When Olu Fashanu was just getting started in football, playing offensive line for the first time as a sophomore in high school, he wanted to watch film of the best offensive tackles in the NFL.
Tyron Smith was the name that kept coming up.
They are now teammates.
“He is truly my football idol and for me to have the opportunity to be in the same room as him and learn from him is awesome,” Fashanu, the Jets’ first-round pick, said Friday, as he was officially introduced at One Jets Drive.
It is a full circle moment for Fashanu, the 11th overall pick in the draft who starred at Penn State.
He learned a lot about his position just by watching Smith, the eight-time Pro Bowler the Jets signed in March to a one-year deal worth up to $20 million in incentives.
Fashanu, 21, is insurance for both Smith and projected starting right tackle Morgan Moses.
Smith and Moses are both 33 years old.
Smith appeared in just four games in 2022 and two in 2020 due to injury issues, while Moses is coming off pectoral surgery.
Fashanu can learn behind them for a year before taking over at one of the positions.
“With Tyron, I think the biggest thing, the reason why I watched him so much is because I feel like we have similar builds, both taller, leaner, long arms,” Fashanu said. “Just watching how technically proficient he is and just the way that he moves, there is no wasted movement with him, everything he does has intent with it, the way he uses his hands, the way he runs off the ball. I mean as a tackle, he is the standard and he has been the standard.”
The 6-foot-6 and 312-pound Fashanu started late.
He was a basketball player growing up.
It wasn’t until his freshman year at Gonzaga High School (Washington, D.C.) that he gave football a shot.
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That first season, he was a defensive lineman.
The following year, he moved to the offensive line, and he has stuck there.
Fashanu quickly took to the gridiron.
“I think the first thing I liked about football was how it actually rewarded physicality, whereas in basketball, all my life, you got penalized for that,” he said. “Growing up playing basketball, I was a bigger kid, taller, on the chubbier side. So, I was just a prototypical center, not really that useful on offense, really just used on defense. So, I would use up all my fouls and with football, again, it rewards physicality, it rewards toughness. So, for me, it was a no-brainer to switch over.”
It was obviously a good decision.
Playing alongside Caleb Williams, the USC star quarterback who went No. 1 in the draft to the Bears Thursday night, Fashanu developed into a three-star recruit.
He became the linchpin of Penn State’s offensive line, starting 21 games and was the team captain and team MVP last season.
He didn’t allow a single sack in 382 pass-blocking snaps in 2023 for the Nittany Lions.
Thursday night, he became a Jet, and on Friday, he visited the training complex.
Soon, he will meet Smith, his hero.
“Honestly, it is pretty hard to describe. I mean it’s everything that I imagined it would be,” Fashanu said. “I have worked so hard for this moment and for it to finally come true, it means everything to me.”
