Jets fans' least favorite player quietly had a strong Week 4 performance

New York Jets fans have been very vocal with their criticism of a number of players on the current roster, but perhaps no individual has drawn the ire of Jets fans more than Micheal Clemons.

The fourth-year defensive end has become the resident punching bag for Jets fans who have borne witness to his bone-headed penalties and overall lack of production in an elevated role he has no business playing.

Much of the criticism is justified, but every once in a while, Clemons proves why he's still the team's best backup defensive end. Now, that statement says a lot more about the state of the Jets' defensive line unit than it does Clemons himself, but it's true nonetheless.

Clemons quietly put together one of the best performances of his NFL career in the Jets' Week 4 loss to the Miami Dolphins on Monday Night Football. He didn't exactly dominate the game, but Clemons was a quality contributor for the Jets against a porous Dolphins offensive line.

Micheal Clemons was quietly very good for the Jets in Week 4

Clemons finished Week 4 with three pressures and three run stops, earning a season-high 75.9 Pro Football Focus grade in the process. In fact, that was the highest single-game grade he recorded since his rookie year in 2022.

Entering Monday night's game, Clemons had managed just one pressure and two run stops on the season, failing to register a PFF grade higher than 52.0 in any single game this season. However, Week 4 was a quietly strong performance from the Texas A&M product.

This isn’t meant to be a full-on referendum on Clemons as a player. Through four weeks, he still grades out as one of the worst edge defenders in football by essentially every metric. But somehow, someway, he remains the Jets’ best option.

Braiden McGregor's 33.8 PFF grade ranks dead-last among all 118 qualified edge defenders with at least 60 snaps played. Rookie Tyler Baron hasn't played enough snaps top qualify, but his 50.1 PFF grade isn't much better.

McGregor and Baron have combined for four total pressures and two run stops this season. Clemons is bad — and also one of the league's worst edge defenders — but he is, in fact, better than the Jets' current alternatives.

The brutal reality is that the Jets really only have two NFL-caliber defensive ends on their entire roster. One of those players, Jermaine Johnson, is currently hurt, while the other, Will McDonald, is playing out of position and is arguably the league's worst run defender.

It’s a sad state of affairs when a merely above-average performance from one of the Jets’ current starting defensive ends is noteworthy, but that’s exactly the situation this team finds itself in. Here's to hoping Johnson will be able to suit up this Sunday against the Dallas Cowboys.

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