Reporting from Florham Park, NJ—The smiles coming from the faces of New York Jets head coach Aaron Glenn and general manager Darren Mougey were hard to ignore Thursday night.
The Jets had a plan. They knew they wanted to draft Missouri tackle Armand Membou.
After about an hour of waiting, they finally got their wish. Membou became the Jets’ seventh overall selection, immediately filling that massive depth chart hole on the right side of the offensive line.
That wasn’t the only reason New York focused its draft efforts on the 21-year-old.
It starts in the trenches
NFL coaches are creatures of habit. If one is an assistant on a successful squad, the chances are pretty good that one will attempt to emulate such success.
That has happened to Glenn and the Jets this offseason.
The former Detroit Lions and New Orleans Saints defensive assistant explained how his time with both organizations helped him reach a consensus on Membou.
“I come from two teams, of my previously last coaching stops, where everything was about the offensive line,” Glenn told the media shortly after the Membou choice. “I was in New Orleans where we drafted (Ryan) Ramczyk. We had Terron (Armstead). In Detroit, we started with Penei (Sewell), and I’m a firm believer that you start it inside out, so if we can build our line, just as much as our defensive line, also, that only helps you as a team. It helps your quarterback, it helps your running backs, it helps your passing game, and it just creates an identity within your team that you’re trying to make sure that every team, when they watch film, they see that.
“So, it’s important for us to make sure that we continue to look at that and continue to do that, and he’s a guy, like I said before, that easily fits who we are. So, the pick was really easy.”
New York has drafted an offensive lineman in the first two rounds over four of the last five drafts. Penn State left tackle Olu Fashanu was snagged with the 11th overall pick last season as part of their offensive line rebuild.
That was under a different regime, though. The Mougey-Glenn era noticed a need at right tackle this offseason.
While they could have taken a skill player on offense or an edge rusher on defense, Glenn understood the background needed to build a sustained winner. And that always starts along the offensive line.
