,\u201d Glenn said of Ruckert earlier this month in camp. \u201cHe\u2019s shown that in practice. To be able to have a 6-technique standing in front of you \u2014 a man that\u2019s 280 pounds \u2014 and being able to block that man, it\u2019s hard to do for a tight end and he\u2019s been doing a pretty good job at that. There’s more for him to improve on, but I like where he’s going.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like I had a good camp,\u201d Ruckert said. \u201cThere were a lot of things I wanted to work on, be more consistent, being a dominant blocker, and to keep building that mindset, keep growing. I feel like I did a good job of that. They\u2019re pretty clear in what they expect out of us and our unit so I feel good about how I progressed and excited to keep this rolling.\u201d<\/p>\n

That said, this is always a tenuous time of year for players\u2026 particularly ones in the last year of their rookie contracts like Ruckert. There has been some speculation \u2013 mostly fan-generated but some from closer observers \u2013 that Ruckert\u2019s days with the Jets could be coming to an end with roster cuts looming on Tuesday.\u00a0The fact he played in Friday\u2019s preseason game against the Eagles when many of the other starters and veterans did not only adds to the uncertainty.<\/p>\n

Ruckert knows nothing is guaranteed.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou never know, but I feel good about it,\u201d he said of his chances of sticking around. \u201cI feel good about the way I prepared and the way I carried myself to work every day. My relationship with the guys, with the staff, I feel good about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s spent the summer in a very crowded and diverse tight ends room that, besides Taylor, also included Stone Smartt who made some standout plays in practices and preseason games (he is the one who knocked Giants first-round pick Abdul Carter off his feet with a chip block) as well as fullback Andrew Beck. The Jets may be looking for an upgrade at the position, too, so making it through Tuesday\u2019s initial cutdown for any of those players won\u2019t necessarily mean a secure spot on the team after waiver claims are made.<\/p>\n

Ruckert has something else going for him that none of the others have, however, and that is experience with the Jets. Whether that is a good thing or a bad thing in the eyes of this new front office remains to be seen. Either way he has emerged as a young leader in a position room where he suddenly finds himself the longest tenured player on the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cVocal,\u201d Smartt said of Ruckert. \u201cVery vocal. He\u2019s a New York kid through and through. For me, coming out here from California, he\u2019s shown me the ropes both on and off the field. Been very helpful. Having guys like that in the room that you are able to feed off of both energy and scheme-wise has been beneficial. He\u2019s a real big asset.\u201d<\/p>\n

So the kid who grew up in Lindenhurst dreaming of playing for the Jets<\/a> isn\u2019t allowing himself to even consider that his career might soon take him elsewhere.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t even think about that,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m just where my feet are at.\u201d<\/p>\n

For now they remain in Florham Park doing \u2013 perhaps finally focusing on — what he is best at.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019re going to have a strong room this year,\u201d he said of the tight ends, \u201ca group to be able to lean on, and keep this train that A.G. is trying to build rolling.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jets deal Nnadi<\/p>\n

Days after acquiring two defensive tackles in trades the Jets shipped one away. They sent Derrick Nnadi along with a conditional seventh-round pick in 2027 to Kansas City in exchange for a conditional sixth-rounder in 2027, a source confirmed. Nnadi, 29, was a starter for Kansas City during their two Super Bowl-winning seasons, came off the bench for them last year, and came to the Jets in March on a one-year, $1.4 million deal. The Jets acquired Harrison Phillips from the Vikings and Jowon Briggs from the Browns in separate trades last week with the expectation they will bolster the position beside Pro Bowler Quinnen Williams this season.<\/p>\n

Team releases seven\u00a0players<\/p>\n

The Jets announced they released LB Jamin Davis and waived QB Adrian Martinez, DE Michael Fletcher, T Liam Forandel, TE Zach Kuntz, DB Tanner McCalister and RB Lawrance Toafili.<\/p>\n

\"Tom<\/p>\n

\n\tTom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was\u00a0Newsday’s Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For most of his career Jeremy Ruckert has been a player who tantalized coaches with what he might…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":314865,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2051],"tags":[7,226,26083,1917,255,2321,2097,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-314864","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-jets","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-jets","10":"tag-li-athletes","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-jets","13":"tag-newyork","14":"tag-newyorkjets","15":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115086195824771863","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=314864"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314864\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/314865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}