On December 15, 2025, Jets owner Woody Johnson fired defensive coordinator Steve Wilks.
This was following the team’s 48-20 loss to Jacksonville. In that game, Jaguars QB Trevor Lawrence threw for 330 yards and five touchdowns.
SI’s Albert Breer, who is very plugged into the thinking at 1 Jets Drive, says one of the reasons the Jets didn’t hire Wink Martindale or another veteran DC candidate is how much they had to pay Wilks this year.
“The Jets went down the road with experienced DC Wink Martindale—and a list of other candidates they announced as interviewees—before pulling back on the premise they were paying Wilks around $3 million not to coach in 2026, and going with an off-list candidate (Brian Duker),” wrote Breer.
Some might be shocked at how much Wilks was making.
Considering the year before they hired him, he was a volunteer assistant with the Charlotte 49ers in the American Athletic Conference.
And the year before that, he was fired after one year as San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator.
You would think something like $900,000 would have been a reasonable salary commensurate with the resume.
Wilks is a good man, but the amount of money he was given to coach the Jets’ defense seems a tad profligate.
So, in a way, you can understand Johnson deciding not to spend a ton of money on the team’s new DC and having Jets coach Aaron Glenn do it himself, with assistance from Duker.
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