The NY Jets had high expectations when they selected Iowa State edge rusher Will McDonald with the 15th overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft. While the Jets didn’t expect McDonald to play a significant role as a rookie, the team was confident that he could become a future franchise cornerstone.

A quiet rookie season left a lot to be desired for the former Iowa State standout, but following the departure of Bryce Huff and John Franklin-Myers and the uncertainty surrounding Haason Reddick, the Jets are counting on McDonald to take a sizable step forward in his second season.

While it might not be realistic to expect a Jermaine Johnson-like leap from the second-year edge rusher given that he likely won’t play as much, the Jets should have one role in mind for McDonald in 2024.

The Jets should hope for McDonald to fill the hole left by Huff’s departure. In an ideal scenario, McDonald can become the Jets’ new Bryce Huff in 2024.

The NY Jets are asking a lot of Will McDonald this season
Of course, replacing one of the NFL’s most productive and efficient pass rushers is no easy task. Huff has the second-highest pressure rate among all players over the last two seasons and had the same number of pressures on a little more than half as many snaps as Reddick in 2023.

There is no replacing Huff. In fact, you likely aren’t going to find a better “situational” pass rusher in the NFL. The Jets cannot expect McDonald to be as productive as Huff was over the last two years. But they can ask him to fill a similar role.

The Jets have plenty of snaps to fill in their edge-rush group with Huff and Franklin-Myers now gone. Huff was playing roughly 50 percent of snaps for more than half of last season while Franklin-Myers played 55 percent of defensive snaps.

Reddick is obviously someone the Jets are counting on to pick up some of the slack, but McDonald will see an uptick in playing time as well. After all, the 25-year-old played the fewest offensive/defensive snaps of any 2023 first-round pick last season.

Despite Jets head coach Robert Saleh’s recent comments, the team should not expect McDonald to become a three-down player. He’s never going to be a particularly strong run defender, and at just 236 pounds (he didn’t bulk up in the offseason), it’s hard to envision him as a three-down player.

That, of course, calls into question why the Jets used a top-15 pick on him in the first place, but what’s done is done. Right now, the Jets need McDonald to be their new Bryce Huff. They need him to be their situational pass-rush specialist who can be unleashed on passing downs.

McDonald is a twitched-up, bendy athlete who thrives when he’s able to pin his ears back and get after opposing quarterbacks. He’s not going to “go through” opposing offensive tackles, as Saleh challenged him to do. That shouldn’t be the Jets’ focus.

Instead, the Jets should allow him to do what he does best. Let him use his athleticism and bend to explode past and around offensive tackles. Insert a fresh Will McDonald into the game on 3rd-and-8 and let him wreak havoc.

That should be the vision for Will McDonald in 2024. He’s not going to be a three-down starter like Jermaine Johnson, at least not at this time. Let him be a cheaper (and likely less productive) Bryce Huff.