The first four selections of the Jets' April draft, all arriving at 1 Jets Drive as top-50 picks, have all gotten out of the gate and into their NFL careers. Edge David Bailey against Cleveland and TE Kenyon Sadiq at Detroit gave dynamic performances that point to many more to come. WR Omar Cooper Jr. and CB D'Angelo Ponds have both fought through injuries to put in some plays and get their feet wet in the pro game.

You could say fourth-round defensive lineman Darrell Jackson Jr. got the party started for his Day 3 companions with a key late contribution to the Jets against Cleveland.

"It's all been about just coming here and learning, being around the older guys, the vets," Jackson said of building up to his biggest Jets moment so far in the fourth quarter of the 17-12 win over the Browns. He said D-line coach Karl Dunbar "keeps saying he has respect for me, and I have respect for myself, just coming in with this mentality that I can do it and then go out there and put on a display."

Jackson's emergence reached a new height when he rose up to reject a Deshaun Watson pass to the QB's left behind the line as part of a 5-man rush. The big Floridian liked that play so much that he celebrated with outstretched hands, then he did it again on the next play, swatting away Watson's throw to the right while penetrating as part of a 6-man rush.

"Most quarterbacks, they're short, they throw the ball low, so I get my hands up," the 6-5, 315-pound Jackson said with a smile. "I've got a 7-foot wingspan and that's something I can add to my game. Coach Dunbar and our defensive coordinator [Brian Duker] talk about that in meetings, hands up in the throwing lanes and that affects the quarterback if you can't get there."

The pair of pass defenses earned Jackson a little piece of Green & White trivia. Unofficially, he is the first Jet to register PDs behind the line on back-to-back plays since Muhammad Wilkerson rejected two in a row from Derek Carr in the 2014 opening-day win over Oakland for the Jets (coincidentally QBed that day by ... Geno Smith). Kony Ealy also scored twin rejections twice in a 3-game span in 2017, but in each case, the 2 passes came on separate drives.

The PDs didn't prevent Watson from lasering his TD pass to Denzel Boston, but they may have affected the signal-caller just the same. Two drives later, firing out of his 3-technique slot, Jackson finally "got there," pushing rookie RG Austin Barber back into the pocket until he got his hands on Watson for his first pro sack.

"Coach Dunbar, he was on the sideline saying, 'Man, we got to go out there and make a play,' " Jackson recalled. "The energy we went out there with, it was contagious."

One drive later, Will McDonald IV and David Bailey sealed the deal with their fourth-down strip sack of Watson. Jackson wasn't on the field for those last few plays, but he contributed nicely to set the stage. None of this surprised HC Aaron Glenn.

"He's another guy that has been getting a ton of reps, and the thing is, he's deserved those reps, because he has been playing his butt off," Glenn said of Jackson, who has played in all five games for 114 defensive snaps. "When you look at a guy of his stature, he really fits exactly what we're trying to do as far as that 5-technique and then being able to reduce down to a 3-technique and sometimes even a shade for us. Each week he's getting better."

Jackson's happy with his progress as a pro and also with his place in a draft class, the two halves of which perhaps he helped unify with his Sunday showing.

"We feel like it's going to be one of the special draft classes that has come through the Jets," Jackson said of the eight-man contingent. "That's our mentality, what we want to get done, how we approach the game. We feel we have great players that came in with the mindset, came in learning fast. I can see the guys on the field now, and I'm enjoying it."