Clemson's R.J. Mickens, son of former Jet Ray Mickens, has connection with Aaron Glenn
R.J. Mickens of the Clemson Tigers in the ACC Football Championship at Bank of America Stadium on December 7, 2024. Credit: Getty Images/Grant Halverson
INDIANAPOLIS — R.J. Mickens said he hasn’t watched much film of his father, Ray, playing in the NFL.
“It’s hard to get it from back in the day,” he said cheekily of the footage, making it seem as if his old man played in leather helmets and not from 1996 to 2006, including the first nine of those seasons with the Jets.
When asked if there is any player, past or present, he would love to line up and play alongside, the cornerback from Clemson barely hesitated.
“My Pops,” he said. “My Pops.”
That of course won’t happen, but the next-best thing might.
Mickens, projected as a late-round pick, could wind up not only playing for the Jets, his father’s former team, but under new head coach Aaron Glenn, who was his dad’s former Jets teammate and longtime close friend.
“I was just so excited to see him get that job,” Mickens said. “We kind of grew up with their family, and my dad obviously played with him, so that’s just a great relationship . . . That would be really cool to play for the Jets, just knowing that he played there and that city is a great city, great fan base and just a great organization.”
Mickens may not have watched much of his father’s play, but he certainly learned a lot from having a former NFL cornerback in his life. By the time Mickens was in sixth grade, his father was teaching him how to break down film on opponents and take advantage of that knowledge.
“My dad’s helped me so much,” he said. “Just being a former DB, knowing how DBs think, teaching me defensive schematics, everything has just been huge. And being able to tap into that resource whenever I want has been amazing.”
It’s one of the things NFL scouts like best about Mickens in this draft. His size, speed and other measurables are OK, but the skills that come across as instinct yet are actually the result of hours of preparation are what stand out.
“He plays like a pro with good pre-snap anticipation and post-snap instincts,” Lance Zierlein of NFL.com said. “His field awareness is a plus.”
“I like to pride myself in being able to play multiple positions: Corner, nickel, all the safety positions, anywhere on the back end,” Mickens said. “It’s really my knowledge, you know, just being able to know what to do at every position and being able to coach that position and know the ins and outs of that position. And then also just my body size and my composition and my speed and range. I feel like I can do a lot of different things.”
When he spoke to reporters on Thursday morning at the NFL Combine, Mickens had yet to meet formally with the Jets but was expecting to do so. It was going to be a sort of reunion with Glenn.
“He’s a really genuine person and just a great role model, a great leader, a great man,” Mickens said. “He’s really special and is going to do great things there.”
So what does Mickens want Glenn to learn about him during this process? What is something that Glenn, around Mickens for nearly his entire life, might not already know about him?
“I mean, the tape is the tape,” Mickens said of his own catalog of plays, which includes seven career interceptions during a college career in which he started 30 games and played in 60, “but just the type of person I am now. He’s obviously been in the league coaching for a couple years, so just explaining to him how I am and selling myself and telling him the type of man I am, the type of man Clemson’s made me into.”
A man like his father was? Glenn certainly would recognize that right away.
It might even be the exact type the Jets are looking for.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
