Tippmann embraced moving to guard
A year has made quite a difference for Joe Tippmann.
One year ago today, former starting right guard Alijah Vera-Tucker suffered a season-ending triceps tear in practice. Tippmann, who had beaten out Josh Myers for the starting center job, had to slide over to right guard and has played there ever since.
Tippmann has excelled in his new spot and was rewarded with a four-year, $62 million contract extension in June.
“It's been a great transition,” Tippmann said. “As soon as they told me Week 1 of the season, ‘Hey, we need you to move over.’ I fully embraced it. Now at this point it's something that I'm really excited about and get to continue playing guard.”
Tippmann would watch other NFL centers to try and help his game. Now he’s watching guards and likes that he has twice as many options to choose from. He recently tried snapping a football for the first time in a long time.
“Just seeing if I still had it,” Tippmann said. “I had my hand all taped up, so they didn't look very good.”
Al Iannazzone covers the Jets for Newsday after spending nearly two decades on the NBA beat with Knicks and Nets.
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