Hamsah Nasirildeen was a STEAL for the New York Jets

/ New York Jets / By

With the 186th pick of the 2021 NFL Draft, the New York Jets selected Florida State safety Hamsah Nasirildeen. Only he wasn’t drafted to play safety. We knew this as Jamien Sherwood was also drafted by the Jets 40 picks earlier. Sherwood was a safety at Auburn, who was known as being a freight train of a hitter. When the Jets drafted him, my first reaction was meh. I didn’t dive too into safeties in my personal draft eval, and that’s because I am not on the level of Joe Douglas.

I was looking at linebackers that fit into the 4-3 mold, like Chazz Surratt and Charles Snowden. Joe Douglas, who it seems is playing chess while everyone else is playing checkers, had a different, better plan. We were all so excited when there was the possibility of the Jets getting Keanu Neal. We realized for his size and abilities he would be the perfect hybrid linebacker to play on the outside. His speed, agility, and coverage skills were good for a safety. Compare them to linebackers, they become borderline elite.

This was Joe Douglas’ and Robert Saleh’s plan. A great plan. The NFL is constantly changing. From Johnny Unitas creating the modern quarterback position, to running backs a few decades ago being the focal point of offenses. Now the workhorse running back is a thing of the past, with only a handful of them left in the league. Football like life is constantly changing and adapting, and like the great Bob Dylan said, “Your old road is rapidly agin’. Please get out of the new one if you can’t lend your hand, for the times they are a-changin’.” Clearly Adam Gase had never heard this song.

The NFL on offense has become a pass first league, where quality receivers and elite quarterbacks have become the name of the game. On defense, its all about getting faster and more versatile, to match these changes on offense. A linebacker like David Harris, who was elite when he played, might not be as good now or even a bust with his lack of speed and athleticism. Joe Douglas and Robert Saleh get this, and that is why they drafted two safeties that have the size, speed, physicality, and coverage ability to really thrive as hybrid linebackers. Jamien Sherwood is special in his own right, but this article is about Hamsah Nasirildeen.

Even without diving into safeties much in my draft eval, I knew all about Hamsah Nasirildeen. He was an incredible player in college. In fact, he was so good he was projected as a 2nd or 3rd round pick by most. The majority of draft boards had him in the 2nd to 3rd round range, including mine. The latest I was seeing him go was in the 4th. Somehow, we got him in the 6th round, 186th overall! So, just out of the gate, Nasirildeen was tremendous value at the pick he was taken.

I felt we needed a minimum of two linebackers in this draft. Then, when we took Jamien Sherwood, and I realized he was going to be a linebacker and realized what Joe Douglas was doing, my immediate reaction was “okay, I like this a lot! However, if we were taking a safety to play linebacker, I really wished it was Hamsah Nasirildeen.” 40 picks later, I had gotten both of my wishes.

Hamsah Nasirildeen was very versatile in college.

Hamsah Nasirildeen was big for a safety at 6’4″ 220 lbs. Now when you take a player from one position in college and move him to another in the NFL, his entire draft evaluation changes. You need to compare him to players at his new position, as he was originally compared to players at his former position. When we look at Hamsah Nasirildeen as a linebacker, his speed, agility, and coverage skills are borderline elite.

Below you can see Nasirildeen covering a tight end, something these hybrid linebackers should thrive at and something the Jets have struggled at. Yes it is just practice at the Senior Bowl, but look at his press and physicality against a tight end. Throughout Nasirildeen’s collegiate career you can see his physicality and stickiness in coverage. At the end of the play, while tracking the ball, he showcases his quick burst to get into the ball’s trajectory and make the interception. That is another thing we saw often from Nasirildeen in college. His ability to track the football, make breaks on routes, and anticipate were very impressive.

Here’s some game film on Hamsah Nasirildeen. You can see the potential.

https://twitter.com/NYJetsTFMedia/status/1388587703831248899?s=20

The most impressive statistic Nasirildeen put up in college was his tackle numbers. This man was a tackling machine. In two seasons (2018-2019) Hamsah Nasirildeen put up 192 tackles! 192! That’s 8 shy of 100 each season. In 2020 he was hurt which we will get into, but even in just playing 2 games he still had 13 tackles. Nasirildeen had 233 career tackles over his 4 year collegiate career at Florida State. This is where I have a stat pull that you will find very interesting and exciting. Let’s compare those tackle numbers to linebackers and safeties taken in the 1st and 2nd round of the 2021 NFL Draft:

12th overall in the entire draft went Micah Parsons. Parsons had 191 career tackles over 2 seasons, with 109 in 2019. Zaven Collins went 16th overall. Collins had 236 career tackles, with 97 in 2019. Jamin Davis, who went 19th overall, had 144 career tackles, with 102 in 2020. Now these three players were all linebackers. Interestingly enough, not a single safety went in the 1st round of the 2021 NFL Draft. I thought Trevon Moehrig could have gone in the 1st, but he went 43rd overall, and he wasn’t the first safety off the board. The first safety off the board was Jevon Holland at 36th. Holland had 108 tackles over 2 seasons, with 66 in 2019. Moehrig (who is one of the best coverage safeties I have ever seen) had 124 career tackles, with 62 in 2019. Surprisingly, my favorite linebacker in this draft, Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah, didn’t get drafted until 52nd, after everyone else above. JOK had 142 career tackles in 2 seasons, with 80 in 2019.

Now tackles is only one aspect of these players, albeit an important one. In coverage, Moehrig and JOK run circles around Nasirildeen, but as you can see Nasirildeen’s tackles numbers are just as impressive or more impressive than every single linebacker and safety that went in the top 50 picks. Nasirildeen went 186th. STEAL OF THE DRAFT!

Now I know what you are asking yourself: With these impressive numbers and film from Nasirildeen, why was he drafted so late? Especially with how high he was projected.

Throughout the 2017 and 2018 season, Hamsah Nasirildeen appeared in every game and had no injuries. In 2019, he appeared in 12 games. In week 4 against Louisville he suffered an undisclosed injury that had him limited in that game. However, he continued to play every week after that up until week 12 against Florida. Week 12 Nasirildeen suffered a bad leg injury, that later was revealed to be an ACL tear. It was November 30th, 2019, and the season was basically over. He only missed the Sun Bowl after that. As we know, ACL tears can take up to a year to properly heal, sometimes even longer. Since he tore his ACL so late in the season, it was understandable that he wasn’t able to play until around that time the following year.

Nasirildeen missed 7 games in 2020, but going off that one year timeline, he recovered as anticipated/hoped. Nasirildeen appeared in the last 2 games of the 2020 season. The first one against North Carolina State was on November 14th, 2020, just under a year later. Though he only played in 2 games in 2020, Nasirildeen put up 13 total tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss, 1 interception, and 1 pass defensed. Coming back and being able to play with no problems in less than 1 year should have game teams confidence in Nasirildeen’s injury, but as we saw it did not. He fell to the Jets at 186.

All of the reasons above are why Hamsah Nasirildeen was a steal for the New York Jets in the 2021 draft, and why Jets fans should be very excited about his potential and the skills he brings to our linebacker corp.