If you would have told Ben Ijalana way back in April that he would be suiting up as the starting left tackle for the Jets, he would have had every right to treat it like an April Fool’s joke.
Ijalana, a five-year veteran, was a free agent, sitting at home waiting for the phone to ring. He’d spent the three previous seasons serving as the back-up to iron man D’Brickashaw Ferguson, thus never playing a single snap at left tackle during his time with Gang Green. When Ijalana hit free agency, there was nary a word from a single media outlet suggesting a strong interest in having Ijalana back in 2016, but that all changed in the blink of an eye.