New York Jets’ captain is letting the team down

When linebacker and team captain C.J. Mosley went down early in the 2024 season, it seemed as if the New York Jets’ defense might be in for a steep downgrade at the position.

But in came Jamien Sherwood, who held the fort down and put together a breakout season in Year 4.

The 2021 fifth-round pick, who converted from safety to linebacker upon being drafted, had only played 358 defensive snaps across his first three NFL seasons. Injuries limited him to five games as a rookie, and he was used almost exclusively on special teams in his second campaign. But in his third year, Sherwood started showing promising improvement across 194 snaps.

The Auburn product built on that potential in 2024. He was voted by his teammates as the Jets’ Curtis Martin Team MVP after starting 16 of 17 games.

Sherwood’s breakout came in a contract year. With the general manager who drafted him, Joe Douglas, fired mid-season, it was unclear whether Sherwood would return to New York.

The Jets’ new regime, though, prioritized retaining Sherwood. Not only did they want to keep him around, but they viewed him as a cornerstone of the future.

Before Sherwood hit free agency, new general manager Darren Mougey re-signed him to a three-year, $45 million deal, which was viewed as a surprisingly high price tag at the time. As of today, it makes Sherwood the fifth-highest-paid linebacker in the NFL based on annual salary.

Sherwood was solid in 2024, but not top-five solid. Most advanced metrics painted him as more of a top 10-15 linebacker than a top-five one. Not to mention, off-ball linebacker is considered a non-premium position, making it somewhat questionable to invest that type of salary into a player who had yet to display All-Pro-caliber ability.

Nonetheless, New York was more than comfortable with the perceived overpay. The Jets felt that they were not only retaining a 25-year-old homegrown talent who would continue trending up, but also strengthening their culture by keeping a respected young leader in the locker room.

As a best-case scenario, Sherwood would take another leap in his second full season as a starter, meeting his pay grade as a top-five linebacker in the NFL. But even if Sherwood did not improve, his floor felt relatively high. Just 25 years old, Sherwood seemed unlikely to decline, so, at worst, the Jets would get a top 10-15 linebacker with his entire prime ahead of him, offering locker-room leadership to boot.

In August, the Jets announced their team captains, and Sherwood was among them. He would be tasked with filling Mosley’s shoes as the Jets’ green-dot bearer on defense.

As the season opener approached, optimism was high around Sherwood. He was a freshly minted team captain at 25 years old, trending up after a breakout year. The ink was still drying on his new contract.

Five games later… Sherwood has let the Jets down.

Jamien Sherwood’s poor start

The responsibility of leading the Jets’ defense has appeared too weighty for Sherwood so far.

Communication breakdowns have ravaged the Jets’ defense on a weekly basis, and Sherwood is often among the suspects. New York’s captain and vocal leader has looked lost and overwhelmed.

No game showed it more blatantly than this past Sunday’s loss to the Dallas Cowboys. Sherwood was the primary culprit for three of the Cowboys’ five touchdowns in a 37-point explosion.

Simply put, Sherwood is letting the Jets down.

Touchdown 1: Duped to allow screen TD, lack of urgency in pursuit

Dallas fakes a power run to the left side by pulling the right guard and having the fullback lead, and Sherwood completely falls for it. I counted Sherwood taking at least eight steps toward the inside before he finally realized that a screen pass was thrown into his area of responsibility. That is a baffling lack of awareness, and we’ve seen this type of mistake from Sherwood routinely in 2025.

The gigantic lane afforded to this screen pass is primarily Sherwood’s fault. However, that may not even be his biggest offense on the play. After Sherwood finally recognizes the screen, he seemingly jogs back toward the play.

I don’t like to accuse players of lackluster effort unless it’s blatant, and this crosses into that territory for me. I find it hard to believe this is the utmost urgency Sherwood could have displayed in that situation.

Simply put, the Jets’ captain did not attempt to save this touchdown like his life depended on it. That’s what a $45 million team captain should be doing to set an example for his defense, especially with many young players on the field.

Touchdown 2: Dominated by FB in space to allow TD

Many Darren Mougey acquisitions came up small on this five-yard touchdown run. Fifth-round rookie defensive end Tyler Baron gets pins inside by a tight end, while $36 million cornerback Brandon Stephens is very late to diagnose the play and gets pinned inside by a pulling guard.

Sherwood, though, has the best chance of stopping this play, and he gets manhandled by a fullback in space. A linebacker with a top-five salary should be making clutch scoreboard-affecting plays in high-leverage situations like this one. Instead, Sherwood was outplayed by a fullback making $3.5 million per year.

This type of disconnect between price and production is what causes a team to be 0-5.

Touchdown 3: Allowing 66-yard run in an unforgivable situation

When you consider the context of the situation, this may be one of the most unforgivable plays in Jets franchise history. Seriously. Find me a blunder more inexplicable than this.

Let’s unpack the lead-up to this play. There are 29 seconds left in the half, the Cowboys have no timeouts, and they’re at their own 33-yard line. They’re already leading 17-3 and are due to receive the second-half kickoff.

The Cowboys call a draw play, clearly signaling their intention to run out the clock and happily jog into the locker room. The result? A 66-yard run straight up the gut, leading to a touchdown on the next play.

Can it get much worse than that for an NFL defense?

Almost every Jet on the field contributed to this atrocity, so Sherwood isn’t solely at fault. But he’s the middle linebacker, and the run went straight through the gap where he should’ve been, so he is heavily responsible (if not primarily responsible).

Showing another example of his poor awareness, Sherwood wildly overreacts to Dallas’ pulling left guard, following him to the outside while showing no awareness of where the ball is. As the running back takes the ball, Sherwood’s hips and eyes are facing the sideline. The running back churns straight ahead through the giant hole vacated by Sherwood.

It can be argued that Sherwood believed he had outside responsibility, and he expected that Micheal Clemons would handle the inside. That’s fair; Clemons does a brutal job here as well. If Clemons had any awareness whatsoever (he does not), he would have been aware of the pulling guard, beat him inside, and made the stop.

However, that does not excuse Sherwood’s approach to this play. The context of this situation is critical. Dallas is content to go into the half. New York’s only priority here is not allowing a breakaway run. Given that context, there is no reason for Sherwood to play this as aggressively as he does. All he needs to do is keep the runner in front of him, and the Jets will get into halftime without allowing any points.

Instead, as is typical for the Jets’ defense this season, Sherwood over-pursues in hopes of getting a big stop rather than being aware of the situation and fulfilling his responsibility. The result? A second touchdown in less than 40 seconds of clock.

Some have argued that Sherwood’s decline is due to him being a better fit in Robert Saleh’s scheme, but these clips paint a different picture. Sherwood is struggling with basic aspects of the position that should be expected of any linebacker in any scheme. His lack of production appears to be nothing more than a case of poor execution.

The Jets’ defense is the NFL’s worst. It is undisciplined, unaware, and uninspired—traits that trickle down from their well-paid captain.