Previously hailed as one of the NFL’s elite units as recently as two years ago, the New York Jets’ defensive line is in dire straits entering the 2025 season.
On the interior, Quinnen Williams is the only roster-lock on the entire squad. He is surrounded by a bevy of backups on contracts with minimal guarantees.
On the edge, the Jets have a nice young duo in Will McDonald and Jermaine Johnson, but the depth behind them is extremely thin, while McDonald and Johnson have concerns of their own. McDonald is as one-dimensional as they come, and Johnson is coming off an Achilles tear.
As the 2025 NFL draft draws near and free agency lingers on, the Jets clearly need reinforcements for both the defensive tackle and edge rusher units.
But what if I told you they also need to fill a singular hole that comprises both positions?
The Jets are sorely lacking a tweener defensive end. Think John Franklin-Myers, the subtle star whom Joe Douglas foolishly dumped for a measly 2026 sixth-round pick. At 6-foot-4 and 288 pounds with twitchy athleticism, Franklin-Myers provided the versatility to be an effective interior pass rusher in passing situations and a sturdy edge-setter in rushing situations.
New York missed Franklin-Myers’ multi-positional impact in 2024, as the team made no effort to replace his unique skill set. They still have not done so in 2025.
Filling Franklin-Myers’ shoes is all the more important under head coach Aaron Glenn, who counted on tweener defensive ends as a fixture in his Detroit Lions defense. Players like Levi Onwuzurike and John Cominsky helped Detroit’s defensive line tick by rotating between multiple roles depending on the situation.
Here are five 2025 NFL draft prospects who could fill the “JFM role” in New York’s defensive line.
Shemar Stewart, Texas A&M
- NFL Mock Draft Database consensus big board ranking: No. 13
Shemar Stewart was listed at 290 pounds at Texas A&M, but he measured at 6-foot-5 and 267 pounds at the combine. The weight drop suggests he is preparing to be more of a pure edge rusher in the NFL.
Still, Stewart comes to the NFL with experience rotating between multiple roles. In 2024, he played the majority of his snaps on the edge (71.2%), but he also played 22.5% of his snaps over the tackle (4-tech or 4i-tech), 4.2% over the guard (2/2i/3-tech), and 1.5% over the center (0/1-tech).
Stewart is a generational athlete, recording the best Relative Athletic Score of all time for a defensive end (10.00), although his testing profile is incomplete (he did not participate in the bench press, three-cone, or 20-yard shuttle). At 267 pounds, he recorded a 4.59 forty time, 40-inch vertical, and 131-inch broad jump.
There is some projection involved with Stewart, who only had 4.5 career sacks in 37 games (1.5 each year), but he did have 39 total pressures and an 88.2 run defense grade (via PFF) in 2024. This is a similar profile to JFM with the Jets: high-quality run defense and excellent pressure production despite lower sack totals.
Based on his weight drop, Stewart is likely aiming to show teams that he can be a full-time edge rusher, particularly looking to improve his sack finishing. However, he is still large enough, strong enough, and experienced enough on the interior to occasionally rotate inside for pass-rush reps in obvious passing situations.
Ranked 13th overall on the consensus big board, Stewart would be considered a reach at No. 7 by many, but he is not so far down to the point where it is inconceivable to picture the Jets falling in love with him. This is especially true when considering that Jets general manager Darren Mougey has hinted in the past that he places a premium on measurables.
Nic Scourton, Texas A&M
- NFL Mock Draft Database consensus big board ranking: No. 37
Like his Aggies teammate, Nic Scourton had a prototype tweener frame at Texas A&M but dropped his weight before the combine.
Scourton was listed at 285 pounds at Texas A&M. At the combine, he checked in at 6-foot-3 and 257 pounds.
Scourton was not quite as versatile in the Aggies’ defense as Stewart, but he did a tad of rotating in 2024, playing just under 10% of his snaps on the interior.
With his significant weight drop and minimal experience playing on the inside, Stewart is not exactly the best fit for the JFM role. However, he has the body type and just enough interior experience to have some potential in that capacity. If his NFL team wants to use him in more of a tweener role, it is conceivable that he could bulk back up.
Coming out of college after his true junior season, Scourton is only 20 years old and will turn 21 in August. In 2024, he ranked third in the SEC with 14 tackles for loss. As a 19-year-old sophomore at Purdue, he led the Big Ten with 10 sacks.
Jordan Burch, Oregon
- NFL Mock Draft Database consensus big board ranking: No. 73
Playing at a listed frame of 6-foot-6 and 295 pounds for the Ducks, Jordan Burch was primarily a massive edge-setter at Oregon, logging 66% of his snaps on the edge. He also played 34% of his snaps on the interior.
Using his massive frame, Burch bullied his way to 8.5 sacks, placing him sixth in the Big Ten despite playing in only 10 games. He was also a reliable run defender, missing just one tackle in that phase compared to 20 total tackles.
At the combine, it was revealed that Burch’s height was inflated at Oregon, as he measured at 6-foot-4. He cut his weight down to 279 pounds. Still, that is an ideal frame for a tweener defensive end.
Burch did not participate in most drills at the combine, but he did run an impressive 4.67 in the forty. The concern is his age, as he will turn 24 in October.
Ranked 73rd on the consensus big board, the Oregon product could be a third-round target for the Jets, who own the 73rd overall pick.
Jared Ivey, Ole Miss
- NFL Mock Draft Database consensus big board ranking: No. 112
At 6-foot-6 and 285 pounds, Jared Ivey was extremely versatile throughout his five-year college career at Georgia Tech and Ole Miss. For his career, Ivey played 57.4% of his snaps on the edge and 42.6% on the interior.
In 2024, Ivey played a career-high 72.4% of his snaps on the edge, although he still played 16.1% over the tackle (4/4i-tech) and 10.2% over the guard (2/2i/3-tech). The fifth-year man posted career-highs of 7.0 sacks, 40 total pressures, and an 82.7 run defense grade.
Ivey cut down to 274 pounds at the combine, but that is still in an ideal range for a tweener defensive end at the NFL level. Ranked 112th on the consensus big board, he could be a fourth-round target for the Jets, who possess the 110th overall pick.
Sai’vion Jones, LSU
- NFL Mock Draft Database consensus big board ranking: No. 117
Listed at 6-foot-6 and 280 pounds by the Tigers, Sai’vion Jones enjoyed a breakout senior year in 2024, showcasing the two-way production that NFL teams want to see from a potential tweener defensive end.
Jones ranked second on the LSU defense in total pressures (43) and run stops (21). He was one of just three SEC defensive linemen with at least 40 total pressures and 20 run stops.
Jones played 79.7% of his snaps on the edge in 2024, although he slid inside on 20.3% of his snaps (most of those being at 4/4i-tech). For his career, he played 28% of his snaps on the interior.
At the combine, Jones measured at 6-foot-5, an inch shorter than his listed height at LSU. However, he maintained his 280-pound frame, which projects well to the role New York needs to fill on its defensive line.
NFL teams may be concerned about Jones’ lack of big-play production and his underwhelming power for his size. He only had 11.5 career sacks in 51 games, including a career-best of 4.5. While Jones ran an impressive 4.74u at LSU’s pro day, he mustered just 19 bench press reps at the combine, which is subpar for a defensive end. It tracks with his official NFL.com scouting report, which mentions “average speed-to-power push for his size.”
Jones projects as a potential early-Day 3 target for the Jets.
