The Jets are adding new layers to Aaron Glenn’s defense, but one of those layers could come at the expense of Will McDonald’s best trait.
McDonald has never been a finished product since New York took him in the first round in 2023. He’s had real trouble holding up against the run, and over the last two seasons he has graded out as one of the league’s worst run-defending EDGEs.
That part of his game has been a problem. The pass-rush part, though, has been the opposite.
Over the past two seasons, McDonald has piled up 18.5 sacks and 103 total pressures.
That’s why the safest path is also the simplest one: put him on the field to rush the passer and keep the rest of the menu small.
But as Glenn installs a defense that’s expected to be “multiple,” McDonald could be asked to do more than that, including dropping into coverage. McDonald said that part of the job has appeal.
“It’s pretty cool,” McDonald told the Jets’ official website regarding playing OLB and dropping back into coverage. “I’ve always wanted to drop into coverage, get a couple picks here and there, bat balls.
It’s a little different switch-up, but I think I’ll do just fine doing that. You know, different scheme and everything, I feel like it’s coming along pretty well.”
The Jets have already shown a little of that in the preseason. McDonald dropped into coverage on two of his 21 snaps over the first two games.
That should stay a small sample, not a template.
McDonald’s game is built on burst, a quick first step and the kind of bend that lets him threaten the corner. Every snap spent drifting backward is a snap not spent attacking the quarterback, and that’s the whole point of having him out there.
Yes, coverage can help a defense disguise its intentions before the snap. But there’s a big difference between occasionally using him as a wrinkle and making it a regular job description.
The bigger concern is that McDonald simply doesn’t have much experience in that role. He played 18 coverage snaps for New York in 2025, and both passes thrown his way were completed for 20 yards, according to Pro Football Focus. In his NFL career, he has only 38 coverage snaps.
Then there’s the tackling issue. McDonald has missed tackles at a rate above 29% in each of the last two seasons, including a 34.4% mark in 2024, which ranked fourth-highest among 104 qualified EDGEs with at least 300 snaps. That is not the profile you want chasing skill players in space.
The Jets also have to think about what they lose when McDonald isn’t rushing. He’s one of their better pass rushers, and taking him out of that job means asking a less effective pressure player to replace him on the edge.
There are ways around that. The Jets can let McDonald rush while the other outside linebacker drops, with Kingsley Enagbare or Joseph Ossai fitting that bill.
Both have played more than twice as many career coverage snaps as McDonald. New York can also use both EDGEs in five-man pressure looks or keep McDonald in a more traditional defensive end role on passing downs.
That last option looks like the cleanest one.
The presence of Enagbare and Ossai should give the Jets more flexibility than they would have had otherwise. They don’t need to force McDonald into a coverage-heavy role to make the defense work.
As he heads into his fourth season, the Jets need to know exactly what they have: a gifted pass rusher with clear limits in other areas. Those limits should shape his usage. When McDonald is on the field, the Jets should let him do the one thing he does best - get after the quarterback.
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