{"id":304992,"date":"2025-08-21T04:24:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-21T04:24:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/304992\/"},"modified":"2025-08-21T04:24:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T04:24:11","slug":"steve-wilks-praises-ny-jets-surprising-upside-at-one-position","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/304992\/","title":{"rendered":"Steve Wilks praises NY Jets’ surprising upside at one position"},"content":{"rendered":"

Heading into training camp, defensive tackle was one of the positions where many felt the New York Jets needed reinforcements<\/a>. The organization had an All-Pro in Quinnen Williams, but a lot of questions outside of him.<\/p>\n

Those concerns have been quieted to some degree.<\/p>\n

A few of New York\u2019s key players at defensive tackle have stood out throughout training camp and preseason contests. Names like Jay Tufele and Byron Cowart brought questions at the beginning, but have since proved their worth<\/a>.<\/p>\n

More importantly, the group has gotten defensive coordinator Steve Wilks excited for the new season ahead. <\/p>\n

Steve Wilks is optimistic about Jets\u2019 underrated DTs<\/p>\n

Throughout his decades of coaching defense, Wilks has understood that good defenses are built through the trenches. That\u2019s why the focus has largely been on the Jets\u2019 defensive tackles in camp. <\/p>\n

Some of the top standouts over the last months have been the likes of Tufele, Cowart, and former UDFA Leonard Taylor III. With Williams as the central cog of the group, Wilks has liked what he\u2019s seen \u2013 especially from the names that needed to step up over the last month.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love the fact that Jay (Tufele) has stepped up,\u201d Wilks said before practice on Wednesday. \u201cYou look at Leonard Taylor, he\u2019s doing some great things. I\u2019m waiting to get BC back into the fold. I thought those guys are doing a great job.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re looking for that balance that is going to be the opposite of Q (Quinnen Williams).\u201d<\/p>\n

It hasn\u2019t been a perfect camp for all of New York\u2019s tackles. Free agent pickup Derrick Nnadi has struggled to make an impact after being a part of the Kansas City Chiefs dynasty over the last few years. <\/p>\n

The Wednesday trade acquisitions of Jowon Briggs<\/a> and Harrison Phillips<\/a> may signal that Nnadi is a cut candidate following the final preseason game on Friday. With Briggs and Phillips now in the picture, New York\u2019s tackle room has added two quality interior run defenders.<\/p>\n

All a move like that does is enhance Wilks\u2019 main talking point. <\/p>\n

\u201cI preach all the time to the defense that everything we do starts up front. I\u2019m excited about what we\u2019re doing right now,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

None of New York\u2019s preseason success means that they will be unblockable on the interior this season. But they are expected to be much better at stopping the run, a key issue that plagued the group throughout last season and in recent years.<\/p>\n

With Wilks at the helm, there is a belief that New York can return to fielding one of the NFL\u2019s best defenses. If their upstart tackles can all shine in key areas, those expectations will quickly become a reality.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Heading into training camp, defensive tackle was one of the positions where many felt the New York Jets…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":304993,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2051],"tags":[7,3228,226,1917,255,2321,2097,6,4403,3231,3234,22352],"class_list":{"0":"post-304992","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-jets","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-free-content","10":"tag-jets","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-jets","13":"tag-newyork","14":"tag-newyorkjets","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-ny-jets-coaches","17":"tag-ny-jets-news","18":"tag-standard","19":"tag-steve-wilks"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115064856084894563","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=304992"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304992\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/304993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=304992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=304992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=304992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}