My Favourite Jets: #2

Edition #177

Good Morning.

We’re getting extremely close to training camp and the excitement is building. Sorry to repeat this but I know not everyone reads on a daily basis, I’m currently away on holiday with the family and I’ve pre-written the posts this week to ensure you get a little content into your inboxes. If there has been any breaking news in relation to the Jets, I’ll cover that when I get back.

Today I’m going to continue my countdown of my favorite Jets players of all time, but I’m going to be a bit cheeky with this one as I couldn’t separate the two.

On Monday we looked at wide receiver Don Maynard, on Tuesday it was the turn of Chad Pennington, and yesterday I swapped to the defensive side of the ball with David Harris. Today I’m switching back to the offense with Nick Mangold & D’Brickashaw Ferguson. I know…it’s cheating.

If you’ve been reading TJW for any length of time you’ll know that I’m a huge fan of offensive line play, I spent considerable time last season going through offensive line plays as part of the game recap and I have no doubt I’ll be doing the same this year. Hopefully, the theme is how Laken Tomlinson and co destroyed the opposition.

This got me thinking about the last great line the Jets had during the back-to-back AFC Championship appearances in 2009-2010, and it got me thinking about the two players mentioned above, the anchor in Nick Mangold and the left tackle in D’Brickashaw Ferguson. Both players I admired at the time, and that admiration has only grown considering the offensive line play we’ve had to suffer through over the last 5-6 years.

In a way, they’re always going to be tied together. One because of the success they saw on the line, both being present for the last Jets playoff run, which is depressing in itself considering Ferguson retired after the 2015 season and Mangold followed after the 2016 season. And two, because they both joined the team at the same time, as members of the 2006 draft class. It was the first time a team had taken two offensive linemen in the first round since the 1975 NFL Draft when the Los Angeles Rams took Dennis Harrah and Doug France.

Ferguson was brought in to replace Jason Fabini and Mangold was given the mammoth task of replacing Kevin Mawae, the fact that both of them started as rookies and never missed a beat is testament to their talent. Ferguson ended his career having played 160 consecutive games and 10,707 out of 10,708 regular season offensive snaps (damn that trick play). Mangold only missed 4 games through his first 10 years in the league before missing 50% of his final season in 2016 with an ankle injury.

If you consider the injuries we see in football today, the Jets were so incredibly fortunate to have both of these players stay healthy for basically a decade. It gave the Jets stability and made all the players around them significantly better. Although Ferguson has retreated away from the Jets spotlight since retiring, Mangold has been a consistent presence around the franchise, and is now the Jets ambassador to the UK making several appearances and forming a connection with the fanbase over here.

I’m not going to sit here and reel off all the accolades for both players because you probably already know that, but when they both left the team within a year of each other it left a gaping hole that the Jets have still yet to fill. We hope that Fant can be that player and we hope that McGovern can be that center, but we know they’re certainly no Brick and Mangold.

Before the draft many analysts considered Ferguson to be undersized for an NFL tackle, he played his senior year at Virginia at 295lbs but bulked up to 312lbs for the combine. I’ve heard since that the Jets had absolutely no reservations about him at 295 and actually wanted his athleticism. He was the only tackle taken in the first round of the draft that year which almost seems comical now with multiple tackles being taken almost every single year. Before that 2006 draft there was so much talk about the Jets trading with the Saints to enable them to jump up to #2 and take USC running back Reggie Bush, but I for one am happy we stayed where we were to take Brick. There was even talk the Jets would take Matt Leinhart, Bush’s QB at USC.

Both players represented success for me and that’s something that we’ve been starved of for a long time, they were both main players at a period where I started to write about the team, 2007 was the first year I joined Bleacher Report and 2009 was when I joined SB Nation, I even had the chance to speak to Ferguson over a decade ago and he was a truly nice guy who obviously cared deeply not only about his work on the field, but the causes that he supported off of it.

The same can be said for Nick.

"For the past 11 years, Nick Mangold has been a cornerstone of our team both on and off the field," said Jets owner Woody Johnson. "As our Pro Bowl center, Nick consistently demonstrated superior skill and unmatched toughness. Equally important, off the field, Nick exhibited respect, sensitivity and compassion for the causes he supported. It has been a privilege to have known Nick these many years and, for all of us, I say Nick will always be a Jet.”