S Jaylen Key (6-0, 208)
Key, the final pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, totaled 11 tackles on 132 snaps in three preseason games. He spent five seasons at Alabama-Birmingham before transferring to Alabama for the 2023 season. He started all 12 games for the Crimson Tide and recorded 60 tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss and two pass deflections.
TE Zack Kuntz (6-8, 251)
Kuntz was the Jets’ seventh-round pick (220th overall) out of Penn State and Old Dominion in the 2023 draft. In his first professional preseason, he caught a TD pass from Tim Boyle at Carolina. He spent the first 15 weeks of last season on the Jets’ practice squad, sat out Game 16 and made his professional debut in Game 17 at New England with two offensive snaps and four more on special teams. He recorded one reception for nine yards on 87 offensive plays and added 34 ST snaps in three preseason games in August before being released. He’s helping repopulate the Jets’ TE room after Tuesday’s cuts left them with just Tyler Conklin and Jeremy Ruckert on the active roster.
OL Kohl Levao (6-5, 324)
Levao signed with the Jets in June and has played 168 snaps this preseason, the most of any offensive player on the team. Prior to the Jets, he most recently played for the USFL’s San Antonio Brahmas at both guard positions. He played center and guard for the University of Hawaii. Levao, who allowed one sack in 2021 and was an All-Mountain West honorable mention, posted a 97% pass protection success rate. Born in American Samoa, Levao has experience at LG, C, RG and RT.
QB Adrian Martinez (6-2, 220)
Martinez signed with the team in July and threw for 270 yards, 0 touchdowns and 1 interception this preseason while completing 53.2 percent of his passes. He played with the Birmingham Stallions of the United Football League (UFL) before joining the Jets, earning MVP honors while passing for 1,749 yards and 15 TDs while leading the league with 528 rushing yards. The Nebraska/Kansas State product, who was not drafted in 2023, originally signed a free agent deal with the Detroit Lions and spent last preseason with them. Martinez (6-2, 220) appeared in 49 college games from 2018-22 and completed 63.6 percent of his passes for 9,752 yards with 51 TDs and 31 TDs.
Linebacker Marcelino McCrary-Ball (6-0, 214)
McCrary-Ball joins the Jets’ practice squad after spending most of the 2023 season with the Green and White. The former Indiana Hoosier signed with the Jets’ practice squad last August before being added to the active roster in January. He appeared in two games for the Green and White and played 19 special teams snaps. McCrary-Ball began his career with the 49ers by signing as an undrafted free agent out of Indiana in 2022. He spent two training camps with San Francisco before joining the Jets midway through the ’23 season.
WR Lance McCutcheon (6-3, 203)
McCutcheon, an undrafted free agent signed by the Rams in 2022, spent last season on the Jets’ practice squad. He signed a reserve/future contract in January and now returns to the Green and White. In 2023, he was released by the Rams as part of final roster cuts and signed with the Texans’ pro team before being released in October. McCutcheon, who went to Montana State, played in all three preseason games for the Jets this summer and recorded two receptions for 25 yards. He has played in 10 games (one start) but has yet to record a reception.
S. Jarius Monroe (6-2, 205)
Monroe, signed by the Jets as an undrafted free agent out of Nicholls and Tulane, represented the Green Wave in this year’s East-West Shrine Bowl and was named the Defensive MVP. Following the 2024 draft, Monroe moved from CB to S with the Jets and started his new position in the final two preseason games, logging 123 defensive snaps in the three games combined and finishing the summer with 16 tackles, tied for second on the Green & White with LB Zaire Barnes and behind only LB Chazz Surratt’s 18 tackles.
CB Kendall Sheffield (5-10, 212)
Sheffield, a fourth-round pick by the Falcons in 2019, played in 38 games (including 20 starts) for the Falcons from 2019-21 and recorded 101 tackles, six assists and two forced fumbles. Last season, he made brief appearances on the 49ers and Titans’ practice squads. The former Ohio State Buckeye will continue to play for defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich, a defensive assistant and coordinator with the Falcons during Sheffield’s first two professional seasons.
WR Brandon Smith (6-2, 215)
Smith signed with the Green and White on August 2 and led the team with 120 receiving yards on 5 receptions. Prior to the Jets, he played in the UFL for the DC Defenders where he had 18 receptions, 208 yards and 2 touchdowns. The Iowa product went undrafted in 2020 and spent time with the Cowboys and Cardinals rosters but did not appear in a regular season game. Smith totaled 91 receptions, 1,046 yards and 9 touchdowns for the Hawkeyes in 39 games.
CB Tre Swilling (6-0, 196)
Swilling, the son of College Football Hall of Famer and Saints/Lions/Raiders Pro Bowl member Pat Swilling, was signed as an undrafted free agent by Tennessee after the 2022 draft. He was on the rosters of the Titans, Saints, 49ers—for whom he played his only two professional games last season—and Ravens. Baltimore released him on July 22, and less than two weeks later, he signed with the Jets and played in all three preseason games, totaling 73 defensive snaps and 30 ST snaps, recording two tackles and one pass defense and forcing the Giants into a fumble on the opening kickoff of the teams’ final preseason game that the Jets recovered and converted into an opening FG.
RB Xazavian Valladay (6-0, 200)
Valladay was an undrafted free agent out of Arizona State after the 2023 draft who spent the summer with Houston and Pittsburgh before joining the Jets’ practice squad after the final cut last August. He spent most of the season on the practice squad before making his Jets and NFL debut with 12 ST games in the snowy season finale against the Patriots. During this year’s preseason, Valladay played 71 offensive snaps and 30 more on special teams, and in his 40 OPs against the Giants, he finished with 14 carries for 28 yards and six receptions — the most by any Jets receiver in a 2024 preseason game — for 62 yards.
