Ex-Jets Scout Offers Three Ways to Fix Jets' Defense
Everyone is scrambling for answers how to fix the Jets’ last place ranked defense, but the answers how to improve may surprise you.
One thing is for sure, doing the same things that got this team to 3-9 will not work.
The biggest mistake coordinators make on winning teams is trying to take the scheme they have been running and try to implement it on a losing team, when they become a head coach. Trying to institute a scheme that has been successful with far more talent, does not work on a team that has far less talent.
The 2021 Jets under head coach Robert Saleh are not the same team as he worked with in San Francisco when he ran the second best unit in the league and made a name for himself.
That 49ers played a 4-3 (four defensive linemen and three linebackers) and a cover three pass coverage scheme (zone defense with corners and safeties protecting the deep thirds of the field). They had the necessary talent to pull it off. That season, the 49ers defense put up the fifth most sacks (48) averaging three per game. Their pass coverage ranked second in the NFL.
By comparison, the Jets have had 27 sacks and are averaging 2.3 sacks per game, and their pass coverage is ranked 29th this season.
Coaching needs to adjust and adapt to the personnel they are actually working with, opposed to trying to make the players fit into the defensive scheme they want them to play that worked on a much more talented roster.
There are three ways to do this:
1. Become more aggressive in the play-calling
Aggression wins.
This cat-and-mouse game the Jets like to play often amounts to a game of “read and react,” and leaves opposing offenses in control.
Currently the Jets blitz 24.2% of the time.
That number needs to increase, dramatically. The Jets need to become more disruptive. They can not afford to sit back and have opposing offenses dictate as much as they have. They can not also afford to have this “bend, but don’t break,” philosophy. The Jets are broken.
The Jets need to attack and become far more aggressive. They need to make the opponent much more uncomfortable.
What do they have to lose?
2. Go into radically different looking defensive formations
Predictability is the kiss of death in the NFL. Going into the same worn out defensive formations and coverages the Jets are showing is obviously not working.
This look of the 4-3 base defense along with two cornerbacks and two deep safeties is not working.
The Jets must be able to throw opposing offenses off-balance by giving them looks and defensive alignments they are not accustomed to seeing week in and week out.
The Jets must be willing to come out in different kinds of formations, especially in more obvious passing situations. They need to switch it up and show opponents radical things that confuse them pre-snap and things they have not seen or used to seeing.
Going into a 0-3-8 for example, which features zero defensive linemen, three linebackers and eight defensive backs on 3rd down and 10 or longer situations would be a look that opposing offenses are not accustomed to seeing. It is much more geared towards defending against the pass.
3. Know the opponents better
The Jets pro scouting department needs to do a better job understanding and communicating the weaknesses of the opponents’ offensive personnel, prior to game-planning preparations.
For example, if an opponent’s left guard is the worst offensive linemen they have, the Jets need to relentlessly attack that area of vulnerability. Knowing who and where to attack through evaluating is important.
As someone who looked Bill Belichick in the eyes and convinced him to hire me back when he was the defensive coordinator of the Jets, there are ways to do this, but it takes getting out of the box. It is not all dependent on acquiring better talent through the draft and free agency. Aggression, innovation and evaluation will get the job done.
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