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23-Year-Old Jets Defender Delivers Strong Warning

New York Jets rookie cornerback Qwan’tez Stiggers was cryogenically frozen during the 2024 campaign.

Stiggers appeared in 14 games but only made one start. The former Canadian Football star only suited up for 5% of the defensive snaps for the Jets during his rookie season.

However, he admitted that ended up being a “blessing in disguise.”

“Before I got here, like every opportunity I’ve got, I’ve started. Coming here, I had to just sit and learn behind guys in front of me. I would say it’s like a blessing in disguise, so I feel like I had a great opportunity. [Expletive], I just finished my rookie year in the NFL, like I’m blessed. My journey to get here, you will never hear this story again. I’m just blessed and grateful,” Stiggers told Jets team reporter Caroline Hendershot.

“Instead of just getting thrown out there and ya know getting embarrassed and giving up touchdowns, TO [Tony Oden] did a good job of developing me. I’m going to be one of the best cornerbacks in the league you know for years to come, but I know next year I’m going to be a starting cornerback for the New York Jets,” Stiggers said emphatically.

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Stiggers Has a Clear Path With Jets to Live up to His Guarantee

Gang Green used the No. 176 overall pick in the fifth round of the 2024 NFL draft on Stiggers. The moment he was drafted, Stiggers faced long odds of making the roster, let alone potentially starting.

Things are set to change in 2025.

NFL analyst Ian Hartitz noted on social media that 8 of the Jets’ top 10 corners and safeties are entering some form of free agency in 2025.

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Sauce Gardner and Michael Carter II are the only penciled-in starters at corner heading into 2025. That still leaves another starting gig and the top reserve spot available.

ESPN NFL Insider Jeremy Fowler told me on “Boy Green Daily” that it is likely veteran cornerback D.J. Reed will leave the team in free agency.

Brandin Echols, the Jets’ top reserve corner, is heading toward the open market. Echols started 14 games during his rookie season, but since that point, he has been strictly used as a rotational player. It would make sense if Echols sought out greener pastures that would give him a clearer path to consistent playing time.

You don’t have to squint very hard to envision Stiggers as a starting cornerback for the Jets in 2025.

Jets Would Love Nothing More Than for Stiggers to Seize the Day

If Stiggers is starting in Week 1 of the 2025 season, the Jets would be thrilled.

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Stiggers, 23, still has three cheap years left of control on his $4.2 million rookie contract. The Jets control his rights for at least the next three seasons through 2027.

“Stiggers (5-11, 203) had a roller-coaster history, playing high school ball at B.E.S.T. Academy in Atlanta, initially enrolling at Lane College in Tennessee, sitting out football in ’21 after the death of his father, entering and excelling in the 7-on-7 Fan Controlled Football (FCF) league back in Atlanta in ’22, and last season being named the CFL’s Most Outstanding Rookie while playing with the Toronto Argonauts. He started 16 games [during that] season, tying for second in the CFL in 2023 with five interceptions and making 56 tackles,” Jets contributor Randy Lange wrote back in April of 2024.

A talented kid, easy to root for, with an improbable football journey, who possesses the confidence that he will ascend to both the starting lineup and the top of his positional group in the National Football League. You love to see it.

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This article was originally published on Heavy Sports

The post 23-Year-Old Jets Defender Delivers Strong Warning appeared first on Heavy Sports.

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