FLORHAM PARK. N.J. (AP) — Will McDonald IV wanted out from the New York Jets because he was frustrated with his playing time.
The disgruntled edge rusher remains with the team after his trade request wasn't granted — and now he wants to be a reason the Jets get some more victories.
“I just want to clear everything up, you know,” he said at his locker Wednesday. “There’s no hard feelings with the coaches and staff or anybody here. I just want to play and I just want to help the team win.”
McDonald, the 16th pick in the 2023 NFL draft, has just three sacks this season and has become more of a situational player in Aaron Glenn's defense than a regular contributor. That led to McDonald asking the Jets to trade him.
“Because I wasn't playing,” McDonald said.
But New York declined to grant his request before the NFL's deadline for deals on Tuesday. The Jets, 2-7 as they prepare to face Buffalo (7-1) at home on Sunday, were considered by some to be possible sellers. But Glenn said they would “stand pat” and New York made just one trade on Monday when it sent safety Andre Cisco to Detroit for a future draft pick.
“It's speculation and I think I was very to the point when I said, 'Listen, we're not trading Will. Will's a huge part of what we're doing,'” Glenn said Wednesday. “And I totally understand that it's my job to make sure that I continue to put him in positions to help this team be successful.”
McDonald, who had a career-high 10 1/2 sacks in 2024, is speedy and athletic and uses a terrific spin move to rush the passer. But at 6-foot-4 and 245 pounds, he might be considered a bit undersized on a defensive line that favors bigger, powerful edge rushers.
Through nine games, McDonald has played just 46% — 277 total — of the Jets' defensive snaps this season. He has been on the field for at least 50% of the defensive snaps in just three games.
“I mean, yeah, it is quite frustrating, but you know, it is what it is,” McDonald said. “I just want to be on the field so I can be more productive in an opportune way. You know, it’s not rocket science. Every player wants to get out there on the field, so I don’t want to make it as big of a deal as it is now.”
Both Glenn and McDonald said they had several conversations during the last few weeks, including on Tuesday. McDonald said “everything is still normal,” and that him getting more playing time is “the plan."
Glenn called McDonald's pass rush “second to none” but said he has some things he needs to get better at.
“I think he’s done an outstanding job of doing that,” Glenn said. "I think we all can look forward to seeing his play time improve because of what he’s done. He’s earned the right to be able to do that.”
Garrett Wilson is still working through the concussion protocol, but Glenn said he's “very, very hopeful” the star wide receiver will be able to return this week after missing New York's loss last Sunday at Kansas City.
Glenn said Wilson would be limited during the Jets' walkthrough session and continue to be evaluated through the week. Wilson, who has a team-leading 43 catches for 527 yards and three touchdowns, was hurt in the closing moments of New York's 38-33 loss to Las Vegas two weeks ago when he took a helmet-to-helmet hit.
Rookie wide receiver Omar Cooper Jr. also was expected to be limited with an ankle injury suffered last Sunday. Joseph Ossai (knee) and cornerback Nahshon Wright (back) were also limited.
Linebacker Trevin Wallace (groin) and Harrison Phillips (ankle) didn't practice.
See AP’s full NFL coverage here
Las Vegas Raiders cornerback Eric Stokes (5) guards New York Jets wide receiver Garrett Wilson (5) during the first half of an NFL football game in East Rutherford, N.J., Sunday, Nov. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
New York Jets defensive end Will McDonald IV (9) sacks Las Vegas Raiders quarterback Kirk Cousins (8) during the first half of an NFL football game in East Rutherford, N.J., Sunday, Nov. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
New York Jets defensive end Will McDonald IV (9) celebrates after a sack against the Las Vegas Raiders during the first half of an NFL football game in East Rutherford, N.J., Sunday, Nov. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House has issued a warning to Democrats over their planned probes into the Trump administration, going as far as claiming that such investigations — a standard oversight function of Congress — may amount to “blatant criminality.”
White House counsel Will Scharf issued the warning in a letter dated Monday to Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee.
Garcia most likely would chair the powerful panel in the new Democratic-controlled Congress that is seated in January. Garcia warned Trump officials to “lawyer up” as his party was on the way to stunning victories in last week's midterm election.
In response, Scharf wrote that “threats to executive branch officials designed to deter them from public service, or process designed merely to abuse or instill fear in the recipient may cross the line into blatant criminality." The letter’s existence was first reported by Punchbowl News.
It's just the latest shot across the bow as the White House prepares to square off against newly empowered Democrats in the House and Senate next year, a showdown with major implications for congressional authority and the balance of power between the branches of government.
Outside the Capitol on Wednesday, Garcia told reporters that “Donald Trump is clearly hiding something” and that Democrats “are not going to be threatened or intimidated.”
“The truth is that he needs to understand that Congress is a coequal branch of government,” Garcia said.
He doubled down on his “lawyer up” post after the election, saying the White House was “thin-skinned” and couldn't “take any sort of heat.”
“If you have abused the American public, you should lawyer up," Garcia said. “If you're a corporate CEO and you're ripping off the American people, you should lawyer up.”
Democrats are preparing a vast oversight agenda to look at how Trump and his family have become wealthier since he returned to office. The Republican president and his White House have long denied any wrongdoing.
Garcia also wants to look at the administration’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein investigation and Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations. Other targets include Trump’s White House ballroom and other construction projects, as well as the Trump family’s role in mineral deals and Trump’s crypto dealings with special envoy Steve Witkoff.
Kentucky Republican James Comer, the current chair of the Oversight Committee who conducted a wide-ranging investigation of former President Joe Biden and his family, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that he had not yet read the letter from the White House, but stressed that the panel is "very independent.”
“Regardless of who is in the White House, there's always going to be a strong desire for the Oversight Committee to be a check and balance on the executive branch, regardless of the political scenario," Comer said.
He said he thought Garcia's “lawyer up” comments were in “bad taste” but Democrats "won the election and it's going to be his committee. So if he gets out of line I would assume that his members will try to rein him in.”
Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a CNN interview that aired Sunday that “there could be” a crime to investigate if rhetoric from Democrats turned threatening. He appeared to strike a more conciliatory tone during an appearance in Missouri this week, saying “Congress has oversight authority. It always has, it always will. The Department of Justice, the federal government, works with Congress to address questions they have — whether it’s through subpoenas or letters — so we’re not going to stop working with Congress.”
“Nothing I’ve said this weekend, or in the past, should suggest otherwise,” he added.
Outgoing Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, a Trump critic, said he hopes Democrats don't squander their new powers on “stupid things.”
“I hope they have real hearings about real things, not another Russia-gate,” he said, referring to a previous congressional inquiry into ties between Trump's first presidential campaign in 2016 and Russia. Trump repeatedly denounced that investigation as a “hoax.”
“I think there is some real corruption there around the fringes,” Massie said about Trump and some of those around the president. Massie lost his primary election to a Trump-backed GOP challenger.
Rep. Mark DeSaulnier, D-Calif., who is expected to be the next House Ethics Committee chairman, said he would not back down from any investigations because of warnings from the White House.
“If they're trying to intimidate, at least for me, it’s not going to get me,” said DeSaulnier, who was a Republican before he switched to the Democratic Party in 2000. “I don’t work for a mafia, a mob organization.”
Associated Press writer Eric Tucker and AP video journalist Nathan Ellgren contributed to this report.
FILE - Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, speaks to reporters at the Capitol in Washington on Sept. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., speaks outside of the Capitol about articles of impeachment he introduced against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Monday, Nov. 9, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Allison Robbert)
The U.S. Capitol is photographed Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
President Donald Trump speaks in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House Monday, Nov. 9, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
New members of the 120th Congress gather for the first day of new member orientation at the Capitol, Monday, Nov. 9, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Allison Robbert)
Attorney General Todd Blanche stand in the door of Air Force One was Marine One lands with President Donald Trump aboard, at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Friday, Oct. 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen))
President Donald Trump, followed by Dana White, UFC president and CEO, arrives to speak in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House Monday, Nov. 9, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
