Toward the beginning of nearly every Jets practice this spring and summer, there would be one period dedicated to turnovers — forcing them for the defense and preventing them for the offense.

Coaches would put the players through a circuit of drills meant to instill the importance of taking the ball away and not giving it up.

“Well, it is the No. 1 stat in football,” coach Adam Gase said. “The turnover margin, that’s what it comes down to every game — where you see we’re plus-four, you’re probably saying that we’re going to win the game, then plus-three, plus-two, plus-one, we’re even — so we want to make a big emphasis on it. We want to make sure we use the proper technique, because we don’t want to turn the ball over and then at the same time we want to get turnovers.”

It is not a revolutionary idea, but the new coaching staff has put an extra emphasis on that aspect of the game. It is something the Jets have been terrible at during the past three losing seasons.

They were minus-10 in turnover margin last year, minus-4 in 2017 and a whopping minus-20 in 2016. You have to go back to 2015 to find the last time they were on the plus side when they finished plus-6, which also was the last time the Jets had a winning record.

In the first two preseason games, the Jets forced three fumbles and intercepted one pass and returned it for a touchdown, and only third-string quarterback Davis Webb has turned the ball over (two interceptions). In the third preseason game Saturday night, Ty Montgomery lost a fumble.

On offense, the burden mainly falls on second-year quarterback Sam Darnold, who threw 15 interceptions and had four fumbles (though several were bad snaps) as a rookie last season.

Darnold has been good at protecting the ball during training camp and in the first two preseason games. He only has a handful of interceptions in practice and has not thrown a pick in a game.

“I didn’t think they were horrendous last year,” Gase said. “Going back, for a rookie, it’s not like he threw 30 interceptions or anything. He had 17 touchdowns, 15 interceptions and a couple fumbles. I’ve seen a lot worse than that.”

Gase said you can see a progression in Darnold in Year 2 that should lead to less turnovers.

“Out here [at practice], he’s seeing it. It’s slowing down for him,” Gase said. “He’s doing a good job of, he doesn’t like what he has, he gets the ball down to the back or the tight end or something underneath. That’s where you just have to understand when there’s a time to get greedy and when there’s a time to pull back and just check the ball down. The more I feel like his feel and the protection of knowing when guys are leaking through the line of scrimmage and he knows when to get rid of the ball.”

On defense, coordinator Gregg Williams has put as much of an emphasis on takeaways as Gase has to the offense about limiting turnovers. Each day the players are swiping at the football and trying to knock it out.

“That’s why I love how our defensive players practice: They rally to the football, they try to get it out, make a point and emphasis, then work on it every day, [you] usually get what you want on Sundays,” Gase said.

The defensive players also recognize they are helping the offense.

“It helps the offense out protecting the ball because we’re going after it all the time,” linebacker Avery Williamson said. “It makes the team better. We need more turnovers and they need less turnovers.”

Williams requires his players to pick up any ball that hits the ground, even an incomplete pass. In the preseason game against the Giants, cornerback Parry Nickerson picked up a ball that hit the ground and returned it for a touchdown. The play was overturned and ruled an incomplete pass after a video review, but it showed the value of scooping up every loose ball.

“That was the first thing that we were all saying on the headphones was, ‘That’s why we do that,’” Gase said. “Maybe if it’s just one second sooner, maybe that’s real, and everybody else is standing around, so that’s why we do it every day.”