The day the New York Jets signed Jamien Sherwood to a three-year, $45 million contract, the NFL team released C.J. Mosley.

Asked what Mosley had meant to his career, Sherwood answered: “Everything.”

Even up to preparing his protégé to take his job.

“God makes no mistakes in anything that he does,” Sherwood said, “and the people that he makes you cross paths with, he does it for a reason. C.J., from the moment I got in here — I was nervous to just speak to C.J. just because it’s C.J. Like, I used to play the video game, and he was on there. He also went to the rival school of my college. So it was like, ‘I don’t know if we’re going to be friends. I don’t know how serious the rivalry is to him.’

“But he’s just been great. Every day he’s here, he just answers every question that we have for him, no matter who asks, no matter when. You know, I can text him right now. He’ll answer a question that I have. And he’s just been amazing. Like, he put his arm around me and basically he said, ‘We’re going to do it together.’ And, you know, I always appreciate him. And without him and other guys in that room, you know, this moment, this opportunity wouldn’t be possible.”

New York chose Sherwood from Auburn in the fifth round of the 2021 NFL Draft with the intention of converting him from safety to linebacker, where Mosley worked as defensive play-caller, team captain and past Pro Bowler.

“When I heard I was going to be transitioned to linebacker, at first I was a little bummed because I had worked my whole life, my whole high school career trying to be a safety, in college playing safety,” Sherwood said. “But my only goal was just go. Like, this is something I worked for, so regardless of what happened I wasn’t going to let it beat me down. I was just going to get up every time and do what I had to do at the end of the day. Did I know what I was getting myself into? Not at all. But again, I made it to the NFL for a reason. I know God didn’t bring me this far just to bring me that far. And I knew there was more on the table for myself.”

Mosley helped Sherwood learn to play “a different game.”

“The best football players are the smartest football players,” Sherwood said. “Understanding that, like, once the offense breaks the huddle, if you can already at least eliminate the things that they’re not going to do, that’s just going to put you one step forward. So I spent a lot of time just studying just so I can get that one step ahead, get that 1 inch on the offense because the game of football is all about inches. So, again, me just understanding where they’re not going to run the ball, where they’re not going to throw the ball is going to put me in a better position. It’s going to put my teammates in a better position from a communication standpoint so we all can just play as fast as possible.”

An injury limited Sherwood to five games as a rookie. He played in every game in 2022 and 2023, when he was on the field for 219 defensive snaps and 729 special-teams plays.

In those three seasons, Mosley made 478 tackles, the fourth-most in the NFL during that span, while playing 3,338 defensive snaps.

But in 2024, toe and neck injuries limited Mosley to 110 defensive snaps in four games.

Sherwood stepped into the breach. While playing 1,065 defensive snaps, he led the NFL with 98 solo tackles, recorded 158 total tackles and won the Jets’ Curtis Martin Award as the team’s Most Valuable Player for the 2024 season.

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“When (Mosley) went down, that was devastating to our room, to our defense, to our team, because, you know, he’s our captain, he’s our leader,” Sherwood said. “So for me to have to basically fill in that spot, I had to take tremendous pride with it because not only did I have to play to his standard, to his level of expertise, I had to be the one to get our defense set.

“We didn’t come up the way we wanted to this season, but again, just taking on that leadership role was the main thing. Regardless of the accolades, the stats, that all came with just me being a player of the game and studying stuff. But I say, like, really everything came because of how comfortable I am around my teammates, the respect that they have for me to come in and fill in for him. So without them, none of that would be possible, because I could have just gone out there and if I didn’t feel the love from them, I wouldn’t have been able to play the way I would have liked to. The fact that they embraced me stepping in and they believed in me, that was everything for me.”

Mosley was a two-time All-American at Alabama and a prep star at Theodore before that. Sherwood said he was pushed to play better in 2024 by another former Alabama high school standout – Quincy Williams from Wenonah.

“He’s the fastest dude on the field,” Sherwood said, “so it’s like if I don’t get there, he’s going to get there. And again, that’s the type of respect you want to have for a player you’re playing next to because when the game’s not fun anymore, you’re not going to love it. So the fact that he’s my brother and I can go out there and compete with him and it’s, like, not because I want to be better than you (but) because we’re trying to make each other better. That’s what basically would put me in the zone.

“I’m playing next to an All-Pro player. I got to play up to his standard. I got to play to the standard that he created.”

Sherwood was scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent on March 12. Instead, he re-signed with the Jets.

“Knowing that I’m going into free agency and there was options and stuff that I could explore and go other places,” Sherwood said, “I wanted to be here at the end of the day, regardless of there was a lot of chaos that went on last season and stuff like that. But again, the relationships I’ve built with everybody in this building, it wouldn’t feel right to me to go somewhere else. This is where I’ve made a home, and this is where I would like to continue to be for the rest of my career and stuff like that. So when the season ended, you know, I couldn’t wait for basically March 12, the free-agency window, so I could re-sign here.”

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X at @AMarkG1.