We did a deep dive last week into some individual goals the Jets' offensive players could be in line to achieve in the season just ahead. Today it's the defense's turn, and with either a Pro Bowler or an All-Pro or both at each level of the D, there are a number of plateaus the members of this unit could scale in 2025 under first-year HC Aaron Glenn and his staff.

Quinnen Williams: Inside Force
Williams is the total package on the inside of the DL. As a pass-rusher, no doubt he would like to challenge his career highs of 12 sacks, 2 strip sacks and 28 QB hits, all in '22. If he should reach 11 sacks, he'd be at 50 in his seventh Jets season and would move past Calvin Pace and into fifth place on the Jets' all-time sack list (since individual defensive sacks became official in '82). For his career, Q needs one sack to get to 40 and 2 QB hits to reach 100.

Williams has also repped the Jets at the past three Pro Bowl Games, and a fourth consecutive all-star trip would put him in elite company — the last Jets defenders to go to four Pro Bowls in a row were C Nick Mangold and CB Darrelle Revis, both after the 2008-11 seasons, and the only Jets front-seven player to go to four straight Pro Bowls since 1970 was DE Mark Gastineau, who made it to five in a row from 1981-85. (Joe Klecko went to four of those five PBs in that span.)

McDonald: Relentless
Will McDonald IV led the Green & White with 10.5 sacks last year. Another 10-plus this season and he would be the first Jet with back-to-back double-digit sack seasons in more than 20 years, or since Shaun Ellis in 2003 (12.5) and '04 (11). John Abraham also turned that trick in 2001 (13) and '02 (10).

Harrison Phillips: Big Brick Wall
One of the newest veteran members of the D-line, Phillips comes in as a proven commodity against opponents' inside running games. One measure of that was his 92 tackles for Minnesota in 2023 — the fourth-highest tackle total by any NFL D-lineman in the past 25 seasons.

And he seems to make entire units better. He was a member of the Bills' No. 1 overall defense in 2021, then moved to the Vikings, whose NFL run D ranking each season he was there (starting 17 games all three seasons) went from 20th to eighth to second. The Jets have never ranked higher than No. 2 since 1970 in rush yards allowed/game, and the last time they came in first in yards allowed/carry was in 2013 with a 3.35-yard average. Phillips and the Jets would love to achieve either distinction if not both in '25.

Sherwood: Tackle Monster
We can slice Jamien Sherwood's 2024 tackle totals as the MLB in the Jets defense any number of ways. His 95 solo tackles were tied for the most in the regular season with Arizona Cards S Budda Baker, they were the most by any NFL front-seven defender, and with 3 solo special teams tackles, his 98 total solo tackles also led the league. We're pretty sure he'd like to get to 100 solos any way he can, and with 154 total defensive stops, tied for fourth-most, he'd probably enjoy taking a run at the top spot, held last season by Indianapolis LB Zaire Franklin at 173.

Quincy Williams: Forcing the Issue
The elder Williams on the defense, an All-Pro selection in 2023, continues to spend his time at or past the line of scrimmage. By one measure he's led the Jets in tackles for loss on rushes and receptions in each of his four Jets seasons. And last season he posted a career-high 4 forced fumbles. The last time a Jets LB had more in a season: Calvin Pace with 5 FFs in 2008.

Gardner: Quest for INTs and PDs
If the Williams brothers, McDonald, Jermaine Johnson and others bring the heat, opposing QBs will make mistakes and throw toward Sauce Gardner's receiver more than they have the past two seasons. And Sauce should benefit after 3 INTS so far in his Jets career. A goal for Sauce and the defense is to produce more takeaways. The last time the Jets posted 30-plus INTs and a plus TO margin in a season, both came in 2015 (30 INTs, plus-6).

Individually, Gardner, a Pro Bowler and All-Pro in each of his first two seasons, has 41 passes defended in his career, tied for fourth-most in the NFL since '22. And he is 12th among all Jets since 1991 with that total and with just 11 more PDs this season would move past David Barrett, Kerry Rhodes, James Hasty and Otis Smith into eighth place on that list. To catch S Victor Green in seventh, Sauce would need another 20 PDs like he had in his breakout rookie campaign of '22.

Stephens: Hot Corner?
The new Jet on the corner is Brandon Stephens, who the Jets think can rise to career heights opposite Gardner. Interestingly, some Stephens stats match those of the departed D.J. Reed from the past two seasons: Stephens had 141 tackles to Reed's 140, 21 PDs to D.J.'s 20 and 2 picks to Reed's 1.

We'd like to see Stephens blossom as a pass defender, but meanwhile his tackle totals are telling. He had 70-plus tackles in three of his four Baltimore seasons, and if he can get to 80, he'd be in the Jets' top five since '91. Just out of that top ten is a certain corner who broke in as a first-round rookie in '94 with no INTs, 9 PDs but 67 tackles that would be a career high. That player, of course, was Aaron Glenn.