Jamien Sherwood has gone from a player who once needed a break just to get his foot in the door to one of the Jets’ most reliable voices on defense, and now he says he wants that run in New York to keep going.
The 26-year-old linebacker has become a fixture for the Jets after first getting his chance because of injuries a few years ago. He didn’t just hang around - he made the most of it, and since then he has kept building his case as one of the team’s better defenders. Over the last two seasons, Sherwood has finished with at least 154 tackles in each year, and there’s a belief inside the organization that he could be headed for the best season of his career.
That growth has shown up off the field, too. Sherwood said he wants to remain with the Jets for the long haul and made it clear he values what the organization has done for him.
"Sometimes I think about it," Sherwood said, per the Jets. "It's a blessing just to be here that long, to be one of the longest guys, but you know I intend to stay here as long as possible…
"When I first got here, I was very quiet," he said. "I didn't talk to many people, and then, maybe in my third year, one of my best friends on the team happened to have an injury, and he had to be let go.
So that forced me to start branching out to other people, making more friends. I started getting more comfortable.
At one point I was the youngest guy in the linebacker room, probably for three years.”
For a Jets team that hasn’t exactly had a long list of players openly saying they want to stick around, Sherwood’s comments land differently. He came out of Auburn, grew into his role, and now looks like part of the team’s effort to reshape the mood around the franchise.
Nothing gets locked in until the wins come, but the early returns around Sherwood and the Jets have been encouraging.
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