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Just went back over the Jets-Bills season finale, and OMG, a season of bad defense finished with an exclamation point!
Like many games this year, blown coverages galore.
I know they were playing with a number of backup defenders, especially on the back end, but let’s be honest, this has been going on most of the season.
Former NFL DB Jason McCourty summed it up perfectly during the Jets-Bills game.
“They are lacking coverage discipline,” McCourty said.
Yes, they were some backup defensive backs in the lineup, but some of the coverage discipline issues were with three guys, who have been starting, and have had these issues all season – linebackers Quincy Williams and Jamien Sherwood, and safety Malachi Moore.
The linebacker pass coverage in this game was suboptimal.
It might be time to move on from one linebacker who is a free agent and make the other one a backup/core special teams player.
This lack of coverage discipline at linebacker needs to stop if Aaron Glenn hopes to survive as head coach after next season. Albert Breer and Dianna Russini already announced he’s coming back for sure in 2026.
Not helping matters in pass coverage against Buffalo was the lack of a pass rush. In a game, the Bills were starting four backup offensive linemen (the only regular starter was guard O’Cyrus Torrence), and the Jets finished the game with no sacks or quarterback hits. Jermaine Johnson, Harrison Phillips, and Jowon Briggs played a lot in this game, as did Eric Watts and Braiden McGregor, who are in their second season with the team.
Mitch Trubisky consistently had all day to throw with four backup linemen starting, and threw four touchdowns along with a 142.1 QB rating, close to perfect. He probably didn’t even need to go into the ice tub after the game. Not sure he was touched.
The Jets have serious personnel problems on defense, and this was the case even before Quinnen Williams and Sauce Gardner were traded.
Do you remember the first Buffalo game, the one in MetLife Stadium, with the “starting” defense from the beginning of the season, and the Bills ran all over the Jets?
Aside from the personnel mistakes made at QB, they are all over this defense.
I’m not being flippant, but at some point I’d love to ask somebody what the thinking was with the Jamien Sherwood contract, a deal the new regime gave out for three-years, $45 million. When I watched Sherwood prior to the new regime arriving, I’m thinking more like the contract linebacker Tyrel Dodson got from Miami, 2-years for $6.3 million. Heck, if you want to be a little more generous, how about the one-year deal for $6.3 million that Alex Anzalone got from Detroit?
Sherwood is a good guy, and decent against the run, but he’s constantly out of position against the pass, and that is not a new thing. It was an issue in 2024.
If you don’t believe me about Sherwood’s pass coverage issues, ask him. According to the CBS broadcast crew doing the Jets-Bills game, he told them he needs to work on his coverage.
The two backup defensive tackles, Peyton Page and Mazi Smith, were velcroed to blocks on three long runs up the middle by Ray Davis in the second half.
Page, a priority UDFA for the Jets, has had no impact, and Smith, a throw-in when the Jets traded Quinnen Williams to Dallas, consistently struggles getting off blocks. He seems like a nice young man, but there are reasons Dallas gave up on him in his third year after picking him in the first round out of Michigan. Something is missing.
Just like something was missing in the construction of the Jets’ defense.
Not sure who the buck stops with here, because it’s unclear who has final say on the roster. Many suspect it’s Aaron Glenn, not Darren Mougey. Perhaps that needs to change.
They need to do some self-scouting on a number of their defensive personnel decisions last off-season.
A lot of mistakes were made.
We will find out soon if they learned from these mistakes.
I’d send cut-ups on every player on the defensive roster to Rick Speilman down on Sanibel Island and ask him, “Who should stay and who should go?”
January 12, 2026
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