Right now, the Jets defense is a little bit of a mess.
It wasn’t terrible in the first half of their loss to Kansas City, but after Andy Reid made some halftime adjustments, the bottom dropped out in the second half. But even in a decent first-half defensive performance, a huge problem for the Jets’ defense reared its ugly head in the second quarter.
Chiefs RB Kenneth Walker was left wide open in the right flat, caught a pass, and waltzed into the end zone for an easy 7-yard TD.
How is a weapon of this magnitude not accounted for?
Right after the snap, LB Demario Davis, the leader of the Jets’ defense, pointed for somebody to get over to cover Walker, but nobody did.
The Jets’ pass defense consistently gives other teams layups. In a recent loss to New England, QB Drake Maye threw three touchdown passes to targets that were all pretty wide open.
Clearly, the decision to force Aaron Glenn to handle the defense and manage the game hasn’t worked out well for the coach or the team.
Some coaches can do both jobs, being a coordinator and managing the game; some can’t. It’s a mixed bag.
But clearly the Jets need to change some things in relation to their defensive operation, perhaps letting somebody else call the plays, or bringing in an in-season defensive consultant, as Dallas did. Management needs to do something here. It’s not ideal for the development of the Jets’ young defensive players to be growing up in this kind of dysfunction.
As the old saying goes, “You can’t expect to do the same thing over and over again and expect a different result.”
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