UPDATE: Brown has been activated off the injured reserve and will make his Jets debut on Sunday against the Dolphins.
Head coach Robert Saleh said earlier in the week that veteran left tackle Duane Brown was going to be a game-time decision for Sunday’s game with the Dolphins – but after logging a full practice Friday, Brown says he is “good to go” for his first game with Gang Green.
"Everything went well," Saleh said Friday. "He's being evaluated today and tomorrow just to see how it works out. Obviously, the load today will be a little bit less than yesterday, but we'll see how it goes."
Brown, 37, signed with the Jets after Mekhi Becton was lost for the season, but ended up on IR on Sept. 10 thanks to a shoulder injury. He was activated from IR when eligible on Monday, apparently coming all the way back from a shoulder issue for which “surgery was an option” at one point.
But, despite Saleh’s game-time tag, the veteran is ready to rock.
“Everything's been good,” Brown said after practice. "As of now, I'd imagine I'd be good to go, so far.”
The four games Brown missed irked him because he had missed just 22 games in his first 14 NFL seasons, and played every game in three of his four full seasons in Seattle, and were even more troublesome because he was trying to integrate into his new team.
“I don't have a history of missing games, and when you're trying to integrate yourself into a new team, gain everyone's respect and to get sidelined, it's tough, in more ways than one,” he said. “Credit to the locker room. They really supported me a lot throughout the process, the coaching staff supported me and the training staff, everyone getting me to the point where I feel confident to get back and contribute.”
He’s now excited to suit up, finally, for his third squad.
“It's exciting. This game is everything to me. I came here with high expectations for myself and what I could contribute to the team and being sidelined the first four games was tough,” Brown said. “So the chance to get back and do my thing, be out there with the guys, it means everything to me.”
And no, he says, the Jets’ line issues didn’t accelerate the timeline – he was always prepared to return as soon as able, even as Gang Green lined up converted guard Alijah Vera-Tucker and rookie Max McDermott as Zach Wilson’s bookends last Sunday.
“No, I didn’t want to wait any more days,” he said. “Credit to the line; everyone shuffling around, guys stepping in and contributing, they made the pressure not as hard to try to get back immediately. But I had the mindset, as soon as that four weeks was up, to be able to come back."
Mitchell is out indefinitely with a knee injury, so if Brown slots in at left tackle, they could either move AVT to the right side, or slide him back to guard – where Nate Herbig filled in last week – and go with Conor McDermott, who came in Sunday to replace the injured Mitchell.
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