With so much focus on the QB, sometimes other needs are obscured in the public discourse, and this is one of them:
The Jets need a massive, athletic DT, who excels against the run, to complement Quinnen Williams.
The Jets struggled against the run after the bye week, and a lot of runs went up the middle.
They tend to go with smaller, quicker defensive tackles, and sometimes, if they don’t beat centers and guards into gaps with their quickness off the snap, they can get engulfed by linemen sometimes 30-40 pounds heavier. It’s not a lack of effort or toughness, but more a size disparity.
Some might argue, that is what the system calls for, smaller, quicker interior penetrators, who can also run sideline to sideline.
Well, keep in mind, the San Francisco 49ers play the same system as the Jets, and it’s almost possible to run on them, and their starting defensive tackles are 6-7, 290-pound Arik Armstead and 6-5, 319-pound Javon Kinlaw.
It’s time for the Jets to get somebody like Armstead or Kinlaw to team with Williams.
Hey, there is nothing wrong with having a super-athletic three-technique DT who is a little undersized, but it’s probably best to have a thick run-stuffer next to him.
Maybe Clemson’s Bryan Bresee or Baylor’s Siaki Ika in the draft or perhaps somebody like Pittsburgh’s Larry Ogunjobi or Minnesota’s Dalvin Tomlinson in free agency could help.
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