"He definitely brings tenacity," Lee said. "You can tell just by his demeanor that he wants to win, but he's a loose guy also, which helps him mesh in from a chemistry perspective. Guys are really loose. We're focused, but we're loose. Most people think us to be uptight. Last year we were probably a little more uptight than normal because we wanted to prove it to the world. Now we're just proving to ourselves we can win.

"Avery agrees with that and is vetted in the culture that we have brewing here. That's huge."

Head coach Todd Bowles said Lee and Williamson will tackle the majority of play-calling duties in the season. But until Williamson digests more of the playbook, Lee will call most of the plays as he has the microphone in his helmet.

"I feel like this is all falling into place at the right time," Lee said. "I've got the tutorial, I had my training wheels the first two years. Having David Harris, who's an ultimate pro, and Demario [Davis] was a great pro and he had a great year last year, I learned a lot from them. Just in those two years, I have a pretty good sense of direction of where to take it for this team and what's going to be asked of me to help this team succeed."

Inside linebackers coach Mike Caldwell said Lee was excited about taking on more responsibility and expects him to make a jump as a leader this season. Caldwell also believes Lee and Williamson will feed off each other given the way their personalities mesh both on and off the field.

"I think Darron being the real athletic guy, being able to understand how to use his body, and Avery, being the veteran that's been in the league and been in a bunch of different wars, he'll be able to show Darron the way," Caldwell said.

While the Jets have had three different inside linebacker pairings in as many years, Williamson feels like this combination is going to be successful a long time.