The Jets’ second-year safety Malachi Moore said he’s always been a fan of Minkah Fitzpatrick, a safety who preceded him at Alabama is now a mentor and teammate with the Green & White after being acquired from Miami.
Beyond consuming videos of Fitzpatrick in mass quantities during his days with the Crimson Tide and his time in the NFL, Moore talked on Saturday about a humorous intersection between the two new teammates — one from the South, the other a New Jersey native.
“Growing up, it was crazy, I was an Alabama fan, grew up in [Homewood] Alabama, so obviously watched a lot of 29 highlights,” Moore said, referring to Fitzpatrick’s jersey number then and now. “Whether that’s sitting in class in high school or in college … and for him to be on the team now is crazy. Just living up to him, like I said, coming out of high school, going to Alabama, he’s all over the walls up there and everything.”
And then, Alabama’s legendary coach Nick Saban came into the conversation after practice to close out Week 2 of training camp.
“And I actually told him [Fitzpatrick] this funny story when I first got to college,” Moore said. “My first couple of days there, Coach Saban was calling me Minka, like on the TV, like in film, and I’m like, ‘Coach, it’s Malachi.’ But in the back of my head, I’m thinking, ‘If you gonna mess my name up and call me anybody, hey, Minka is a pretty cool one to be called. But that was a funny little story I told him.”
Moore (5-11, 196), a five-year starter at Alabama, was selected by the Jets in Round 4 (No. 130 overall) in the 2025 NFL Draft after the team traded back into the round to nab the tenacious safety. The selection paid instant dividends last year when Moore played in all 17 games (starting 14) and had a combined 101 tackles (56 total), 3 TFL, 3 PD and a forced fumble and a recovery.