Armand Membou may now be a Jet, but the first-round rookie tackle made like a duck at his first practice of the team's rookie minicamp held in the Atlantic Health Training Center's fieldhouse due to the wet North Jersey weather.

"Yeah, that was pretty cool," he said of his return to football work. "It was good to get my feet back wet, especially since I haven't practiced since November, so it's been a while."

But he may have exchanged a tiger roar or two as he made his way around his new locker room and met his new teammates and ran into an old teammate from Missouri — undrafted free agent QB Brady Cook.

"It means the world to me," Membou said of the Mizzou signal-caller. "It's dope seeing Brady here. I've been with him since my freshman year at Mizzou, so it was awesome."

The seventh overall selection of last month's draft was happy not just because his old friend followed him from the Show Me State to the Garden State but also because Membou knows the kind of person the Jets signed to add to their QB depth chart.

"Brady's a very, very tough dude," Membou said. "If you saw the Auburn game last year, he went to the hospital midgame, came back and won it for us. That shows you the type of character he has and the leader he is."

Cook, a member of the Jets' 15-player UDFA class signed right after Day 3 of the draft, was Missouri's five-year letterman and three-season starter and team captain. And for 24 of the 26 games in 2023-24, Membou started and protected the right flank for Cook to put up some intriguing passing and offensive numbers as the Tigers combined in those two seasons for a 21-5 record and two bowl-game victories. (Membou didn't play in the December Music City Bowl while Cook was the game MVP.)

The two renewed their friendship again this week and Membou blocked for Cook a few times at the first minicamp practice. Then they went their different ways, Cook to the QBs room and Membou to the OL room.

None of the Jets vets that Membou will be working with soon at offseason practices are participating in this minicamp, of course, but from among the line starters he is hoping to join this season, one has a lot in common with the newcomer, and that's second-year left tackle Olu Fashanu.

"I just met Olu today so we talked a little bit. It was good to get to know him," Membou said. "I asked him what it was like for him last year and he was just telling me about the life of a rookie.

"Olu can definitely help me out a lot."

But Membou appears to be a young man who also likes to help himself. He comes to the Jets with a reputation for great speed and athleticism for his 6-4, 332-pound size, for being a young man of few words and letting his play do his talking for him as he mauls would-be tacklers at the line as well as downfield defenders.

His biggest challenges now that he's a Jet? "I would say just changing my footwork and techniques and learning the playbook," Membou said. "I'm picking up bits and pieces every day, but it's been pretty smooth so far."

And it doesn't hurt to have a QB you rode shotgun for the past two seasons in college and a fellow tackle you'll be attempting to form OL bookends with as you start your ride to the pros.