After having already announced the hirings of defensive coordinator Steve Wilks and special teams coordinator Chris Banjo, the Jets announced Monday the hiring of seven new defensive assistants and special teams assistant Kevin O'Dea. HC Aaron Glenn also added Jon Berger, who most recently was the NFL's vice president of replay, as a game management coach. Assistant LBs coach Nathaniel Willingham will return for a fifth season with the Green & White.
Chris Harris – Defensive Backs / Pass Game Coordinator
Harris, 42, has been around the NFL block both as an assistant coach and as a player. He comes to Glenn's Jets staff from Tennessee, where he was the Titans' defensive pass game coordinator and cornerbacks coach the last two seasons. In 2024 the Titans ranked second in the NFL in allowing 177.3 net passing yards/game and ninth in yielding 6.37 net passing yards/play. Sixth-year S Amani Hooker led Tennessee this season with a career-high 5 INTs.
Harris began his NFL coaching career with two seasons as defensive quality control coach with Chicago in 2013-14, joined the San Diego Chargers as assistant DBs coach in '16, and became Washington's defensive backs coach in '20.
He was a Bears sixth-round selection in the 2005 draft and became known as a safety with a knack for takeaways. At the end of his second season, he intercepted Indianapolis' Peyton Manning in Super Bowl XLI. He was traded to Carolina in August 2007 and set a Panthers team record with 8 forced fumbles, a total that is tied for the second-most FFs by an NFL defensive back in a season since 1991.
Harris was traded back to Chicago in the 2010 offseason and in his first season back in the Bears' secondary he set career highs with 5 INTs and 7 TAs and ended the season with his only postseason award, second-team All-Pro from The Associated Press. He was acquired on waivers by Detroit in October 2011, and played five games for Jacksonville in 2012 before retiring as a player.
Dré Bly – Assistant Defensive Backs
Last season, Bly (47) was a defensive assistant on a Charlotte 49ers staff that also had Jets defensive coordinator Steve Wilks as an unofficial advisor. Bly was the Detroit Lions' cornerbacks coach in 2023, working under Jets HC Aaron Glenn. A minority coaching intern with the New Orleans Saints and Miami Dolphins in the 2017-18 preseasons respectively, Bly was the cornerbacks coach at North Carolina from 2019-22.
Two-time Pro Bowl CB played 11 NFL seasons from 1999-2007, recording 43 interceptions, 20 forced fumbles and 149 passes defensed in 167 games (116 starts). A second-round pick (No. 41 overall) of the Rams in 1999, the North Carolina product played with five NFL teams – St. Louis Rams (1999-2002), Detroit Lions (2003-06), Denver Broncos (2007-08) and San Francisco 49ers (2009).
At Carolina, Bly set the ACC single-season record with 11 INTs his freshman year and earned First Team All-American honors the following two years.
Aaron Curry – Linebackers
Curry, who will turn 39 in April, comes to the Jets with a Green & White LB connection — Eric Barton, starting linebacker for the Jets from 2004-08, is Curry's oldest brother. Right after retiring as an NFL 'backer in the summer of 2013, he joined the University of North Carolina at Charlotte coaching staff, becoming the 49ers' defensive line coach in '15. He joined Seattle coach Pete Carroll's staff in 2020 and served in several coaching roles for the Seahawks before leaving early in 2023 to begin a two-season stint as Pittsburgh's inside linebackers coach.
Curry began his NFL playing career as the fourth overall pick of the 2009 draft out of Wake Forest by Seattle. He was a Seahawks front-line defender for three seasons, starting 30 games for the Seahawks through October 2011 before being traded to Oakland. He started nine games for the Raiders the rest of that season, but began the '12 season on the PUP list before playing two more games for the Raiders and being released.
Curry spent the 2013 offseason as a member of the Giants but was released in August and retired as a player two days later.
Cameron Davis – Assistant Defensive Line
Davis spent the last three seasons with the Lions as the team's assistant defensive line coach. He helped DL Aidan Hutchinson tally 21 sacks, the most by a Lions player through two seasons. Under Davis' tutelage, Hutchinson finished the 2023 season first in the league with 23 quarterback hits and second with 101 pressures, according to Pro Football Focus.
Before his stint in Detroit, Davis spent two seasons as the defensive line coach for Lamar University (2020-21). He has served as a graduate assistant for Kentucky (2019), Rice (2017-18) and Texas A&M (2016). He began his coaching career at Diablo Valley College in 2013 as an assistant D-line coach and was a public relations intern for the Raiders from 2012-13.
Davis graduated Cal State East Bay with a degree in sociology and earned his Master's in leadership and management from the University of La Vern where he also coached the defensive line and defensive backs. He also served as the team's equipment manager from 2014-15.
Eric Washington – Defensive Line
Washington, 55, most recently served as the Chicago Bears' defensive coordinator last season. With 17 years of NFL coaching experience, Washington worked with Jets DC Steve Wilks in Carolina for seven seasons. Washington was the Panthers DL coach from 2011-17 when Wilks was the Panthers' defensive backs coach (2012-14), defensive backs coach/assistant head coach (2015-16) and assistant head coach/defensive coordinator (2017). When Wilks left to become head coach in Arizona, Washington assumed the defensive coordinator position for two seasons.
With the Panthers ranking in the top 10 in sacks in five of his seven season as DL coach, Carolina finished No. 1 in 2013, No. 2 in 2016 and No. 3 in 2017. The Panthers defense ranked second in sacks (53) in 2019.
Washington started his NFL coaching trek with the Bears as a defensive assistant in 2008-09 and became Chicago's defensive line coach in 2010. He also coached inside the division with the Bills, serving as Buffalo's DL coach from 2019-23 and holding the titles as senior defensive assistant (2022) and assistant head coach (2023). In 2021, the Bills led the NFL in points allowed (17 pts/g), total yards (272.8 yds/g) and passing defense (163 yds/g). A year later, the Bills ranked second in points allowed (17.8 pts/g).
Washington, a Shreveport, LA native, played tight end at Grambling State from 1989-90 and graduated with a degree in education in 1993. He was a graduate assistant at Texas A&M in 1997 and was an assistant coach at Ohio University (2001-03) before coaching defensive line at Northwestern from 2004-07.
Nathaniel Willingham – Assistant Linebackers
Willingham has been a part of the staff since 2022 when he was hired as a defensive assistant. He was promoted to defensive back/nickel backs coach prior to last season and enters his seventh NFL season. Before the Jets, he spent three seasons with the Broncos as a defensive quality control coach.
Willingham began his coaching career at Skyline (WA) High School where he was a center and defensive tackle as a student. After five seasons coaching at the high school level, he coached the tight ends at Melo College in 2014 before spending the next five seasons at Stanford as a recruiting assistant (2015), defensive assistant (2016-17) and a football quality control analyst (2018).
Willingham's father, Tyrone, coached for over 30 years and was the head coach at Stanford (1995-2001), Notre Dame (2002-04) and the University of Washington (2005-08).
Alonso Escalante – Defensive Assistant / Nickels
Escalante, 35, was hired as Tenafly (NJ) High School's coach in April 2023 after eight seasons in the NFL, most recently with the Panthers in 2021 as an assistant running backs coach.
He started as a coach with the Raiders in 2011 as a defensive coaching intern before he held positions with the Buccaneers (2012-13), the Giants (2016-17), the Cardinals (2018) and the Browns (2019). The Glen Rock, NJ, native attended Springfield College in Massachusetts to wrestle and play football, but a back injury prevented him from playing. He broke into the NFL via the Bill Walsh Minority Coaching Candidate Fellowship.
Roosevelt Williams – Defensive Assistant
Williams, 46, was most recently the cornerbacks coach for Houston Christian University where he coached for one season. Before that he coached four seasons at Hardin-Simmons University as their defensive backs coach.
Williams began his coaching career in 2010 as a DBs coach and special teams coordinator for Wiedner before stints at Southwest Baptist (DBs coach), Seton Hill (defensive coordinator), Lincoln University (DC), ASA Miami (associate head coach, defensive coordinator and head coach).
Williams was drafted by the Bears in the third round in 2002 out of Tuskegee University. He played two seasons with the Bears before stints with the Broncos (2003), the Browns (2003-04), Washington (2005) and the Jets ('05). The Jacksonville native played in 20 games and totaled 34 tackles, 3 pass defenses and 2 fumble recoveries. He finished his professional career with Edmonton of the Canadian Football League in 2006.
Kevin O'Dea – Special Teams Assistant
O'Dea, 64, will join the Jets for the second time in his career. He was most recently the New Orleans Saints' assistant special teams coach from 2016-18.
O'Dea began his NFL career as a defensive and special teams assistant with the San Diego Chargers in 1994. He made stops at the Buccaneers, the Lions, the Cardinals and the Bears before becoming the Jets' special team's coordinator in 2008. He then spent one season with the Hartford Colonials of the United Football League before returning to the NFL to become the Bears' special team's assistant. After two seasons in Chicago, O'Dea spent a year with the Chiefs before joining the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as their special teams coordinator for two seasons in 2014 before eventually joining the Saints in 2016.
O'Dea, a Pennsylvania native, played wide receiver and defensive back at Lock Haven University from 1984-85. He began his coaching career at Lock Haven the following year as the wide receiver coach. Before reaching the NFL, O'Dea coached in college at Cornell (1987), Virginia (1988-90) and Penn State (1991-93).
Jon Berger – Game Management
Berger spent last season working for the NFL as their vice president of replay.
Berger spent most of his professional career with the Giants and started with the team in 1981 as an intern out of Manhattan's Stuyvesant High School and left in 2021. He became a full-time intern in 1986 and was promoted to New York's computer coordinator in 1987 given his degree in computer science and applied mathematics from SUNY Albany. He became the team's senior director of football information in 2007, a role he held until he left in '21. Berger joined the league as a replay officiating trainer in '21 before he was promoted last season.
