After a solid second season, Joe Tippmann seemed locked in as the starting center for the Jets for the foreseeable future. The Athletic’s Zach Rosenblatt [suggests this might not](https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6373468/2025/05/22/new-york-jets-practice-report-justin-fields/) be the case.
> There could be a legitimate competition at center between Joe Tippmann and free-agent signee Josh Myers — something general manager Darren Mougey alluded to at the league meeting in March. “Those guys are battling their asses off right now, just competing,” guard John Simpson said. “They both are super intelligent and just fighting. They’re warriors.”
It isn’t entirely clear whether Rosenblatt has solid information about the way the Jets are approaching this or whether he is just speculating.
To be honest, I think teams are too passive about handing starting jobs to players. The NFL is a league where competition is fierce. I don’t have a problem with forcing players to continue to earn their starting jobs. I have a tough time envisioning a scenario where Myers would start over Tippmann. Tippmann is just a better player. Still I don’t have a problem with making him earn it and forcing him to keep his focus sharp through training camp.
You do frequently see in new regimes that seemingly established players need to prove themselves anew. Tippmann wasn’t drafted by Aaron Glenn and Darren Mougey. Thus he doesn’t have the same kind of equity he had with Joe Douglas and Robert Saleh.
One of the big tests for me is whether Glenn and Mougey force their own picks to earn it like this a few years down the line. It’s easy to do this to somebody else’s selections. Will you do it to your own? If so, we might see a culture of competition grow here.