{"id":652059,"date":"2026-01-04T01:24:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T01:24:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/652059\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T01:24:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T01:24:10","slug":"3-x-factors-on-defense-for-week-18","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/652059\/","title":{"rendered":"3 X-factors on defense for Week 18"},"content":{"rendered":"

The New York Jets will play their Week 18 finale versus the Buffalo Bills<\/a> on Sunday.<\/p>\n

It’ll represent the last showing for a defense that must undergo a serious identity makeover in the offseason<\/a>. Head coach Aaron Glenn will hire a new defensive coordinator. General manager Darren Mougey will also be tasked with acquiring more talented playmakers on defense. They are heavily outmatched heading into Sunday.<\/p>\n

Until then, we’ve identified three potential X-factors for the Jets<\/a> defense in Week 18.<\/p>\n

Jermaine Johnson II, EDGE<\/p>\n

Jermaine Johnson II hasn’t recorded a sack in his latest six appearances. It’s been tough sledding for the pass rusher who returned from a 2024 season-ending torn Achilles injury<\/a>. Johnson continues playing with effort, so it would be nice to see him finish the season with a breakthrough.<\/p>\n

Jamien Sherwood, LB<\/p>\n

Interim defensive coordinator Chris Harris recently heaped praise on linebacker Jamien Sherwood. Sherwood leads the Jets in tackles by a longshot with 147 takedowns this season. Despite it being a lost season, he continues to compete to his full capabilities.<\/p>\n

Harrison Phillips, DT<\/p>\n

Veteran defensive tackle Harrison Phillips has been a limited participant at practice<\/a> this week. That indicates he’s trending towards being available for Sunday’s finale. The Jets need Phillips’ run-stopping efforts against Josh Allen and James Cook.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New York Jets will play their Week 18 finale versus the Buffalo Bills on Sunday. It’ll represent…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":652060,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2051],"tags":[857,247,265,215,214,53,7,5921,18453,20842,78316,23807,7515,8142,226,1283,856,872,1184,246,206,1917,255,88,2321,2097,6,35196,245,264,1595,78317,1602,2517,9,266,225],"class_list":["post-652059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-jets","tag-allen","tag-american","tag-american-football","tag-bills","tag-buffalo","tag-buffalo-bills","tag-football","tag-harrison","tag-harrison-phillips","tag-hub","tag-jamien","tag-jamien-sherwood","tag-jermaine","tag-jermaine-johnson","tag-jets","tag-johnson","tag-josh","tag-josh-allen","tag-listicle","tag-neutral","tag-new","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-jets","tag-news","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkjets","tag-nfl","tag-nfl-hub","tag-overall","tag-overall-neutral","tag-phillips","tag-sherwood","tag-smg","tag-smg-listicle","tag-sports","tag-sports-news","tag-york"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115834222413982007","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652059","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=652059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652059\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/652060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=652059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=652059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=652059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}