ORLANDO, Fla. -- The Jets' secondary was inconsistent, to say the least, last season.

But Jets coach Todd Bowles, a former defensive backs coach, thinks the group could be much improved in 2018.

"Since I've been here, it's probably the most athletic and versatile secondary that I've had going into the season," Bowles said Tuesday at the NFL Annual Meeting.

The Jets' biggest free agency addition was cornerback Trumaine Johnson, who got $34 million guaranteed up front. They also re-signed cornerback Morris Claiborne, which will let Johnson and Claiborne be the Jets' primary outside corners. And Buster Skrine can mostly move into the slot corner role, where he is better suited anyway, and where he has played extensively.

Bowles thinks Johnson is one of the NFL's best corners. For all the money the Jets are paying Johnson, he better be.

"He's an elite player right now," Bowles said. "We don't want him to change anything with what he's been doing from a playing standpoint. He can play man, zone, off or on [in coverage]. He's tall, long, physical, understands how to play."

Bowles likes his secondary's flexibility because he thinks Johnson, Claiborne, and Skrine can all play outside corner. Bowles doesn't envision Skrine going into the slot 100 percent of the time. (But surely, Johnson and Claiborne will get more outside corner action than Skrine.)

"He'll play outside some, too," Bowles said. "We've got three good corners. You can never have enough corners. I've had five at one point, and all five played. Depending on matchups, they'll be all over the place. We can use five DBs [in the nickel package] and have all three of them start, or we can use two. So it's a multi-flex. I look at all three of them as starters, personally."

Bowles wants to see his dynamic rookie safety duo of 2017 -- Jamal Adams and Marcus Maye -- take the next step in 2018. Combine them with those three corners, particularly Johnson, and the Jets might indeed have something special in their 2018 secondary.

Plus, the Jets' secondary coach, Dennard Wilson, was Johnson's position coach with the Rams. That proved "very valuable" in the free agency process, as the Jets learned about Johnson, said Bowles.

The Jets last season had the NFL's 14th-highest quarterback ranking allowed. They intercepted 11 passes -- 20th-most in the league. Not good enough.

One guy who didn't join the Jets' secondary in free agency was safety/slot corner Tyrann Mathieu, whom Bowles coached in Arizona before the Jets hired him in 2015. It seemed a long shot, because of Adams and Maye, that Mathieu would come to the Jets. He wound up signing with the Texans, where he is more likely to have a bigger role.

"You can never have enough good football players," Bowles said. "I know how I would have used him. But at the same time, he had a chance to go start, and we just got two young safeties the year before. So that would've been tough for him, coming in."

Darryl Slater may be reached at dslater@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @DarrylSlater. Find NJ.com Jets on Facebook.