Watching from the team suite as the New York Jets take the field at MetLife Stadium this season will be two TCNJ alums who have had a role in putting every one of the home team\u2019s players out there.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Only the most avid fans would know their names, but that\u2019s fine with Dan Zbojovsky \u201907 and Greg Nejmeh \u201908. They relish their positions as behind-the-curtain specialists in the alchemy of building a cohesive football team through the annual draft, trades, and more.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a collaborative effort trying to get our team better,\u201d Nejmeh said in a recent joint interview at the Jets training facility in Morris County.<\/p>\n
While the pair now identify with the Jets, they met <\/span>as TCNJ Lions. In fact, the two knew each other well enough that one helped the other make it to the NFL. Zbojovsky landed with the Jets first. As a Philadelphia Eagles fan growing up in Hamilton Township, he was fascinated by the game but also by the offseason jockeying for new talent at the pro level.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been interested in scouting since I was 12 years old,\u201d Zbojovsky says. \u201cTracking players throughout the year \u2014 the process of team building and trying to assess players \u2014 is something that I would do with my dad, reading all the magazines and watching the draft to try to predict what might happen.\u201d<\/p>\n At TCNJ, Zbojovsky, an exercise science major, started out in the football team\u2019s video department recording games from an end zone and, over time, deepened his involvement to become a student assistant coach with the Lions defense. When then-Jets General Manager Terry Bradway came to TCNJ to speak in the spring of Zbojovsky\u2019s sophomore year, Zbojovsky leveraged an introduction into a five-week summer video internship and then a full-time job.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Nejmeh, a lifelong Jets fan, had set passing records as quarterback at Midland Park High School, and after a short stint in that position at TCNJ, he became a QB coach under then-coach Eric Hamilton in his junior year.<\/p>\n For Nejmeh, the hands-on experience was one he might not have had at a larger school, and one that he says \u201cspring-boarded me to want to work in sports moving forward.\u201d At a postseason banquet, Nejmeh connected with Zbojovsky, who provided insight on \u201cwhat you need to be prepared for\u201d in advance of an interview for a Jets internship in 2009.<\/p>\n \u201cHonestly, I wouldn\u2019t be here if it wasn\u2019t for Dan,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Now among the most senior members of the Jets <\/span>organization, Nejmeh and Zbojovsky lead groups that scout college players, prepare coaches and executives for the high-stakes draft, wine and dine free agents, and provide insights about opponents to Jets Coach Robert Saleh and his assistants.<\/p>\n Zbojovsky, the team\u2019s director of personnel operations after a decade of coordinating college scouting, focuses on giving scouts the tools they need to evaluate potential additions to the roster, whether coming out of college or already in the NFL. That includes managing an arsenal of data, such as performance metrics and game film.<\/p>\n It is, Zbojovsky acknowledges, his dream job. \u201cTo be able to work here with the people that we get to work with, with the support we get from the organization, and to do it close to our families, is really an amazing experience for me,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a world in which \u201ccombines,\u201d or standardized strength and agility tests for draft prospects, have become part of the year-round entertainment for diehard fans. But this is not fantasy football, in which players can be cut and pasted together, says Nejmeh, who oversees the pro scouting department.<\/p>\n \u201cIn scouting, you have to have a global view of the entire team,\u201d he says. \u201cYou have to know all of the positions and how they all fit together. That was all foreign to me. I had to learn a lot once I got here.\u201d<\/p>\n The pair share an easy rapport, mingling work and family life. Both are fathers. And, coincidentally, Nejmeh\u2019s wife, Melissa, rode the bus to high school with Zbojovsky and Kelly Pugh, who would become Zbojovsky\u2019s wife.<\/p>\n Who\u2019s higher on the Jets org chart? \u201cDan\u2019s above me,\u201d says Nejmeh, with a sly smile.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s not true,\u201d says Zbojovsky.<\/p>\n The hierarchy is irrelevant. What matters is the shared desire to contribute to an NFL championship for the Jets, something not seen since the days of Joe Namath in 1969.<\/p>\n \u201cObviously, the focus is to win games and be successful on the field,\u201d says Zbojovsky. Winning the Super Bowl \u201cwould be an incredible experience and achievement for all of us,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cDoing our job to the best of our ability is the one thing we control,\u201d says Nejmeh. \u201cIf everybody does that, hopefully we\u2019ll get to the pinnacle of what we\u2019re all trying to reach.\u201d<\/p>\n Picture: New York Jets<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" From Lions Stadium to the front office of the New York Jets, Dan Zbojovsky and Greg Nejmeh have their eyes on success.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":314,"featured_media":11998,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni-corner"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/314"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11984"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11984\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12291,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11984\/revisions\/12291"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}