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The Jets came out of the gate in free agency with a laser focus on fixing their broken defense.
They signed defensive linemen Joseph Ossai, Kingsley Enagbare, and David Onyemata, linebacker Demario Davis, cornerback Nashon Wright, and safety Dane Belton.
They also traded with Miami for safety Minkah Fitzpatrick and with Tennessee for defensive tackle T’Vondre Sweat.
Those are eight additions, and six or seven of them could start. It’s unlikely that both Ossai and Enagbare will start. One will likely fill the role of the #3 defensive end, a key rotational player for most defenses, who often plays 40-45 percent of the snaps.
Belton will compete with Andre Cisco for the starting safety spot next to Fitzpatrick.
And the Jets will likely be adding a few more defensive starters with four picks in the top 44 in the 2026 draft.
So if they land a couple of immediate starters with two of those picks in the top 44, then they could have 8-9 new starters on defense.
That is quite shocking. You don’t see that kind of wholesale change on one side of the ball for a team in one off-season.
But that is a reflection on how bad things were on the defensive side of the ball.
I’m not a special pleader for former Jets defensive coordinator Steve Wilks, and I actually wrote on this website a year ago, before he was hired, that he should not be hired as DC, but to a different role (perhaps assistant head coach/secondary). If Aaron Glenn wanted to hire him as a sounding board, since he was a former head coach, that makes sense, but he should not have handed him the car keys to the defense. What happened during Wilks one year as San Francisco’s DC should have been a cautionary tale. 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan moved on after one year due to some dubious play-calling decisions.
However, to be fair to the man, while perhaps he didn’t do a great job as Jets DC before he was fired late in the season by Woody Johnson, when a team ends up making so many defensive personnel changes, maybe the issues went beyond X’s and O’s.
There were major mistakes made on the defensive roster and depth chart.
With some of the cats, Wilks was forced to start, or play a lot, not sure what Bill Belichick could have done coaching some of those dudes.
What you saw was a combination of some guys who weren’t NFL-quality players and other guys who had the skills to play on the NFL level, but had suspect instincts.
Often, when you ask coaches or GMs about personnel issues during the season, they will deflect and not want to be negative about the players they are rolling with. In other words, they will try to put lipstick on a pig.
They probably figure being too critical during the season isn’t the way to go, because it’s hard to make a lot of line-up changes in-season.
But as the old saying goes, “Action speaks louder than words.”
6-8 new defensive starters added in free agency, and a few more likely in the draft.
With their actions, Glenn and GM Darren Mougey spoke loud and clear.
They told the world, “We had some major talent deficiencies on defense last season.”
They deserve some credit for not burying their heads in the sand, and double down on some of their mistakes with their defensive roster/depth chart from last year.
They rolled their sleeves up this off-season and are trying to fix it.
And on paper, they are off to a solid start.
March 19, 2026
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