Jets defensive lineman Kris Jenkins, who admits that he once tipped the scales at more than 400 pounds, says that he’s now down to a svelte 360.

That’s 30 pounds lighter than his playing weight in 2007, with the Panthers.

“It is huge,” Jenkins said on Thursday regarding his partial drop in hugeness.  “I’m getting to the point in my career now that every little bit helps, especially when you are getting the double teams off the end.  Plus, it helps alleviate the pressure on my joints.  I feel great.  Doing what I have done now, I would not go back the other way.”

But the 30-pound reduction is still less than ten percent of his total body mass. 

Jenkins also talked about the move from the 4-3 defense in Carolina to the 3-4 attack used by the Jets. “My whole career, except for my rookie year, I have always played a single-gap defense – just go up the field and disrupt,” Jenkins said.  “Now it is fun.  I love the challenge; now I have to be a stud.  You have two gaps, you can’t let anybody block you: double teams, whams, everything you have to take it head on. . . .  In the 3-4 defense I get to express myself a little bit more and show what I am capable of doing.”

It sure seems as if Jenkins has learned a lot about the contact aspects of the 3-4 defense during the non-contact offseason drills.