Content available exclusively for subscribers
Everywhere you turn, you hear the same narrative.
And that is that the Jets’ defense was really good last year, but their offense didn’t hold up their end of the bargain.
There is no doubt the Jets’ offense wasn’t very good, but the part about the Jets’ defense being really good has been blown out of proportion.
How can you be a really good defense when you struggle to stop the run?
You can’t.
Were people overhyping the Jets defense watching the games last year, or just the highlights?
Even the lowly Washington Commanders, who didn’t have a good offensive line to start with, and were without two starters against the Jets, and lost a third in the game, dominated the Jets on the ground.
In fact, the Jets’ poor run defense was a big reason why the Commanders were able to overcome a 20-point second-half deficit and take a 28-27 fourth-quarter lead.
The Jets needed a 54-yard field goal with five seconds left to win the game.
Robert Saleh was asked if the Jets got complacent when they took the big lead.
“It wasn’t necessarily complacency or anything,” Saleh said. “It was just, the momentum shifted and we couldn’t grab it.”
It wasn’t complacency, but bad run defense.
On Antonio Gibson’s 1-yard run that put Washington ahead 28-27 with 4:52 remaining, the Jets two defensive tackle got mauled, and Jets defensive end John Franklin-Myers was taken to the ground by tight end Logan Thomas, a former college QB not known for his blocking.
On a 1-yard TD run earlier in the fourth quarter by Chris Rodriquez, defensive end Jermaine Johnson was handed by tight end John Bates, opening the hole for the RB.
Johnson was asked what the goals were for the Jets defense during an appearance on NFL Network this week.
“I mean, that’s the goal every single game, is to pitch a shutout, zero points on the board. So regardless of what the offense was going through, we know as a unit on defense that we had a standard we had to uphold that we set for ourselves, and that’s zero points on the board,” Johnson said.
That standard must include much better run defense, and that includes Johnson and the Jets’ ends setting better edges.
Last spring, Jets cornerback D.J. Reed said, “I think we have the potential to be the best defense in the NFL. Honestly, I think we can be historical, not just the best defense in the league, but I think we can be a historical defense like the ’85-’86 Bears and the LOB [Seahawks’ Legion of Boom] in 2013. I think we can be that dominant if we just put all the things together.”
But they weren’t able to put things together against the run, so they got nowhere near the high bar Reed set.
At one point, I asked Reed about what the issue is with the Jets’ run defense, and he said “leaky yardage.”
In other words, after the initial tackle attempt, the runner would often fall forward, for let’s say three or four yards against initial contact.
Whatever the problem, it needs to be fixed, before they can talk about shutting people out or get compared to the ’85 Bears.
May 2, 2024
Premium will return by 9:30 pm (or sooner) on Friday.