Former BYU star Mory Bamba looked like a young Deion Sanders in his NFL preseason debut for the New York Jets

NFL world, meet Mory Bamba!

On Friday night, the former BYU star and undrafted rookie free agent made his NFL preseason debut for the New York Jets in a game televised on NFL Network.

And Bamba stole the show.

In a spectacular stretch in the second quarter he was seemingly everywhere, blanketing his man, forcing incompletions, knocking down passes, and coming up with special teams plays. Bamba couldn't stop making plays, and the announcers couldn't stop talking about him.

In all he had five tackles and an eye-popping four passes defended as the Jets fell to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 24-16.

Here's the touchdown he broke up early in the second quarter:

A few minutes later he recorded his third pass defended in the first half alone:

Bamba looked like a young Deion Sanders, a lankier Champ Bailey, or a taller Darrelle Revis as he thwarted the Tampa Bay passing game time and again. And when he wasn't making plays in the secondary, he was making them on special teams:

After the game Jets coach Aaron Glenn said that among New York's young corners, Bamba is the one who "really stands out" and that he "really showed out tonight."

In other words, let's go ahead and fit him for a gold jacket for Bamba's future enshrinement into the NFL Hall of Fame.

I have a feeling we're going to be telling our grandchildren about the "Mory Bamba game" in which the legend of the best cornerback in NFL history began. This preseason game was the origin story of the NFL's next superhero.

What BYU fans already knew about Mory Bamba

Okay, maybe I'm getting ahead of myself after one preseason game, but I'm not alone.

While Mory Bamba flew under the radar of most NFL scouts, didn't appear in any mock drafts, and enters the league as an unheralded undrafted rookie free agent, BYU fans knew he had the tools to make it in the pros.

Over four seasons in Provo he appeared in 36 games with eight starts and while he played well, he seemed every year to be the cornerback who looked like he would break out the following season, but never quite made the jump from "good" to "great". In those 36 games he 47 tackles, nine passes defended, and no interceptions. The tools were always there, but his production didn't jump off the page. Again, he had a good career at BYU, but he was never a candidate for postseason honors.

But then again, he's 6-foot-2 with elite athleticism with his track background. As I've written before, his 9.52 Relative Athletic Score puts him in the top 95th percentile in athleticism for all cornerbacks. That's amazing.

Now throw in his outstanding preseason debut, and Mory Bamba is going to make an NFL roster this year.

While his college resume leaves a little to be desired, he's simply too long, too athletic, and has too much potential for NFL teams to not give him a shot. And after one week in the preseason, if the New York Jets don't give him a shot this year, some other team will.

And whichever team invests in Mory Bamba could not only end up with their corner of the future...they could be ending up with their next Hall of Famer.

(Okay, pump the breaks a bit, D.A., it was just one preseason game. But still...)

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