The two best players on the Jets’ defense always figured to be Jamal Adams and C.J. Mosley. Now they’re both gone – Adams via a trade to Seattle, and Mosley after he chose to opt out of the 2020 season due to family health concerns related to COVID-19.

Even though one wound was self-inflicted, those were a pair of blows the Jets were not expecting to take.

It will probably take another miracle from defensive coordinator Gregg Williams to get the kind of performance out of this now-undermanned Jets defense that he was able to squeeze out last year when they finished ranked seventh in the NFL. It will also take these five players on his depth chart to really step up for the Jets’ defense to be any good at all:

DL Quinnen Williams

The first-round pick promised to “dominate” the NFL as a rookie and he didn’t even come close. He was a solid player at times, but invisible for long stretches. A man who was expected to provide a huge interior pass rush managed to come up with only 2 ½ sacks. In fairness to him, he suffered a high ankle sprain early in the season and was never quite right. Regardless, his rookie season was a disappointment.

That can’t happen again, because not only are Mosley and Adams gone from the Jets’ defense, but so is Leonard Williams, who was traded to the Giants last October. Williams, if nothing else, provided semi-consistent pressure and was a very good run-stuffer. He provided a presence along the front that Williams now has to duplicate.

Actually, he’ll have to exceed it. The Jets need him to fulfill his promise as a pass rusher, and they need him to be the player on defense that offensive coordinators have to account for every play. With Adams gone, the Jets don’t have that player anymore. When the Jets drafted Williams third overall, that’s the kind of player they were expecting to get.

S Marcus Maye

It’s easy to forget with all the noise Adams has made over the years, both on and off the field, but when he was drafted in 2017 he was part of a duo. The Jets took Maye in the second round, 33 picks later, giving them a safety tandem they were expecting to count on for years.

After a shoulder injury ruined his second season, there were doubts about whether Maye could ever be counted on to even stay on the field, but he answered those questions last year by surviving all 16 games and playing almost every defensive snap. And he was a good player, too, with 65 tackles, seven passes defensed and one interception.

The Jets need more of that, especially with the 27-year-old in a contract year. He’s not quite the big-play player or vocal leader that Adams has been, though the Jets could use a little more of those things from him, too.

LB Avery Williamson

Before Mosley got his five-year, $85 million contract, the 28-year-old Williamson was the Jets’ big-money linebacker (albeit on a lesser, three-year, $22.5 million contract signed in 2018). He and Mosley were expected to be quite the team last year. Injuries took them both out.

Now Williamson is attempting to return from the torn ACL he suffered last August and at least be the solid, steady presence he was in the middle of their defense his first year with the team.

The problem with Williamson is it’s unclear how healthy he is or whether he’ll be ready for the start of the season. All we know for sure is he’s on the Physically Unable to Perform (PUP) list, which puts his presence for the 14 training camp practices in doubt. Even if he does practice, are 14 sessions enough for him to get ready after a full year off?

Unfortunately, the rest of the Jets’ linebacking corps is shaky on the inside – James Burgess, Neville Hewitt, Blake Cashman. Williamson is better than all of them if he’s healthy – which is something the Jets desperately need him to be.

LB Jordan Jenkins

The 26-year-old edge rusher obviously wasn’t happy with how free agency worked out for him. After an eight-sack season – and 15 in the last two years – he hit what turned out to be a depressed market. In the end, his only choice was to slink back to the Jets on a one-year, $3.75 million deal.

Hopefully, for the Jets’ sake, he is motivated to prove that he is vastly underpaid. The Jets know he came back at a bargain rate, and teams love having players on “prove-it” contracts. And with no other proven pass rushers on the Jets and a depleted linebacking corps, they need him to prove a ton.

At the very least, that means a duplication of the last two seasons, when he was a solid linebacker and an occasional pass-rushing presence. It would be better if he became more than an occasional presence in the faces of opposing quarterbacks. If he can get his sack numbers into double-digits, the payoff for the Jets – and for him – could be huge.

S Bradley McDougald

When Adams left for Seattle he took his big-play ability with him, and the general view was that his replacement, the 29-year-old McDougald, didn’t bring that potential in return. But that’s not quite true.

McDougald may not be the blitzing, hitting machine that Adams has been, but he’s a sure-handed defender who had five interceptions in the past two years, and has forced four fumbles. He’s also considered to be one of the top coverage safeties in the entire league, which will be a huge help for what looks like a weak cornerback group.

So maybe McDougald isn’t an all-pro caliber player like Adams, but he certainly can have a huge impact, just in a different way. And especially if the Jets’ pass rush struggles, they’ll need McDougald to come up with a few game-changing turnovers along the way.

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