Jets select Missouri offensive tackle Armand Membou with the No. 7 overall pick in NFL draft

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Jets select Missouri offensive tackle Armand Membou with the No. 7 overall pick in NFL draft

2025-04-25 11:53 Last Updated At：12:01

FLORHAM PARK, N.J. (AP) — The New York Jets now have a pair of big, physical, first-round building blocks for their offensive line.

Missouri offensive tackle Armand Membou was taken by the Jets with the No. 7 overall pick in the NFL draft on Thursday night. The addition of Membou comes a year after New York drafted Olu Fashanu with the 11th overall pick.

“I think the Jets' O-line has a good, young foundation,” Membou said during a video call a few minutes after he was drafted. “I feel like adding me to it, you know, the work I'm going to put in to this organization, we'll be very good up in the trenches.”

With the Jets entering the draft with several needs, including at right tackle, new general manager Darren Mougey and coach Aaron Glenn opted to continue upgrading the offensive line.

“He’s mean, he’s nasty, he’s tough,” Glenn said of Membou. “What we’re trying to do on offense, he really fits what we’re trying to do, so it was a no-brainer. I mean, once the pick was there for us, man, it was like, this is the guy.”

Fashanu started at both offensive tackle spots last year, but played well late after he took over on the left side for the injured Tyron Smith. Fashanu will stay at left tackle and Mougey said Membou will compete to take over on the right side.

“I had a feeling this was going to be my home,” said Membou, who added he had good conversations with the Jets leading up to the draft.

New York has an opening at right tackle after Morgan Moses signed with New England as a free agent last month. New York also has Carter Warren, Max Mitchell and Chukwuma Okorafor who could play right tackle, but the 6-foot-4, 330-pound Membou could be a plug-in and play option.

Membou has terrific speed and body control and has been impressive as a pass blocker. He was a second-team All-SEC selection last season after starting 12 games at right tackle for Missouri. He also allowed no sacks last season as a junior and should help provide protection for new Jets quarterback Justin Fields.

“They're getting a mauler, for sure,” Membou said. “A mauler in the run game and then in pass pro, I'm someone who's very consistent. I'm going to make sure to keep my quarterback clean.”

Membou’s selection at No. 7 marked the first time the Jets have taken a player in that spot in the NFL draft.

“It's definitely been long and was a little confusing at first because I wasn't sure where I'd go,” Membou said of his journey to the draft. “I was still debating whether I was going to go back to school or not. But in my heart, I knew I was ready. I just knew it was my time to go and I'm glad I trusted my decision.”

Glenn has said he envisions an offense that includes a physical rushing attack behind the Jets' trio of running backs with Breece Hall, Braelon Allen and Isaiah Davis. And Membou thinks he'll fit right in.

“Like I said, I'm a mauler,” he said. “So, whatever they need to do, it don't matter — just run behind me, really.”

Glenn pointed out that teams in his previous stops as an assistant in New Orleans and Detroit were successful after building their offensive lines, something he and Mougey are trying to do in New York. Glenn also sees some resemblances in Membou to Lions two-time All-Pro offensive tackle Penei Sewell.

“The mentality and the demeanor of the player is exactly the same,” Glenn said. "That’s what attracted me to that player, first and foremost. And then you start seeing, athletically, how he moves, and then that attracts you. And then when you get a chance to talk to the player and get to know exactly who he is as a person, then that attracts you also.

“So it was like a perfect storm on that guy being a Jet.”

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New Jersey Transit issues warning for riders ahead of potential rail strike

2025-05-16 01:19 Last Updated At：01:20

New Jersey Transit urged riders to reach their destinations before the end of the day Thursday or risk being stranded as talks continued in a bid to avert a rail strike by train engineers that would affect some 350,000 commuters who work in New Jersey and New York City.

The advisory provided riders with details on contingency plans that would take effect if engineers walk off the job at 12:01 a.m. EDT Friday. The agency plans to increase bus service, saying it would add “very limited” capacity to existing New York commuter bus routes in close proximity to rail stations and will contract with private carriers to operate bus service from key regional park-and-ride locations during weekday peak periods.

However, the agency noted that the buses would not be able to handle close to the same number of passengers — only about 20% of current rail customers — so it is has urged people who can work from home to do so if there is a strike.

NJ Transit — the nation’s third largest transit system — operates buses and rail in the state, providing nearly 1 million weekday trips, including into New York City. A walkout would halt all NJ Transit commuter trains, which provide heavily used public transit routes between New York City’s Penn Station on one side of the Hudson River and communities in northern New Jersey on the other as well as the Newark airport, which has grappled with unrelated delays of its own recently.

Wages have been the main sticking point of the negotiations between the agency and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen. The union says its members earn an average salary of $113,000 a year and says an agreement could be reached if agency CEO Kris Kolluri agrees to an average yearly salary of $170,000.

NJ Transit leadership, though, disputes the union’s data, saying the engineers have average total earnings of $135,000 annually, with the highest earners exceeding $200,000.

If the walkout happens, it would be the state’s first transit strike in more than 40 years. It comes a month after union members overwhelmingly rejected a labor agreement with management.

The parties met Monday with a federal mediation board in Washington to discuss the dispute, but both sides and the board have declined to comment on whether any progress has been made in subsequent talks this week.