The Jets' preseason is over, and with virtually no starters playing in any of the three summer games, the numbers that the Green & White's twos and threes compiled weren't of lasting significance.

But some numbers and performances provide more than the usual summer sports talk show fodder. Such as what veteran defensive lineman Takk McKinley has done with his second opportunity in the NFL.

"If I'm honest with you, it's probably my fifth opportunity," McKinley said following his 2.5 sacks that had a lot to do with the Jets securing their 10-6 win over the Giants and their unbeaten summer. "Being out of football for a year and a half, there was a lot of regrets, I wish I did this different, that different."

"Obviously, Takk's got the pedigree," head coach Robert Saleh said of McKinley's status as Atlanta's first-round pick way back in 2017. "You think about these young men, they get drafted, whether it's first, seventh round, whatever it is, and within a year, people want to throw guys away. You get the opportunity and it's gone in a flash.

"Sometimes they just take a little longer. And to his credit, he stayed in shape, he got the opportunity in minicamp, was really impressive, we brought him in and he attacked it from there. So credit to hm. He's always had the physical tools and it was always just a matter of him getting to the right place mentally."

McKinley wasn't alone in making Saleh and the Jets' jobs harder than they already were with final cutdown day arriving on Tuesday. The Jets' D-line is already a deep group, and the play of McKinley and rookie free agents Braiden McGregor (2 sacks, 3 QB hits) and Leonard Taylor III (4 tackles, 3 for half-sacks and 1 TFL on a run) allowed the Jets' backup defensive units to stack eight sacks, 13 QB hits and seven PDs against the Giants' Tommy DeVito.

Saleh agreed that the advanced state of Jets' D-line room allows the team to take a look at players like McKinley, who know they can play but are running out of those precious "opps."

"It's really sink or swim because you're surrounded by so many guys who love the game of football," the coach said. "He'd be an example of a young man who just maybe didn't get it. Then he sees how these guys work, he sees Quinnen [Williams] and Jermaine [Johnson] and Clem [Micheal Clemons] and everybody in that room, [Javon] Kinlaw — I can go through that entire group. You can't not match the level of intensity and effort that happens in that room. So he's doing his best to figure it out and we'll see how things go over the next couple of days."

Of course, the decisions the Jets have to make over those next few days will involve more than defensive line. Linebacker and secondary are filled with good talent that can fill in behind the front-liners. On offense, a player like second-year RB Izzy Abanikanda needed a good night against the Giants, and he got it with nine carries for 83 yards and a 45-yard TD run to force the Jets to consider trying to keep four backs instead of three. WR and the O-line will lose some good players as well.

In other words, it's that time of year again. And each year the cuts that Saleh and his staff have to make hurt more than the year before.

"You try to figure out which ones you're going to have to let go and which ones you're going to keep, and it's not clear-cut," Saleh said. "There are a lot of players who are capable of being on the 53-man roster and there are a lot of guys who represent themselves well throughout the entire training camp.

"If you can can upgrade the roster, you're going to upgrade the roster," he said about acquiring new players off the waiver wire on Wednesday. "But we feel good about the guys that we have in our building. We feel we'd be really hard-pressed to find guys who aren't in this locker room already."

And that's one secret that McKinley has. He's already here, and with lots of help from people around him, from his grandma and his aunt who raised him, to Jets coordinator Jeff Ulbrich, who was a Falcons coach when he was drafted, to position coach Aaron Whitecotton to his teammates, he's capitalized on the green door being opened for him.

"It's out of my control," he said of whether he knows if he's staying or going come Tuesday no later than 4 p.m. ET. "I'm at a point now where I can only control what I can control, have a great attitude, be a great teammate. All I can worry about is right now, this moment, and whatever happens happens.

"I'm hoping I'm with the Jets."