The New York Jets are set to sign former Las Vegas Raiders guard Dylan Parham to a two-year, $16 million contract, according to a team source.

When Alijah Vera-Tucker and John Simpson left for free-agent contracts elsewhere, it left the Jets with a hole at left guard. General manager Darren Mougey moved quickly to fill it, locking in what looks to be a solid offensive line heading into the 2026 season. The Jets have not had that too often over the years, at least not since more than a decade ago when center Nick Mangold and left tackle D’Brickashaw Ferguson anchored the front five. But they feel like they have it now, especially now that all five projected starters are under 30 years old and all but one is under contract beyond the 2026 season. The Jets also re-signed guard/tackle Max Mitchell to a one-year deal on Wednesday.

As for Parham: He’s a 26-year-old guard who ranked 78th overall in The Athletic’s Top 150 free agency rankings, and eighth among guards to hit free agency.

How he fits

Parham will plug right in as the Jets’ starting left guard. He had an up-and-down season with the Raiders in 2025, though that was a dysfunctional situation across the board (just ask new Jets quarterback Geno Smith). Per PFF, Parham allowed six sacks (the second-most among all guards) and 28 pressures in 15 games last year. He graded out right down the middle in terms of run-blocking — 33rd of 63 to play at least 500 snaps, per PFF — and finished 19th in pass-block win rate among all interior offensive linemen, per ESPN.

Parham was much better in 2024, when PFF had him graded 18th overall, 13th in run blocking and 30th in pass blocking — he also ranked 14th in ESPN’s pass-block win rate that season. Here’s what former Raiders offensive line coach James Cregg said about him in 2024: “Very athletic young man got a good, strong lower body to him, obviously has the strength and quickness to go along with what we want. I think he’s grown quite a bit from last season. Obviously, I wasn’t around him that much, but I could see it right now how he learns, how he’s developing, and I think that’s a huge asset for him.”

Another added benefit of adding Parham: He has experience playing left guard, right guard and center, which should give the Jets some flexibility if injuries happen, or if they like someone enough in the NFL Draft to pick them early and shuffle things up front.

This was Daniel Popper’s scouting report on Parham from The Athletic’s rankings: “Parham has quick feet to mirror rushers and get himself out of compromised positions as a pass protector. He lacks the pad level and power to generate consistent movement in the run game. The pad level issues also show up in pass protection against bull rushes. He loses balance and leverage too often, and he is susceptible on T-E stunts. He lacks some feel and awareness in these situations.”

2026 roster impact

The Jets went into the offseason with two quality offensive linemen set to hit free agency — Vera-Tucker and Simpson — and the thought was that Mougey head coach Aaron Glenn would ultimately choose between the two of them to be the starting left guard in 2026. (Simpson held that job the last two years; Vera-Tucker missed all of last season with an injury.)

Instead of bringing back one of them, the Jets didn’t bring back either. So the Jets pivoted and explored various options in the lower-cost veteran free agent market and landed on Parham, who, according to SNY, will only have $7.49 million of his contract guaranteed.

This, for the time being, locks in the Jets’ starting offensive line as such: left tackle Olu Fashanu, left guard Dylan Parham, center Josh Myers, right guard Joe Tippmann and right tackle Armand Membou. Four out of those five linemen are locked into contracts beyond 2026. The other, Tippmann, is eligible for an extension, conversations that will likely happen later this offseason after he had a good season switching from center to guard last year.

The Jets likely aren’t done adding to the offensive line either, as they still lack a reliable swing tackle to play behind their young, promising bookend tackles in Fashanu and Membou.

Zack Rosenblatt’s takeaway

This is a fine and understandable signing to make for a Jets team that needed to add a veteran at left guard after losing Simpson and Vera-Tucker. It’s fair to wonder why they didn’t just pay a few more million dollars to bring back Simpson, who signed for three years, $30 million with the Ravens. Ultimately, the Jets wanted to pay less, and Simpson was passionate about the idea of returning to Baltimore. Vera-Tucker also wanted to explore his market and he got paid handsomely for it.

It would be fair to point out that one of the defenses of Smith’s season in 2025 was that his offensive line wasn’t great, and now the Jets added one of those linemen. But if Parham can return to the way he played in 2024, then the Jets will have found themselves a young, solid starting left guard at minimal cost.