Florham Park – The Jets’ trade for WR Davante Adams is a pragmatic move and should help improve their offense, but if the Jets don’t improve another issue, their chances of making a run and perhaps grabbing a wildcard spot are probably a long shot.
It’s hard to win the NFL if you can’t stop the run, and the Jets’ run defense was bad last year and in early-season games against San Francisco, Tennessee, Denver and Buffalo.
After the Jets’ loss to Buffalo, new Jets coach Jeff Ulbrich was asked what he will do to deal with this major issue, and to his credit, he didn’t duck the question and tell us how good the opponent’s running game is, but showed alpha dog leadership in his answer, emphatically saying they are going to fix it, whatever it takes.
“I will take a hard look at our scheme, I will take a hard look at how we call it, and take a hard look at the people we have in there,” Ulbrich said. “Combination of all those things. We can fix it and we will.”
What more could you ask for from a coach in an answer about a major problem?
No excuses, no explanations.
All those things are a problem right now: the scheme, how it’s called and the personnel. All three need to be tweaked.
And Ulbrich knows how to play run defense. He was a terrific inside linebacker during his playing days in San Francisco – an instinctive tackling machine.
Major changes are needed, and Ulbrich seems committed to rolling up his sleeves and making them, not just saying the technique needs to improve.
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