The Jets’ issues stopping the run in their season-opening loss to San Francisco surprised some people.
After all, we heard that the Jets’ defense was elite all off-season, and they just needed an offense to complement them.
However, the talk about the Jets’ defense being top-shelf last year was a little hyperbolic. Why? They weren’t very good at stopping the run, finishing 25th in the NFL.
Jets GM Joe Douglas and coach Robert Saleh (pictured above) knew they had to do something about it, and they signed two massive defensive tackles – Javon Kinlaw and Leki Fotu – to help them improve their run defense.
Kinlaw played in San Francisco, but Fotu didn’t. He was put on short-term IR before the season started.
The Jets rotate their defensive lineman a lot, so when Kinlaw was off the field, they didn’t have a jumbo defensive tackle to replace him, and that is when some of the big runs occurred up the middle.
Not much was made about the 6-5, 335-pound Fotu going on short-term IR, but it hurt the Jets in their opener, and could moving forward as well.
He’s a huge, athletic, run-stopping defensive tackle who makes it hard to run up the middle.
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