Leading up to NFL cutdown day, Jets defensive end Eric Watts was nervous and couldn’t eat because his stomach was tied up in knots for two days.
Since he signed with Gang Green as an undrafted free agent in April, Watts has worked to be one of the 53 players on the main roster.
Finally, on Tuesday, Watts not only learned that he made the initial 53-man roster in a group text sent by Jets coach Robert Saleh, but so did fellow undrafted free agents Braiden McGregor and Leonard Taylor III.
The first thing Watts did was call his mom and his aunts, who celebrated the achievement with him.
“It felt unreal,” Watts said on Thursday. “I read it a couple of times, and I was like, ‘I’m refreshing my messages, let me make sure it was the right number,’ because the feeling is unreal. The amount of work it takes to get to this point and finally make it. Then also, in the back of your mind, this is just the beginning. This isn’t the end all be all.
“OK, you made it, but what are you going to do to stay here. Because now, that’s your next challenge. The challenge was making the 53, and now your next challenge is what are you going to do to stay here and continue to be here?”
On a veteran-led team like the Jets, it is rare for one undrafted free agent to make the roster. The Jets had three of them.
“I’ve never been around a situation where three undrafted free agent D-linemen made it from the same group,” Jets general manager Joe Douglas said. “I mean, last year we had two undrafted wide receivers, but to have three undrafted guys at a premium position like D-line come in and really do their thing is a credit to a lot of people.
“It’s a credit to the work that goes into recruiting these young men, our scouts evaluating the players. I think we’ve got a really special thing going in terms of the relationship we have with our coaching staff, personnel … everyone’s on the same page.
“We know exactly what our coaches are looking for, and we can point to specific examples of guys coming in that may not have been premium picks but being developed by a great staff, and so I think that’s led to so some of our undrafted free agent success, and for us to have three undrafted D-linemen and then two other guys from this undrafted class go to other active teams.”
Watts spent five seasons at UConn and was a starter for three years before joining the Jets. During his four seasons on the field, Watts finished with 153 tackles, 24 tackles for loss and 10.5 sacks.
Watts was invited to the Senior Bowl, but he still went undrafted. But after signing with the Jets, Watts proved he was ready to play in the NFL.
He finished the preseason with four tackles and 1.5 sacks. Now, Watts will continue to hone in on his craft to ensure he remains on the Jets roster.
“Anything coach mentions to me, making sure that’s on the forefront and makes sure that’s something I’m working on consistently,” Watts said. “If he got to keep repeating, repeating the same thing to me every day, at some point, it’s going to get old. Just focusing on the things he thinks I need to be better at to help the team and improving on those.”
A five-star player out of Miami Palmetto High School, Taylor was a highly touted prospect entering his junior season at Miami. However, following a 2023 season in which his tackles for loss and sacks declined, Taylor went undrafted. But he made the most of his opportunity after signing with the Jets shortly after the draft.
After registering a sack in the Jets’ first preseason game against the Commanders, Taylor had a breakout game in the finale against the Giants. He sacked Giants quarterback Tommy DeVito on three consecutive plays and finished with 1.5 sacks.
“Once I started going, I’m going to keep going out there,” Taylor told the Daily News. “At the end of the day, just being out there with my fellow D-End Braiden McGregor just knowing that me and him never played on the same side.
“And just in that one game, we built great chemistry and a great connection together. It was head over heels, and we were back there disrupting plays, back to back to back. After that, it was a great feeling that me and him both put in the work and we got to project it on the big screen.”
Taylor learned he made the Jets roster from his agent who called him and delivered the news. He called his family and was so excited he wanted to do backflips in his hotel.
“I called my mom first and I got to hear her scream, I got to hear my grandma scream and everybody was just so happy and full of joy,” Taylor said. “I got to tell my brothers, my stepdad, everybody was just happy for me because they’ve been seeing I’ve been putting in the work and I got what I wanted. It was just a real great moment when it happened.”
Now Watts, Taylor and McGregor are on a Jets team that hopes to end a 13-season playoff drought but also has lofty goals to reach New Orleans for Super Bowl LIX. Not only does Aaron Rodgers look healthy after his season-ending Achilles injury, but the Jets return a defense that has finished in the top five in yards allowed the previous two seasons.
“Being on the team like that, that’s amazing,” Taylor said. “We have a Hall of Famer in Aaron Rodgers as our quarterback. I used to play with this man in Ultimate Team in Madden, so it’s incredible that we have the potential to be Super Bowl champs.”
