The Jets will be looking for a safety to pair with Tony Adams this offseason. Chuck Clark (coming off a torn ACL) and Jordan Whitehead are both pending free agents — Whitehead’s contract was voided this week, setting him up to become a free agent in March.
Who could fill that void in 2024 for the Jets? Matt Bowen of ESPN has an idea. He recently took his top 50 pending free agents and picked the best team fit for each one. One player was paired with the Jets, and that was safety Kamren Curl of the Washington Commanders.
Curl, who turns 25 in March, quickly became a mainstay in the Washington defense after being selected in the seventh round in the 2020 NFL draft out of Arkansas. He has played in at least 16 games in three of his four seasons and has recorded at least 80 tackles in every season, including a career-high 115 in 2023.
Here’s what Bowen wrote about Curl:
Curl is a highly instinctive safety who can roll into the front or drive top-down from split-field alignments — traits that work well in Robert Saleh’s system. While I would like to see Curl create more on-the-ball production — he hasn’t had an interception for the Commanders since grabbing three in his 2020 rookie season — he’s a solid pro who could produce in the Jets’ defined coverages.
As Bowen notes, one thing you’d like to see if Curl comes to the Jets is more interceptions. He had three in his rookie season in 2020 but none in the last three seasons. He did force and recover a fumble in 2023 and also has at least one sack in every season, so defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich could get creative with Curl.