{"id":341036,"date":"2025-09-04T13:02:14","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T13:02:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/341036\/"},"modified":"2025-09-04T13:02:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T13:02:14","slug":"jets-rookie-armand-membous-nfl-debut-against-t-j-watt-just-got-even-tougher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/341036\/","title":{"rendered":"Jets Rookie Armand Membou’s NFL Debut Against T.J. Watt Just Got Even Tougher"},"content":{"rendered":"

New York Jets rookie RT Armand Membou already had a tough matchup against T.J. Watt, but now it\u2019s even harder. On virtually the eve of his NFL debut, he just lost his dance partner at right guard. On Wednesday, veteran RG Alijah Vera-Tucker suffered a significant injury<\/a>. As talented as Membou is, he\u2019s never played an NFL game and is going up against one of the best.<\/p>\n

And Jets HC Aaron Glenn made no bones about that earlier this week. \u201cListen, Membou knows he has a tough job ahead of him, and we all know that\u201d, he said<\/a>. \u201cWe have to do everything we can to help him, and this week\u2019s practice is gonna be vital for him to make sure he\u2019s on point. There\u2019s no secret he\u2019s gonna go against Watt, so he\u2019s gonna go out there and do the best he can\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Jets selected Armand Membou seventh overall in the 2025 NFL Draft, the second OL off the board. There is no doubting the 21-year-old Missouri product\u2019s talent, but you don\u2019t simply step into the NFL and dominate. Not against an elite rush rusher like T.J. Watt.<\/p>\n

Vera-Tucker was going to be critical in helping Membou navigate his first game, even helping to block Watt. The Jets will still have a right guard, of course, but it won\u2019t be the one Membou has built a rapport with. If anything, New York will have to devote even more attention and additional bodies to defend Watt.<\/p>\n

And that, obviously, could open the door for others, particularly Alex Highsmith on the other side. The Jets have another young first-round tackle on the left in Olu Fashanu, who started seven games last season as a rookie. The Steelers, of course, have their own young first-round tackles, but they\u2019ve been working against Watt and Highsmith all offseason. Membou has only seen Watt on highlight reels.<\/p>\n

And lest we forget, Membou will be trying to protect Justin Fields, a quarterback who takes a sack on more than one-tenth of his drop backs. Last year with the Steelers, Fields posted a career-best sack rate\u2014and that was 9.04 percent.<\/p>\n

At least publicly, Fields isn\u2019t worrying<\/a> about Membou\u2019s ability to protect him going against Watt. \u201cJust play his game. Of course he\u2019s not gonna be perfect\u201d, he advised. \u201cI feel confident in him, and he\u2019s prepared, so it should be fun\u201d.<\/p>\n

But he said that before Vera-Tucker\u2019s injury, which adds another wrinkle into the mix. The nearest guard is a rookie tackle\u2019s best friend, and chemistry is critical for linemen. The Steelers will want to take advantage and throw stunts at Armand Membou. They could even use T.J. Watt as a decoy, forcing him to bite and then send a blitzer around him. Or maybe Membou just shuts him down. After all, that\u2019s why they play the games. We can talk about what we think will happen all we want, but the results will speak for themselves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York Jets rookie RT Armand Membou already had a tough matchup against T.J. Watt, but now it\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":341037,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2316,798,7,255,6,57,5226,691],"class_list":{"0":"post-341036","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-alijah-vera-tucker","9":"tag-armand-membou","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-new-york-jets","12":"tag-nfl","13":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","14":"tag-t-j-watt","15":"tag-trending"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115146165059381520","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=341036"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341036\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/341037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}