The Jets are one of the few teams that will be watched closely through the exclusive negotiation period and franchise tag window in order to see what they'll do with star defensive end Muhammad Wilkerson -- a player that has been promised a new deal by three different general managers over the course of his career.
But there is another key cog on their defensive line that no one is talking about, who is also set to cash in.
"The fact that the best of me has yet to come should excite my supporters," Jets nose tackle Damon Harrisonwrote on Twitter Monday. "But it should seriously frighten anybody who isn't for me."
Harrison is not shy about staking his claim in the football world. The former undrafted free agent told Around The NFL during the preseason that "I feel like I'm the best nose tackle in football. If you look at a nose tackle's job description, nobody does it better than me and I'm confident in saying that."
His note on Twitter was perhaps another reminder as the exclusive negotiating window dwindles and free agency prepares to open.
Pro Football Focus is really the only site attempting to rank nose tackles, but they have listed Harrison among the best in football over the past three years. And while he only plays about half the teams' defensive snaps, he continues to improve. In 2015, that meant leading the NFL in 'stops,' a metric that measures solo defensive plays that result in a failure for the offense. He was tied with Aaron Donald for first in the NFL.
On a basic box-score level, he had more tackles than Vince Wilfork, Dontari Poe and Paul Soliai -- some of the more traditional headliners at the nose tackle position. It's not easy to make an impact on an individual level at the nose tackle position and much of the job entails drawing double teams and creating log jams at the point of attack.
The Jets have an enviable cadre of versatile defensive linemen, but in a 3-4, so much of their success depends on the grunt work done by Harrison. If he fields anywhere near the five-year, $32 million contract signed by Soliai back in 2014 or the five-year $40 million extension Wilfork signed at the height of his prime, might he be fielding it somewhere else?
