New York Jets offensive line coach Dave DeGuglielmo said Thursday he detests his left guard rotation between Matt Slauson and Vladimir Ducasse, but that decision isn't up to him.
Brandt: Tebow not an NFL QB
Tim Tebow has talent, Gil Brandt says, but if he wants to stay in the NFL, he'll have to try a different position. **More ...**
"That's a directive from high above me," DeGuglielmo said Thursday in a testy sit-down with reporters, via The Associated Press. "You'd have to ask somebody higher than me."
If DeGuglielmo had his druthers, Slauson would get the snaps, not Ducasse, the second-round draft pick who has struggled throughout his three-year NFL career.
"He's playing well enough to be an every third series guy, maybe," DeGuglielmo said of Ducasse. "Slauson is a big, tough, smart, strong kid," the coach said of the 2009 sixth-round pick out of Nebraska. "That's what he is. There are too few of those guys in the world."
Slauson took a pay cut before the season and will be a free agent at the end of this year, while Ducasse is looking more and more like another failed draft pick by Jets general manager Mike Tannenbaum.
DeGuglielmo said despite his misgivings, he will continue the rotation.
"What's best is for me to do what I'm told to do," he said. "That's what's best."
The Jets' offensive line has been criticized for not protecting quarterback Mark Sanchez and not creating openings for the running game, but DeGuglielmo doesn't agree.
"Everyone's going to look at the film and evaluate it as they wish," he said. "I know I get comments from my boss, his boss and even his boss, and the owner, and they don't seem to be dissatisfied."
Follow Kevin Patra on Twitter @kpatra.
