It's time for the NY Jets to be concerned about Will McDonald

The NY Jets didn't draft Will McDonald with the expectation that he would play a large role as a rookie. The organization knew that he was joining one of the deepest defensive lines in the NFL, but they also believed that his talent would allow him to earn snaps before long.

The opportunity is now here for McDonald's role to increase significantly. The Jets parted ways with Bryce Huff and John Franklin-Myers in the offseason, and while they did add Haason Reddick, there are still plenty of snaps to go around.

The Jets are hoping McDonald can take a sizable leap forward in his second season. Maybe not to the extent Jermaine Johnson did in 2023, but the team does want to see progress from their former first-round pick.

Unfortunately, the progress has been minimal. ESPN's Rich Cimini reported on Sunday that most of Reddick's reps have been given to Micheal Clemons, not McDonald. The former Iowa State star has worked almost exclusively with the backups in training camp and hasn't really stood out.

That would already be a cause for concern, but the underlying issue and not-so-secret dilemma is what's actually keeping him off the field: his weight.

The NY Jets don't seem to trust Will McDonald at this stage

The Jets were fully aware that McDonald wasn't a finished product when they drafted him 15th overall in 2023. Scouts loved McDonald's explosiveness, bend, and potential as a pass rusher, but most acknowledged that he had to bulk up to play consistently at the NFL level.

The 235-pound McDonald insisted shortly after he was drafted that his goal was to play his rookie season at 250 pounds. Instead, he showed up at exactly the same weight he was drafted at.

McDonald predictably struggled to see the field as a rookie, even finding himself as a healthy scratch early in the year. He'd go on to play fewer offensive/defensive snaps than any 2023 first-round pick — and the fewest of any Jets first-round pick since Vernon Gholston.

But with Huff and Franklin-Myers now gone, the Jets fully expected McDonald to take on a larger role in 2024. McDonald publicly insisted that he planned to weigh 250-255 pounds by the time training camp rolled around.

Unfortunately, as Jets head coach Robert Saleh told reporters last week, McDonald still ways the same as he did a year ago. Saleh insists that McDonald is stronger, but his other comments combined with the latter's lack of practice reps suggest there's an issue here.

The Jets wanted McDonald to bulk up. Saleh has stated that the team wants him to utilize his power, saying they want him to "rush through people" more this year. That's difficult to do when you're listed at 236 pounds.

This isn't necessarily to blame McDonald — some people have more trouble putting on weight than others. But it's come to a point where it's clearly an issue. The Jets do not trust him to be a three-down player or anything more than a situational pass rusher.

That's fine in a vacuum, I suppose. McDonald can take on a similar role to the one Bryce Huff played for most of his Jets tenure, although expecting him to be the NFL's most efficient pass rusher while playing 25% of snaps is asking a lot of the former first-rounder. That's not an easy role to fill.

But the bigger issue is that the Jets didn't draft McDonald to be a part-time player. The goal has always been for him to add weight and eventually become a featured part of their defense.

Right now, that doesn't seem likely to happen. If he can't get playing time over Clemons, who is coming off a lackluster 2023 season and hasn't exactly been lighting it up in camp, that's a problem.

It's not panic time in Florham Park yet, but there are quite a few reasons to be concerned about Will McDonald. The Jets would love to see some progress over the next month before Week 1 arrives.

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