Nick Mangold is an offensive lineman, so of course, if you ask him where the Jets should look with their two Top 10 picks in April’s NFL Draft, you wouldn’t be surprised that he’d look to the big men up front.
That’s exactly what he did when he joined Tiki & Tierney on Tuesday and tried to settle the debate between the hosts, but he also had a little love for the other side, too.
“As an offensive lineman, I always say take a lineman,” he laughed. “I’m not 100 percent a draft expert, but I know this: we need help getting after the passer, so if you go defense, I want that Micah Parsons-type player, a guy who can come in and get those sacks.”
Parsons was drafted 12th overall, and with the Jets sitting at No. 4 and No. 10, they have a good shot at nailing the edge rusher portion of Mangold’s idea (three edges are in the Top 7 prospects as ranked by Pro Football Focus, for example).
On the other side, there are five offensive linemen in the Top 20…but the best choice for the Jets may be Iowa center Tyler Linderbaum, who PFF had as the highest-graded center in the country in both 2020 and 2021, this year’s 95.4 the highest PFF ever handed out to a Power Five center.
“If he’s as good as we think he is, then yes,” Mangold said of Linderbaum. “The Jets have a bit of an advantage coaching at the Senior Bowl, because they’ll be able to get a feel for some of these guys.”
Mangold, the No. 29 overall pick in 2006, is the highest-picked center in Jets history, but he’s okay if the Jets change that in a few months.
“I believed I was a top 10 pick but I wasn’t, and I still would like to be the highest center picked by Jets,” Mangold laughed, “but if he’s as good as they say he is, I’d be afraid someone is going to jump and get him, because teams have put emphasis on finding a center.”
An offensive lineman would mark the third straight year the Jets took one in the Top 14, after taking Alijah Vera-Tucker No. 14 last year and Mekhi Becton No. 11 in 2020. That latter player, however, is one that even puzzles Mangold, who believes the big man should be an anchor for Gang Green.
“This is a big offseason where he can get healthy and prove he deserve to play,” Mangold said. “I think he loves football and I think he loves mauling people, but my guess is he wasn’t ready for the grind of the NFL.
In your rookie year you just kind of take it all in, but the NFL is 10-hour days that start in April and go through January, which is a lot, so I think that hindered him a bit.”
And, of course, Becton getting hurt in Week 1 didn’t help, but neither did the controversy surrounding a timeline that should’ve had him back for the second half, but saw him not even make it back at all.
“Unfortunately, his situation is why I don’t like when teams or players put timelines on things – if you’re early you’re showing off, and if you’re late people wonder why it took so long,” Mangold said. “There might have been something else that doesn’t have to be put in the injury report, a re-injury or issues there. But I was disappointed, because when you see a six-to-eight week timeline and it’s the full season, you miss out on being able to see any improvements.”
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