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The Jets’ pass rush has been pedestrian this season.
They are okay, but not edge-rushers you need to slide protection to stop, like the top-shelf pass rushers in the league.
In the Jets’ loss to Miami on Sunday, the Johnson-McDonald combined on the stat sheet for 1/2 tackle, and that was by Johnson.
Aaron Glenn was asked about his pass rush on Wednesday:
“The pass rush, I feel like we can always improve in that area. I mean, obviously, JJ (Jermaine Johnson II) is coming back from the Achilles, so he’s getting himself right back going. That’s not an excuse, but that’s just reality. I think Will (McDonald IV) has been up and down for the most part and he knows that. We need him to get going, he knows
it.”
As for the Achilles issues, that can’t be used as an excuse at this point. Johnson is a late first-round pass rusher. Generally, the elite pass rushers in a draft class come off the board very early. Game-wrecking pass rushers don’t grow on trees, so teams jump on then early. Johnson was picked with the 26th pick of the first round in the 2022 draft. 25 teams passed on him in the first round, including the Jets twice (Sauce Gardner and Garrett Wilson) picks.
Johnson could be a very good second defensive end opposite a game-wrecker on the other side.
Glenn said McDonald needs to be play better, but can he? He’s so undersized that he constantly gets velcroed to blocks of tackles that often outweight him by 100 pounds. Not his fault. It’s how he’s built, and he has a lean frame that can’t get much bigger.
He should probably be an situational pass rusher, or be traded to a team that plays a 3-4 defense, where he can play 3-4 outside linebacker. He’s not an ideal fit at 4-3 end because he’s too slender for that job.
I happened to go back and look at the Jets’ 27-14 loss to New England this week, and it was like Drake Maye had so much time to throw on so many plays, it looked like a practice seven-on-seven pass drill – playing pitch and catch with all day to throw.
The Jets’ ends were dominated by the New England tackles.
The Jets only had one sack in that game, and it was by Johnson, who didn’t beat a tackle on the play, but a tight end, Hunter Henry.
Maye was 25-34 passing with a 107.6 QB Rating.
Add dominating edge-rusher to the Jets list of needs this off-season . . .
Another huge need is coverage linebacker with great instincts, a Luke Kuechly type, and there might be a prospect like that in his draft – Texas Tech’s Jacob Rodriguez, who has four picks this year.
The Jets’ linebackers need some work on their instincts – they are too often out of position. They have no picks and very few plays on the ball in pass coverage.
They are often out of position on running plays, taking less-than-ideal angles, or running into blocks.
Jets need a guy like Rodriquez bad – a linebacker with off-the-charts instincts . . .
If a player is going to give the pregame speech to the team on the field before the game, he needs to be playing well.
It doesn’t matter if he is a captain.
He needs to be playing well. The film doesn’t lie, and the players see the film.
It’s bad for the culture to have speeches from pedestrian players, and coaches need to be cognizant of this.
Back in the day, Mo Lewis said he didn’t want to hear speeches from a legendary player on the team (Ronnie Lott), but wanted to see more plays from him . . .
In a press conference this week, Jets center Josh Myers talked about how smart Brady Cook is.
There is no about it. He’s extremely bright.
“He has been studying his butt off for this moment,” Jets coach Aaron Glenn.
But here the problem I saw last week, and I’ve seen with a lot of bright young quarterbacks.
Everything before the snap, the huddle, the line calls, the adjustments seem fine. I watched Cook closely the whole game through my binoculars from the press box. He seemed very confident and in control before the snap – was moving guys around presnap with no hesitation.
But the problem is after the snap, when the defense doesn’t tell you what they are doing. The coaches tell you what to do before, but the defense doesn’t tell you what they will do after.
After the snap last week, when the unknown occurred, he wasn’t great.
He was sacked six times behind an ascending line – he contributed to some of those sacks by holding the ball too long. He finished the game 14-30 passing with a 35.8 QB rating and two picks.
And let’s not forget, the Dolphins have been pretty thin at corner this year due to injuries and the Jalen Ramsey trade, so they are starting two veterans they added during the season.
Look, I understand this was his first action, so it unfair to be too critical, but this is the NFL, so I don’t like to grade on a curve.
So here is the point. There is no doubt Cook, who is extremely intelligent, and was named SEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year his last two years at Missouri.
But that stuff will only take you so far in the NFL – processing complex NFL defenses is a different mental challenge than learning the playbook.
There have been many extremely bright young quarterbacks who were scholars in college, but once the ball was snapped, it often became a blur.
Jets’ 2020 fourth-round pick, QB James Morgan of FIU was a perfect example and there are many others. Very bright young man who entered the Jets building already possessing an MBA. And nobody worked harder than this guy – last one off the practice field every day in Jets camp.
But in the game, once the ball was snapped, he didn’t see the field that well. Kellen Clemens and Bryce Petty were the same way. I think Clemens is a coach now.
So the point here is simple – we know that the hard-working and extremely intelligent Cook will have the game plan and playbook down. No doubt about it.
But what we will he do against a talented Jacksonville defense with a talented, creative, young defensive coordinator, Anthony Campanile?
We shall see . . .
Jets rookie linebacker Kiko Mauigoa is out, so the third linebacker will be Mychal Walker.
Going from Mauigoa to Walker is not a downgrade. Right now, it’s an upgrade. Walker is the more instinctive player and better in coverage.
December 12, 2025
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