Super Bowl 2026: From the Jets to the Patriots to the Big Game. Here's the journey of Morgan Moses.
Former Jets offensive lineman and current Patriots offensive lineman Morgan Moses. Credit: Getty Images/Bryan M. Bennett; Bryan M. Bennett
SANTA CLARA, Calif. – When free agent Morgan Moses signed in March with a new team that was coming off just four wins in 2024 and undergoing a head coaching change after a few disappointing years in a row he couldn’t know for sure that he was going to a better place than he was leaving.
Then again . . .
“I mean, do you know who I played for last year?” he asked with a big smile.
It was the Jets.
“Alright, then,” he said.
In fact he had played for them twice (2021, 2024) in separate stints over the course of the previous four seasons with the Jets going 9-25 during his time there.
Still, Moses couldn’t have imagined it would work out this well for him with his new squad, the Patriots. On Sunday he will be their starting right tackle in Super Bowl LX against the Seahawks.
Morgan said he was drawn to New England not just by their history and lineage but by the people. He praised coach Mike Vrabel for talking with him about football but also family during the free agency process. And when he met quarterback Drake Maye and saw how he interacted with teammates it became clear to him.
“I knew it was a perfect match,” he said on Wednesday.
He’d also gone against some of those great Patriots teams throughout his career, not only as a Jet but also playing for Washington and Baltimore.
“I’ve never been on the good side,” he said of the rivalries against the Patriots. “But being here it’s been amazing. As an older guy, 34, in Year 12, I’ve learned more about football this year than I have learned in a long time . . . It’s been a great deal, man.”
While there are many obvious differences between the Patriots and Jets, there is at least one similarity in what Moses has brought to each squad these past two seasons. Last year in New York he served as a veteran leader for a young first-round pick starting opposite him at left tackle in Olu Fashanu. This year it’s been Will Campbell.
Asked what Moses has meant to him, Campbell said: “Everything.”
“Whenever you are a rookie coming into the league you always wonder what the veterans in the room are going to be like toward you and how they are going to treat you,” Campbell said. “He’s been nothing but helpful not only to me but to every single person in that room. Obviously he has so much experience on the field but he is just a great human being in general, a great leader, a great father. I try to learn as much from him as I can.”
“I had a great veteran leader in Trent Williams who did the same thing for me and the one thing he asked from me was to pass it down,” Moses said. “If you can help others in the room then the room will get better and eventually I will get better, especially in the offensive line room, then the sky is the limit.”
The Patriots are nearing that height. The Jets never did.
All jokes aside, Moses seemed appreciative for his time in New York. He was proud of fighting as best he could through a knee injury in Week 3 that ultimately required offseason surgery.
So yeah, we know who he played for last year. So does he. It didn’t guarantee success in New England, but now that he is finding it, it is making it all the sweeter.
“It’s been a hell of a journey, man,” he said. “I wouldn’t change it for anything.”
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
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