Will McDonald IV comes across as a strong, silent type who, just when opponents think they have him sized up, surges to another level.
That's the plan for this, his second season as a Jets edge rusher.
"I' definitely feel that the leap that I took, I'm a lot better than what I did from last year," McDonald said following Wednesday's training camp practice. "My get-off really wasn't that good. But I've learned a lot about the game in the NFL, especially from my brothers. I definitely feel like this year I'm going to contribute a lot more."
McDonald's coaches are getting that feeling as well.
"Will is much, much stronger," head coach Robert Saleh said of his young rusher, still listed at 236 pounds as he was as a rookie.. "I know he looks the same, but his strength in the run game, his strength in the pass game is showing up. He's flashed a little bit, he's got a couple of wins on our starting tackles. I really like the way he's progressing."
"That's something that we challenged him on this offseason, to get bigger and stronger and become a better run defender, a better every-down player," coordinator Jeff Ulbrich said. "And he has absolutely stepped up to that challenge. The first two days of pads, we challenged him to set edges like the rest of our defensive line group does. In my opinion, we're the best edge setters in football, and he is putting that on tape consistently right now."
McDonald made a smaller but still significant leap during last season as the Jets' 15th overall pick of the draft. For the season he was in for fewer than 200 defensive snaps, and he said there may have been some frustrations with not getting on the field.
"I would say at a point there was," he said. "But I was still able to come to my senses. If I didn't play or I did play, I was still getting better. So it didn't really bother me that much."
And that mini-leap, from his first five games as a pro before the Green & White bye week to his final 10 games after the bye, and with about the same number of snaps/game in each stretch, gave a hint of what may lie ahead:
| Stretch | GP/GS | DefSnaps | Tackles | TFL-YDs | Sacks-Yds | QBH |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Games 1-6 | 5/0 | 59 | 1-0-1 | 0.0 - 0.0 | 0.0 - 0.0 | 0 |
| Games 7-17 | 10/0 | 125 | 8-5-13 | 1.0 - 6.0 | 3.0 - 25.5 | 5 |
McDonald knows it can get crowded on an NFL roster and in a D-line room, but he's put his experiences to good use. He said Bryce Huff, who emerged as one of the league's top edge rushers and departed as a free agent for Philadelphia in March, helped him on and off the field. Then this summer, the path to greater playing time and pass and run numbers isn't a given, since besides playing on the same unit as first-time Pro Bowl DL Jermaine Johnson, he and the rest of the DL are still awaiting the arrival of trade acquisition Haason Reddick.
But McDonald said he's not feeling any pressure to seize the opening created by Huff's departure.
"I'm still going to be that same guy. I'm still going to play my role," he said. "I believe Bryce definitely helped me out a lot. And obviously we've got a guy like Haason coming in who I'm also going to take help from. He's definitely going to help me get better at the game."
"Everyone has seen the athleticism that Will has, just an amazing burst, explosion, speed," Ulbrich said. "His balance is uncanny, from day one since he stepped on the field at Florham Park.
"He's still got some ways to go, but he's definitely taking big strides."
