Do all roads lead back to Miami? Well, for CB Jarvis Brownlee Jr., QB Geno Smith and rookie CB D'Angelo Ponds, they certainly do — the Jets with roots in southern Florida have a special bond.
Brownlee grew up watching Smith when he played at West Virginia and he's known Ponds before he was selected by the Green & White in the second round of the 2026 NFL Draft.
"He's kind of like a big brother to me. I always looked up to him," Brownlee said about Smith. "[We] grew up in the same area. If you know, it's very small down there when it comes to everybody knowing each other … My uncle is his close friend and things like that."
So the praise Smith has received at the start of training camp isn't surprising to Brownlee — he expects it.
"Everyday he goes out there with grit and as you know we're from Miami, so we are ballers," Brownlee said. "We are going to keep working each other, keep improving. We're going to keep giving him different looks out there [on defense] and more than anything we're going to keep getting each other better day-by-day, just stacking the days."
Brownlee was traded from the Titans to the Jets last season and appeared in 7 games making 23 solo tackles and 2 PDs. Having a full offseason at the Atlantic Health Jets Training Center has only helped him deepen his bonds with teammates and coaches. But with Ponds, that started well before he was drafted; the two kept in contact throughout last season.
Check out the top photos from the second week of the 2026 Jets training camp at the Atlantic Health Training Center.
"I always stayed in touch with him and just told him to keep being the person he is, keep being the player he is," Brownlee said. "I kind of spoke it into existence that he was going to get drafted here."
Ponds gave Brownlee a "brother" in the CB room. The rookie has been dealing with a calf strain which has sidelined him for the start of training camp, but HC Aaron Glenn said he will be back soon.
"I'm glad that he's here," Brownlee said. "He's a great person, he's a baller man, he's a dude and our relationship is close. We push each other each day. I try to feed him gems of things that I was taught in the past and that I know now. I try to learn from him as well, too."
The CB competition is strong in camp with Brandon Stephens and Azareye'h Thomas also having early noteworthy performances, and Brownlee says they "love it."
"We got a lot of guys that can play, a lot of dudes that play with grit, that play with that dog mentality," he said. "So, just to have somebody that you know is ready to compete and push you every day I think everybody in that room loves that.
"More than anything we push each other to be great. That's all we expect. It's a certain standard that we hold each other to, and a certain accountability that we go by."
