Jets rookie O-lineman Armand Membou will be tested right out of the gate
Jets offensive tackle Armand Membou answers questions from reporters after practice on July 26 in Florham Park, N.J. Credit: Noah K. Murray
FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — Armand Membou gasped and looked overwhelmed by fear when he found out what he might have to deal with in his NFL debut on Sunday.
It had nothing to do with T.J. Watt.
The Jets’ rookie right tackle was at his locker chatting amiably about the “blessing” it is to get this opportunity to play and how it is sure to be something he will remember his entire life when the topic of the pregame introductions came up.
Membou had no idea what that entailed, obviously having never seen a Jets game at MetLife Stadium in person before. Usually, he was told, there are lasers and flames and smoke machines as the starters from either the offense or defense are roll-called onto the field.
“They do?” he asked with the same wonder tourists have while gaping at New York’s skyscrapers. “I guess I’ll see it once I get out there.”
In college at the University of Missouri, he never had to worry about that stuff. The whole team just filtered out of the locker room and the game kicked off.
Then he was told that he should have some kind of a dance prepared for his entrance if the offense is introduced on Sunday. Something like what Ray Lewis is famous for. That’s when the panic fully hit him.
“Really?”
No. Not really.
“Oh, I was about to say,” he exhaled with relief, his eyes returning to their normal proportions. “I’ll probably just jog out.”
If that’s the biggest challenge for Membou on Sunday, simply getting onto the field a little before 1 o’clock in the afternoon, it will be a really good day for him and the Jets.
Steelers linebacker T.J. Watt warms up before a preseason game on Aug. 21 in Charlotte, North Carolina. Credit: Getty Images/David Jensen
It won’t be the biggest one, though. There will be plenty of other things for him to worry about and try to measure up against. Things for which he is prepared and things for which, as a rookie, he cannot possibly be.
And yes, this time, Watt, the three-time NFL sack leader, four-time first-team All-Pro and 2021 Defensive Player of the Year for the opposing Steelers, is definitely on the list.
There may be tougher draws to start one’s career, but it’s hard to imagine one.
“He is a tremendous athlete,” Jets offensive coordinator Tanner Engstrand said of Watt. “He has relentless pursuit, great effort. Experience. He’s just a solid all-around player who is a handful for a lot of people.”
And he’s going to ask a rookie to block that guy?
“We brought Armand in here for a reason,” he said of the seventh overall pick in April’s draft. “He’s up to the challenge. Not to say that it’s not going to be challenging, but we feel great about it. We feel great about where he’s at and where our plan is. It’ll be a good one on Sunday.”
Membou said he has spent most of his week studying his opponent.
“A lot of game-planning,” he said. “A lot of watching film because you know he’s a great player. I’ve been really dogged in that this week . . . [Watching] the way he rushes, his sacks, what he wins on the most, stuff like that. What he does the best. And then what I have to do to be able to have success against him.
“There is a lot that goes into that,” he said when asked what he came up with. “But just playing my game.”
That was the advice given to Membou by teammates.
“Just play his game,” said quarterback Justin Fields, whose well-being relies in large part on Membou being adequate. “Of course he’s not going to be perfect. He’s going against one of the best pass rushers in the NFL for his first start, so one day he’s going to look back and kind of laugh at it. But when you’re in the game, he’s going to win some reps, T.J. is going to win some reps and that’s just how football goes.”
“Just play your own game, be yourself,” starting left tackle Olu Fashanu said. “There is a reason why he is here and the reason he plays. If I were him, I wouldn’t overthink it. He’s done a great job ever since he’s been here, putting in a lot of work. Be himself and play free.”
One thing Fashanu couldn’t offer any guidance on was being an opening day starter. Despite also being a first-round pick last year, Fashanu didn’t play in Week 1 in San Francisco and didn’t see the field until Week 3. Another highly drafted lineman, Joe Tippmann, taken in the second round in 2023, also didn’t play until Week 3 as a rookie. Membou is the first Jets rookie to be a Week 1 starter on the line since 2021, when Alijah Vera-Tucker did it.
And now not even he will be around to help Membou navigate this debut. The Jets lost Vera-Tucker , their starting right guard, for the season to a torn triceps on Tuesday. He was going to be Membou’s wingman, but now that role will be filled by someone else, someone who hasn’t yet played next to the rookie all summer.
Another obstacle.
The good news is that no one is expecting Membou to be perfect. Against Watt, few are. Watt has had at least one sack in each of his eight career Week 1 games in the NFL and undoubtedly expects to keep that streak going against such a green blocker.
Even beyond this Watt matchup, though, and perhaps beyond that “feel great about it” forced bravado from Engstrand, the Jets have been trying to calm expectations around Membou.
In the third preseason game, Membou’s final tune-up for Sunday’s regular-season start, he committed two penalties in only three drives. Afterward, coach Aaron Glenn noted that there will be growing pains for him.
“That is one of the hardest positions to come in at as a rookie and have everything down pat,” Glenn said last month. “I don’t know too many guys that, at that position, can do that. It’s going to be a learning curve for him, and that’s OK. He’s going to be a damn good player for us. I have all the confidence in the world for him . . . I look forward to how he progresses throughout the season because he’s going to be a good one for us.”
On Sunday, he probably won’t be at that level just yet.
“Membou knows he has a tough job ahead of him, and we all know that,” Glenn said on Tuesday. “So we have to do everything we can to help him, and this week’s practice is going to be vital for him to make sure that he’s on point. That’s no secret he’s going to go against Watt, so he’s going to go out there and do the best he can.”
Maybe that will be good enough. If anything, he probably won’t face an edge rusher as daunting as Watt for a while.
Membou said he isn’t worried about how he plays.
“I’m not really thinking about anything individually,” he said when asked what he wants to take away from Sunday. “A win, really. That’s the biggest thing.”
And, of course, a clean entrance onto the field.
Fashanu was told about Membou’s reaction of dread to his potential introduction on Sunday and laughed loudly at the rookie’s vow to simply jog onto the field.
Then he thought about it for a moment. He thought about the quiet player whom he has learned so much about since they became fellow Jets, fellow tackles and fellow first-round picks in the spring. He contemplated the 21-year-old bookend opposite himself who he said is “super-aggressive” and “gives his all at everything.”
Maybe that will apply to the pregame ceremonies, too.
“There is a chance he might do something interesting,” Fashanu said of Membou’s looming charge through the tunnel. “You never know.”
The same probably could be said for when the game actually begins, too.