Veteran linebacker Demario Davis said that he believes the Jets signed him as a free agent to be a model of what “winning culture looks like” and that process appears to be off to a good start.
Davis will be playing alongside Jamien Sherwood at linebacker and Sherwood is coming off a somewhat disappointing 2025 season. He signed a three-year extension after posting 158 tackles in 2024 and had 154 tackles, but they often came after solid gains that contributed to the team allowing 503 points over the course of the campaign.
It’s too early to know how Sherwood will play in 2026, but he credits his more experienced teammate with being the kind of leader he and the rest of the defense needed after such a rough year.
“It’s been great,” Sherwood said, via the team’s website. “The only thing that I can say from last year is we were a pretty young team, so when there were times where I felt like I did need someone to lean on or felt like I needed a little bit more of knowledge of something. I feel like for the last few weeks of OTAs and the offseason, like he’s been there. I would say you can feel his presence and it’s beneficial for everybody on the team, not just myself. It’s beneficial for our coaches having a guy like him.”
Safety Minkah Fitzpatrick and defensive lineman David Onyemata are other experienced players that the Jets added this offseason and the hope is that those players mesh with their younger teammates to build a much stronger unit this time around.
