New York Jets 2024 Roster Countdown: #99 Will McDonald

McDonald was the team’s first round pick a year ago.

Through the summer, we will be counting down the Jets roster player by player. We start the series by discussing Will McDonald.

Name: Will McDonald

Number: 99

Year With Jets: 2nd

Projected Role: Third Defensive End

His 2023: The selection of McDonald in the first round of the 2023 NFL Draft raised eyebrows. Almost everybody expected the Jets to use their top pick on an offensive player given the team’s struggles on that side of the ball in 2022. A pick swap that dropped the team from 13 to 15, a run on the top offensive line prospects, and an overall weak class contributed to the surprise selection.

But a defensive end? Where would he play? Even on a team that likes to rotate defensive ends frequently, it would be difficult to find many snaps for McDonald with so much depth at the position. At least that was the conventional wisdom at the time.

As it turns out, the conventional wisdom was correct. McDonald’s single-game high in snaps was only 18. Even as the Jets fell out of contention, they did not p

Through the summer, we will be counting down the Jets roster player by player. We start the series by discussing Will McDonald.

Name: Will McDonald

Number: 99

Year With Jets: 2nd

Projected Role: Third Defensive End

His 2023: The selection of McDonald in the first round of the 2023 NFL Draft raised eyebrows. Almost everybody expected the Jets to use their top pick on an offensive player given the team’s struggles on that side of the ball in 2022. A pick swap that dropped the team from 13 to 15, a run on the top offensive line prospects, and an overall weak class contributed to the surprise selection.

But a defensive end? Where would he play? Even on a team that likes to rotate defensive ends frequently, it would be difficult to find many snaps for McDonald with so much depth at the position. At least that was the conventional wisdom at the time.

As it turns out, the conventional wisdom was correct. McDonald’s single-game high in snaps was only 18. Even as the Jets fell out of contention, they did not do much to push up the snap total of their first round pick. He received what for all intents and purposes a redshirt year.

2024 will be a success if: McDonald develops into a quality third defensive end. The trade of John Franklin-Myers opened up playing time for the second year lineman. Even though his style of play, body type, and ideal role are different than JFM, there are now snaps to go to him.

The Jets’ defensive line rotation hands the third defensive end a fairly significant snap share. What sort of production should we look for? Well, the Jets clearly want to utilize their depth. When the backup is on the field, they want little to no dropoff from the starters. Last year when we looked at some of the data, past performances by players drafted in the same neighborhood as McDonald suggested 7 sacks per year would constitute success. That would seem like an excellent outcome.

The Jets certainly are showing confidence in McDonald after allowing two of their top three defensive ends from a year ago to depart. McDonald will be 25 years old when the season starts so he is already close to his physical peak. This season could represent something of a make or break year for him.

Odds of making the roster: Lock (>99%)