NY Jets make excellent value pick in LB/S Hamsah Nasirildeen

The NY Jets continued the run of defense on Day 3 with the selection of Florida State safety/linebacker Hamsah Nasirildeen with the 186th overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft.

After selecting four straight offensive players to kick off the draft, the Jets have now added four consecutive defensive players with Nasirildeen being their latest addition.

This comes after the Jets added Auburn safety/linebacker Jamien Sherwood, Duke cornerback Michael Carter II, and Pittsburgh cornerback Jason Pinnock earlier in the day.

But of the four, Nasirildeen was actually expected to be selected first.

The NY Jets landed a steal in Hamsah Nasirildeen

Nasirildeen was widely expected to be Day 2 pick in the draft with many protecting him as a top-75 or even top-50 selection. However, he happened to fall a little bit, all the way to the Jets in the sixth round.

Perhaps his draft-day slide was injury-related.

Nasirildeen broke out in 2019 in his first season as a starter earning second-team All-ACC honors while leading his team in tackles and forced fumbles. He notably racked up a whopping 22 tackles in a game against Boston College.

Unfortunately, he tore his ACL in the 2019 season finale which would cost him almost all of his senior season. Nasirildeen only played in two games in 2020, but his play in 2019 was enough to make him a highly-touted draft prospect.

At 6-foot-3, 215 pounds, Nasirildeen is more of a prototypical box safety with impressive physicality and length for the position. He was also a standout special-teamer at FSU (no surprise there) and should feature heavily in that role with the Jets.

He’s a little similar to the player the Jets took a round earlier in Jamien Sherwood but is longer and more athletic. Nasirildeen has a higher upside than Sherwood and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him earn snaps at safety and linebacker over his fellow rookie.

The Jets bolstered their safety group in free agency adding Lamarcus Joyner to a depth chart that already featured Marcus Maye and Ashtyn Davis. But Nasirildeen has a very different skillset from those three players.

He could also see time at weak-side linebacker in the mold of a Keanu Neal or Nate Gerry on defense. Definitely a player that head coach Robert Saleh could utilize and likely one of the best players remaining on the board.

The Jets could have landed one of the steals of the draft in Hamsah Nasirildeen.