Will McDonald IV has his own way with words. Asked about his goals for the coming season, the Jets' third-year edge rusher was somewhat Zenlike.

"My goal was focused on today's practice. That's pretty much my goal every day," McDonald said this week. "I can't work on tomorrow and I can't work on yesterday. So today is the only thing I'm really focused on."

He can't work on those time frames but he definitely assembled something yesterday that promises big things for 2025. His 10.5 sacks led the Jets and his 24 QB hits were tied for seventh-most in the league, with many of the sacks, hits and pressures coming off his hellacious spin speed off the edge.

"Obviously everybody knows that I like to spin, all of that," McDonald said. "But you know, once I get tackles on their heels, I'm able to get that power."

So also from yesterday to today, McDonald has been working on his pass-rush strength,, which comes from his extended time in the weight room along with gaining about 15 pounds over last year's 236-pound program metric. That will help him not only apply even more muscle to his pressure game but will assist him in doing things to help the Jets' rush defense.

"Yes, I'm pleased that he's putting on the mass," defensive coordinator Steve Wilks said, "but I'm also happy with what I've seen on tape, and what I've seen thus far is that he can set the edge in the run game."

So many other relationships are helping McDonald today to set up some productive tomorrows. The one with first-year head coach Aaron Glenn is significant.

"He's real down-to-earth, man, man," McDonald said of AG. "He treats me like his own son. I know he's got my back."

"The first thing that he said when he came to my office was he really wants to be good," Glenn told reporters. "So now he wants to be coached how to be able to do that. I said the other day, and I'm not sure you guys really understood what I was saying, I kept saying 'It's coaching.' That's what I was talking about.

"He wants to be coached, he wants to be coached hard, and he wants to be coached how to do it the right way. And our guys are going to continue to do that with him."

Teammate interactions are also paying dividends. At practice, McDonald may swing from his right side, where he will often go up against second-year LT Olu Fashanu, to his left, where the "new kid on the block" is first-round rookie Armand Membou.

"It's fun, real fun," McDonald said of honing his craft against two talented young tackles. "Membou, Olu and me, all three of us are in the room talking — boom, boom! Both of them, they're going to be the best tackles in the league."

And soon, 2023 Pro Bowl LB/edge Jermaine Johnson, who has started training camp on the Active/PUP list as he works on wrapping up his Achilles rehab, should be back at full speed.

"Me and Jermaine, we're going to ball out, we're going to do our thing," McDonald said. "I trust him, he trusts me, we trust the D-line, the D-line trusts us. So once we get on that field, we trust each other enough to get the job done."

Add a potentially improved back end coordinating with the front four on improved pass defense and it's easy to see some structures of tomorrow come into shape.

McDonald could become the first Jet since Shaun Ellis (2003-04) to record 10-plus sacks in back-to-back seasons. He and Johnson or Quinnen Williams could be the first Jets tandem with 10-plus sacks in a season since Muhammad Wilkerson and Calvin Pace turned the trick in 2013. As for three Jets with 10 sacks in a season, don't even ask. (It's happened only twice, in the late Sixties.)

So how many sacks does McDonald envision for the immediate future? Two people in this story proved to be monkish, in a manner of speaking. McDonald's mystic view: "I have no sack total. Whatever I post in a game, you know, the game is going to be the game."

And Glenn was only a little more revealing.

"I'm not going to put a ceiling on him," the coach said. "But I know this. He's a damn good player and I expect big things out of him."