Armand Membou used to work at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City parking cars for concerts and other stadium events. On Sunday, he'll play there for the first time.
"It's wild knowing I used to do that to now like I'll be playing there," Membou said.
It will be a homecoming of sorts for the Jets' second-year right tackle who grew up a Chiefs fan and went to high school 15 miles away from the stadium. When he first "really started playing football" it was the start of the Patrick Mahomes era, and when Tyreek Hill was a Chief, he was a receivers coach for a season at Membou's high school team.
"It'll be weird," Membou said about getting to face the players he idolized growing up. "It was cool as a kid but like now, I'm in the league and it's my job. I feel like for me going into this game it's straight business."
While it will be Membou's first time experiencing the rowdy Arrowhead crowd, LG Dylan Parham, who was on the Las Vegas Raiders for four seasons and has faced the Chiefs six times already in his career, knows what to expect.
"It was so loud that I felt like my ears were ringing going in halftime," Parham said, recalling his first trip to Kansas City for a "Monday Night Football" game in Week 5 of the 2022 NFL season. "It's one of those things that you want to be able to plan in if you're a football player and that's at any level from high school to college to the pros. We play there and it's an experience you'll never forget."
See photos of the Jets on the practice field ahead of their Week 9 matchup with the Chiefs.
Last week Parham returned to the offensive line for his first start since he sustained a knee injury against the Lions in Week 3. The four-game stretch he missed was the longest he's ever sidelined in his NFL career. Other than "your normal ankle sprain here, there," Parham hadn't dealt with a long rehab.
"It was a freak incident, obviously, that took me out during the Lions and so for me it was just different things and just starting off the first couple of days we had a period of the first 10 days where we wanted to do just rehab and treatment, get it right, get some of the swelling and inflammation out of the knee," Parham said.
Once he was able to start getting more of his strength back, Parham was able to get a feel for football movements and eventually seeing what it felt like "going against a live person" in his third week of rehab.
"I feel like we did a great job with the training staff and the coaches, everybody knowing like if there was something that I felt like I was hesitant on or couldn't play on, then that would have been communicated," Parham said. "So, when I took that field, it was because I felt confident in it and I never had any hesitancy about any type of feeling."
Against the Raiders, his former team, Parham played 100% of the offensive snaps.
"I've just been really happy to see DP back healthy," Membou said. "I feel like, you know, we all played with each other in camp and just have that continued stability of the starting five together has definitely helped us a lot."
The Chiefs' defense, led by longtime coordinator Steve Spagnuolo, is a top 15 unit in the NFL.
"They're a good front," Parham said. "For us, we just have to understand what we want to accomplish. They bring so many different fronts, so many different blitzes and all those different things ... so just making sure we're very pristine on the communication, identification and just trying to get movement in the run game and just doing a great job at that."
According to Next Gen Stats, the Chiefs have the lowest pressure-to-sack rate (9.8%) in the NFL and the second lowest by a defense since at least 2018. The interior of Kansas City's defense only has 22 pressures this season (tied for the fewest of any interior unit) with Chris Jones accounting for 14 with a 6.7% pressure rate, his lowest in a season since 2018.
The Jets are regaining their 1-2 punch in the backfield with RB Breece Hall set to make his return after rehabbing from a quad injury he also sustained in Week 3 and Braelon Allen, who has been running the ball well with 504 yards since Week 4.
"They're both going to be able to get a good workload and share of touches in the game plan," Parham said. "They both do certain things so well between those two and I'm excited for them. I'm excited to see them both play this week."
