The New York Jets moment of the day remembers the 2006 NFL draft when Mike Tannenbaum and Eric Mangini snagged D’Brickashaw Ferguson.
Friday morning, Aug. 14, 2020, the morning that kicks off another New York Jets August for the media.
Although practice has been ongoing at Florham Park, NJ, the media will be on the scene this day to get a glimpse of the new squad. Among the notable new attractions is a mountain of a man at left tackle, Mekhi Becton.
Finally, the organization drafted a first-round offensive lineman—the first in 14 years, the first since the 2006 NFL draft when the Jets selected the one and only D’Brickashaw Ferguson.
Few great NFL players fly under the radar as low as the man the kids call Brick. Drafted fourth overall out of Virginia, he—along with Nick Mangold (selected later in the same round)—would spearhead one of the top rosters in the NFL from 2008-2010.
The three-time Pro-Bowler and all-time great Jet never missed a game. The iron man played in all 16 games in each of his 10 professional seasons. And if not for a freak play in Week 17 of 2008 (desperation play that saw Darrelle Revis replace him), he would have played a total of 10,708-straight snaps in the league, hundreds better than former Cleveland Browns great Joe Thomas, who holds the NFL record.
Interestingly, that 2006 draft class was loaded. Mario Williams, Reggie Bush, Vince Young and Matt Leinart headed the class, but the rookie duo of Mike Tannenbaum and Eric Mangini simply was not having it. They knew they needed to start from the trenches and did just that with Brick and Nick.
Leinart was forced to wait a little bit longer while Ferguson’s selection marked the changing of a guard for an organization on the rise.
Today, all eyes will be on the next first-round rookie in town, Mekhi Becton. It’s about time.
