Jamien Sherwood knew there would be changes when New York drafted him.
The biggest initial shock, however, was the weather. A Florida native and Auburn product, Sherwood is not used to a colder climate. The last time he remembers playing football in the cold was in ninth grade when a game in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina fell below 10 degrees.
So when the pilot captaining Sherwood’s post-draft flight to New Jersey informed the cabin the temperature would be 57 degrees upon arrival, Sherwood wasn’t exactly ready.
“That just caught me by surprise,” Sherwood said, per SNY, before assuring a little chilly weather wouldn’t get in his way.
“At the end of the day, I’m in the National Football League,” he said, “so you gotta prepare for whatever is thrown at me.”
The weather won’t be the biggest transition for Sherwood, though. The Jets moved him from safety, his college position, to linebacker to better fit Robert Saleh and Jeff Ulbrich’s defense – something that will be different but not entirely problematic for the fifth-rounder.
“It hasn’t really been much of an issue,” Sherwood said of moving to linebacker, per SNY. “Before [the Jets] even drafted me we had our talks with each other and I was going to be drafted as a linebacker if I came to the Jets.”
Sherwood played safety in college but lined up all over the field in 2020. He played 44.5 percent of his snaps at safety, 34.2 percent at linebacker and 21.2 percent at cornerback, per Jets X-Factor’s Michael Nania. In that versatile role, Sherwood proved to be an adept tackler, above-average run stopper and great zone coverage defender. He tallied 77 total tackles, a 71.1 Pro Football Focus run defense grade and allowed just 5.7 yards per target in zone coverage, per Nania. He also has 549 snaps of experience on special teams, per NFL Network’s Ben Fennell.
Saleh and Ulbrich’s defense will rely a lot on similarly positionless football this season. Saleh recently said the Jets’ defense will focus on players who can hit hard, stop the run and diagnose coverages. That’s Sherwood’s skillset in a nutshell. His ability to retain his new playbook will play a critical role in his early development, and Sherwood feels confident in his study habits.
“When I do step out on the field,” Sherwood said, “it’s just like secondhand nature.”
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