In a matter of less than four hours on a random Wednesday afternoon in August, Darren Mougey completely altered the outlook of the New York Jets’ interior defensive line.
Considered one of the team’s thinnest defensive positions as recently as 24 hours ago, the unit suddenly feels like a potential strength in certain areas.
How much better is the Jets’ interior defensive line than it was 24 hours ago?
The Jets were poised to enter the 2025 season with arguably the weakest supporting cast around Quinnen Williams in his seven-year NFL career. That’s saying something, considering that Williams has never had a defensive tackle teammate who made the Pro Bowl, surpassed six sacks, or reached 50 total tackles.
New York still does not have a star next to Williams. But with the back-to-back trade acquisitions of Jowon Briggs and Harrison Phillips, the Jets suddenly boast a sense of depth and collective beefiness that their interior defensive line has not enjoyed since Williams played alongside Foley Fatukasi and Steve McLendon from 2019 to 2020.
Briggs (313 pounds, 39 bench press reps) and Phillips (307 pounds, 42 bench press reps) both offer a combination of size and strength that was missing in New York’s defensive tackle room. The Jets have enjoyed plenty of athleticism at the position in recent years, but physical offenses could push them off the line of scrimmage. That was expected to be the case again in 2025—until these trades.
One area that will not be altered by these trades is New York’s interior pass-rush upside. It was a concern before Wednesday, and that remains the case; Briggs and Phillips combined for two sacks in 23 games last season.
However, until Briggs and Phillips came along, the Jets’ interior unit appeared just as weak against the run as it did against the pass. With these trades, though, New York’s interior defensive line now has the pieces to perform at a high level in the run game.
As un-sexy as interior run-stuffing can be in the eyes of the national media, these moves can make a night-and-day difference for the overall outlook of New York’s defense.
No Jets defender is more capable of taking over a game than Quinnen Williams – in either phase (pass or run). But if he were surrounded by a group of teammates who struggled against both the pass and the run, opponents would happily double-team him for four quarters without suffering any repercussions.
The pass game is still a concern, but now, teams can no longer double Williams in the run game without paying the price. When the Jets are fully healthy, they have three other defensive tackles who can make noise in the run game if left one-on-one: Byron Cowart, Briggs, and Phillips.
Additionally, all three players have the anchor strength to absorb double teams and hold their ground at the line of scrimmage, creating room for Williams and the Jets’ speedy linebacker duo (Quincy Williams and Jamien Sherwood) to draw one-on-one matchups and dominate them.
Jets defensive coordinator Steve Wilks spoke about the importance of this ability on Wednesday morning, hours before the Jets acquired Briggs and Phillips.
“We’re looking for that balance that’s going to be opposite of Q (Quinnen Williams), some guys that’s going to be able to man a double team as well, so we can take some pressure off of him.”
Cowart was the only player in the unit who could be trusted to do that. With Cowart’s future availability uncertain due to an ankle injury, it is not shocking that the Jets went out and added not one, but two players who fit the description Wilks provided.
The Jets’ run defense just got a whole lot stronger—both literally and figuratively.
These upgrades will be especially beneficial against two AFC East division rivals.
Jets’ recent trades improve their odds against Bills, Patriots
With the additions of Briggs and Phillips, the Jets match up a whole better against the Buffalo Bills and New England Patriots.
Considering those two teams make up nearly a quarter of New York’s schedule, that is a big deal.
Wilks highlighted this on Wednesday (as a reminder, before these trades were made). While speaking about Cowart, Wilks described him as a “big, physical guy inside that can hold and defeat the double team,” emphasizing the importance of those skills because of “as much duo blocks as we get in this league, particularly our division.”
“Duo blocks” are double-teams designed to facilitate inside runs. Here is an example of the Jets running duo last year.
When Wilks talked about the prevalence of duo blocks in the Jets’ division, he was specifically referring to the Bills and Patriots. The Miami Dolphins are one of the heaviest outside zone teams in the NFL, but Buffalo and New England are among the most common users of both duo and inside runs in general.
In 2024, Buffalo recorded 264 rush attempts (15.5 per game) that were aimed toward left guard, middle, or right guard (as tracked in the official play-by-play log), the fourth-most in the NFL.
Meanwhile, the Patriots brought back Josh McDaniels as their new offensive coordinator, which signals a return to the power run game. When McDaniels last served as New England’s offensive coordinator in 2021, the Patriots led the league with 286 rush attempts (16.8 per game) directed toward left guard, middle, or right guard.
The Jets’ interior run stuffers will not be challenged often by the Dolphins, who rank 30th in these rush attempts (10.8 per game) since Mike McDaniel took over in 2022.
Against Buffalo and New England, though, the inside run game will be a fixture of the opposing offense. Before Wednesday evening, Joe Brady and Josh McDaniels were salivating about the possibilities against New York’s soft interior (especially with the Bills recently getting back James Cook, who has led the revival of Buffalo’s non-QB run game).
Two trades later, the Jets have the necessary beef to clog up Buffalo and New England’s rushing attacks. It could create a domino effect that would tilt games in New York’s favor.
If the Jets’ new defensive tackles can generate run stuffs on the early downs, New York will force the Bills and Patriots into predictable passing situations on second/third-and-long, making life easier for Sauce Gardner, Will McDonald, and the Jets’ entire pass defense.
Over the course of a game, if the Jets consistently build walls against the interior run game, they can force Buffalo and New England to abandon the run completely, making them one-dimensional. That’s what the Bills worked hard to get away from over the last two years, and it is the last thing New England wants with a developing young quarterback under center.
It all starts with stuffing inside runs. The Jets were not built to pull it off 24 hours ago. They are now.
New York’s odds of upsetting their top two division rivals just got a little bit higher, even if it is in a subtle fashion that will not garner any attention from the national media.