New York Jets: Parry Nickerson, sixth round pick profile
Here is a profile of one of the newest New York Jets, cornerback Parry Nickerson.
The New York Jets took an interesting six players with their picks in the NFL draft. We have talked about the class as a whole. We have also talked about Sam Darnold quite a bit, and we will do more moving forward. But so far, we haven’t had a lot to say about the picks in the mid to late rounds. Today, that begins to change with a profile of Parry Nickerson.
The Jets needed to add bodies to that defensive back room. The depth chart behind the starters just isn’t very good. Hopefully Buster Skrine will return to form as he moves back inside, but the rest of the depth chart leaves much to be desired. The draft picks from last season have been underwhelming. Rashard Robinson has done nothing. They needed help.
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So when the sixth round of the draft came around, the Jets had back to back picks. They decided to use one of those picks on a cornerback. Parry Nickerson came across their board.
He is a little bit undersized, standing at 5-10 and 182 pounds. However, after putting up a 4.32 forty yard dash time at the NFL Combine, Nickerson caught everybody’s eye. General Manager Mike Maccagnan decided to pull the trigger on this young man, and he may have achieved a steal by doing so.
If you take a look at Nickerson’s stats, you will see the attraction. He is as good of a ball hawk as you are going to see this late in any NFL draft.
Take a look:
| Tackles | Def Int | Fumbles | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | School | Conf | Class | Pos | G | Solo | Ast | Tot | Loss | Sk | Int | Yds | Avg | TD | PD | FR | Yds | TD | FF |
| *2013 | Tulane | CUSA | FR | CB | 1 | 5 | 2 | 7 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |||
| 2014 | Tulane | American | FR | CB | 11 | 40 | 11 | 51 | 2.5 | 0.0 | 6 | 24 | 4.0 | 0 | 6 | 1 | 0 | ||
| 2015 | Tulane | American | SO | CB | 11 | 41 | 5 | 46 | 3.5 | 0.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 1 | 48 | 1 | 1 | |
| 2016 | Tulane | American | JR | CB | 11 | 20 | 9 | 29 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 4 | 171 | 42.8 | 1 | 9 | 2 | 1 | ||
| 2017 | Tulane | American | SR | CB | 12 | 48 | 7 | 55 | 2.0 | 0.0 | 6 | 8 | 1.3 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Career | Tulane | 154 | 34 | 188 | 8.0 | 0.0 | 16 | 203 | 12.7 | 1 | 31 | 4 | 48 | 1 | 3 |
No matter what school the player came from, 16 interceptions is a big number for a college career. That is the same number that Charles Woodson put up in college. Darrelle Revis only picked off eight passes in college.
That should tell you a lot about how much Nickerson was around the football in school.
This was the only video I could locate of a full game, so I apologize that it is from 2016.
It’s easy to understand the appeal of Parry Nickerson. He is a fighter. On a run or a pass play he stops at nothing to get to the football. He is like a heat-seeking missile in that way. His speed is obvious in the way he is able to stay with receivers. It is also encouraging to see that Nickerson is willing to use his hands. Not a lot of young players use their hands to play press, but Nickerson does.
Next: Grading the Jets draft class
Nickerson also is very loose with those hips, transitioning to the back pedal easily. The part that is worrisome is the height. The NFL is a tall man’s game on the outside. He may have difficulty with the tall receivers in this league. Look at a guy like Vernon Hargreaves down in Tampa Bay. He came into the league with great expectations but has had difficulty competing with opposing wide receivers, partially because of his height.
Keep in mind, however, that Nickerson won’t enter camp with the Hargreaves kind of expectations being a sixth round pick. Anything he can bring will make the Jets better, and he has the skill to be a steal. If he can keep that fight up despite his height, Parry Nickerson could be an asset.