JETS 2010 D..1 of the best in NFL history?

Okay buddy. Forgive me for having more down to Earth expectations than you. I don't need the Jets defense to be the best in history, I need the Jets defense to be the best in the NFL in 2010 and NOT collapse in the 4th quarter.

We're all in this for a championship, that goes without saying.

I don't think the NYJ 2010 defense will break the 00 Ravens records, if I'm wrong I'll be pretty fuckin happy about it. I do think they can be one of the better units of this past decade.

 

I think that every player on our team will break every NFL record during our upcoming 19-0 season.

 

After a huge improvement in 2009 reversion to the mean is somewhat more likely than improvement to the extreme. The Jets did import several potentially star-caliber defenders to shore things up, however adding CB's to the #1 pass defense in the NFL isn't likely to greatly improve the overall defense. Taylor is old, if he's still very good then he's a definite upgrade, but he's old.

 

The Jets #1 pass defense was shredded in the AFCC game, partially due to depth issues. You love to point this out when arguing how unnecessary the CB position is. The defense Rex is running is obviously not your typical send 4 D-linemen or 3 d-linemen and a linebacker for pressure defense. Rex does it mostly by sending extra guys, this is not news to anyone.

A lot of the success of our #2 CB's last season was due to help from other defenders with a combination of man/zone schemes. Rex had more flexibility to send an extra guy without losing that extra coverage because Revis could be trusted on an island. Revis' ability helped Rex's scheme generate pressure. If the Jets secondary was upgraded enough that the #2 CB can also be trusted in man coverage without help it would give Rex yet another player to help generate pressure or help elsewhere. More QB pressure caused by a CB.

In a standard scheme I like your reasoning, but not in this one.

If Rex has the numbers created by extraordinary CB's that can blanket receivers on the outside he can fill all the gaps effectively smothering the run and pass with pressure by numbers much like his fathers 4-6 defense did. With all the receivers used in todays game he'll have to use more d-backs to accomplish that but he has the tweeners in Lowery who can cover TE's, RB's and 3rd/4th quality receivers and Eric Smith who can cover TE's RB's and tackle.

 

i think this huge as well. we all know about the late game collapses by the defense last year but the defense was standing on it's head for most of those games. if sanchez just does what he did last year without the multiple pick meltdowns we will be in good shape. if he improves even more than that, which i think he will, the defense is gonna be scary.

 

My point was that short of Peyton Manning (and Tom Brady in the second game) nobody really solved the Jet's pass D last year, even with Revis on one side and a bunch of guys you wouldn't mind throwing at on the other. So maybe importing Cromartie made sense in terms of dealing with Manning (and Brady), and I think that's probably right, but it didn't make the Jet's pass defense leaps and bounds better because nobody else really solved it last year anyway. Importing a great weakside linebacker, like Taylor, might make a big difference if he still has the juice but importing the CB's really won't. Nobody could pass on the Jets last year anyway except for the All-timers. The Jet's run defense is still the big weakness, and the Jets did nothing much to shore that up this off-season.

So based on what they did I expect the team's defensive performance next year to decline some, because what they did well they did so well that it's hard to improve it and what they did not so well they didn't try to fix. Note that if they get to the AFC championship game next year against the Colts or Chargers or Patriots they'll be really glad they did what they did this offseason, but if they get there against the Ravens, the Steelers, the Jaguars or the Dolphins they'll be in worse shape than they were against Manning last season.

It's a roll of the dice.

 

Most fumbles?

 

Lowery was our 2nd corner in the AFCC and he got hurt. Now he's our dime and we've got Cromartie and Wilson behind Revis. Anyone who doesn't think that's a major improvement doesn't know a thing about football.

Even a 35 year old Jason Taylor is a bigger threat than Bryan Thomas as a pass rusher (who's a perfectly fine 2-down linebacker) and we'll have Calvin Pace the first four games of the season (knock on wood).

We were also without Kris Jenkins for most of the season and still finished 6th in run defense, partially thanks to the emergence of Sione Pouha. The defense, at the very least, should create more turnovers even if it doesn't finish first again.

 

Explain how adding Cromartie and Wilson to the pass defense that shut down everybody but Manning and Brady last season makes it better against the teams that beat us on the ground?

I'm not arguing that we're not better against Manning and Brady, because we probably are, I'm just arguing that spending this offseason to shore up the thing that wasn't a weakness last year except against two hall of fame bound QB's probably means the Jets are no better on defense against the average team than they were last season. If anything they've increased the incentive for teams to run the ball 30+ times a game against them, and the teams that did that last year went 5-1 against the Jets.

 

Actually teams that ran more than 30 times against us last year were 5-0
and we were also 0-4 when we allowed more than 130 yards rushing in a game.

Conversly however when teams were limited to 20-30 rushing attempts per game we were 6-2 and less than 20 rushing attempts 3-0. It is worth noting that two of the 5 games we lost when they ran more than 30 times on us, one of those was the overtime loss to the Bills where the bills were only averaging 3.5 yards a carry and the loss to the Patriots in the second game where they only averaged 3.17 yards per carry.

So it's not like we were getting litterally chewed up by the run at that point and it's not like we were poor playing against the run, we were #4 defense in yards per carry allowed, #8 in total yards allowed. And that was with a large part of the season without the center of our Defensive line in the game to stuff the runs.

While I agree we did nothing to improve against the run, it's really difficult to do much better than we did do against the run, atleast on a per carry average.

And one point that people miss, if the offense is more consistant this season with a more experienced Sanchez and a more open offense, teams won't have the luxery of being able to run alot if we can put points on the board offensively, something we weren't very good at last year for the first half of the season given that we were 17th in points per game.

I'm not so worried about the rushing game of the opponents, if we can put points on the board offensively.

 

I do not agree with this one actually.

Jets did have #1 pass defense statistically, but we all knew Lito Sheppard was the weak link in the secondary, and we also knew we didn't have anyone after Revis. Addressing that weak spot will help the defense. It may not improve the statistical performance of the pass defense a lot, but its effect will be felt in other areas. If at all, Jets didn't have that many sacks or INTs that are comparable to the level of pressure they applied on the opposing QBs. These two areas will have a marked improvement from last year's performances.

Also, Jason Taylor has a potential to be very good in this defense (as I have mentioned in other post). It is not a stretch to think he will get more than 10 sacks in this defense - especially if Rex releases him on 3rd and longs. Now... the thing is, Jason Taylor is a stop gap player. Jets will draft NT and pass rushing OLB next year anyway. So Jason being old doesn't mean much in the grand scheme of Rex's defense.

 

The other key thing people are missing is now that we have better corners we can send more people on the blitz to fill in the gaps and stop the run. Its a helluva lot easier to blitz without Rhodes in thee secondary, and whenn you have corners you can rely on

 

or even better. Im going to say yes and just edit it in October if its no.

 

The key to the Jets defense being better next year is whether or not they can avoid losing games to teams on the ground. The Titans are the only team that tried to run against the Jets last year and lost. They were 10-3 in all the other games and 1-5 when the opponent made a major commitment to the run.

The key to the Jets winning a super bowl is not on defense however, even if they managed to repeat their #1 ranking, it's whether or not Mark Sanchez is ready to play at a high level next season. We've already seen a #1 defense squeak into the playoffs and then get shredded by a #1 offense. What we need to see now is an offense capable of putting enough points on the board that even a good game by a great QB doesn't defeat them.

 

It's actually kind of a funny discussion and it has fans from all 3 rivals posting here, so it will help pass the time until training camp.

I can't wait to see the first time the Ravens go 3 receiver and all three receivers get jammed at the LOS while Leonhard and Eric Smith overload the weak side and clean Flacco's clock. Watching this defense will be a lot of fun this year.

 

Teams won't be able to commit to the run game when they're down by 10-13 points in the game and are forced to throw!!!

 

You may be right about this which is why the offense will be very important this year. If the O is putting up more than 21 points a game consistently then it will be difficult for the opposing team to stay in the game running the ball 30 times a game.

 

If the offense is humming this year then the Jets are going to win 12+ games, and would do so even if the defense dropped 5 or 6 slots in the rankings which is a probable result at this point.

What I want to see this year is a Jet offense capable of consistently putting 4 TD's on the board. With the exception of the Favre party we haven't had that since 1998.