Jets, Jenkins Loosen Up on Defense

http://nfl.fanhouse.com/2009/05/24/jets-jenkins-loosen-up-on-defense/

FLORHAM PARK, NJ -- It's not that Kris Jenkins minded the way it used to be -- a New York Jets defense with him as its massive, central focal point. It's just that the gargantuan nose tackle really likes the way it is now.

"This is the first time in a long time where it doesn't feel like it's just a job," Jenkins said after a recent practice at the Jets' training facility here. "Football gets to where, Sunday is always fun, but Monday through Saturday, the fun can get sucked out of it. Now, though, it's a different atmosphere around here. This is the first time in a long time where I really feel like it's fun coming here every day."

The reason is a new defense, imported from Baltimore by new coach Rex Ryan, that allows Jenkins and everybody else on it to do pretty much anything they want to do.

"The entire key," said linebacker Bart Scott, who came from Baltimore with Ryan and knows the defense from having played in it there. "Is that they don't know what we're going to do, and we don't know what we're going to do. That's the beauty of the whole thing. We don't know what we're going to do on a given play, so how's the other team going to know?"

Sitting at his locker after that same recent practice, Scott was reveling in the opportunity to educate reporters about the loosely organized chaos that is Ryan's defensive scheme. Scott and the other defensive players (Jim Leonhard, Marques Douglas) who journeyed up I-95 with Ryan from the Ravens have been working to educate their teammates about a defense that, Scott says, is rooted in the coaching staff's trust of its players to make good judgments on the field and within a play.

"The coach allows you to be a football player," Scott said. "You have a job, but there are 10 different ways you can get that job done, and maybe you pick a different one every play. It doesn't matter. It's trust. He trusts you, and in return you earn the right for him to know you can make a good football decision."

For example, there is Jenkins, who stands 6-foot-4 and weighs something in the neighborhood of 370 pounds and has been, for his entire career, an interior defensive lineman. It is what he is built, suited and trained for. He played inside on the line for seven years in the 4-3 defense in Carolina, and last year with the Jets he started all 16 games at nose tackle in the 3-4.

This year? Well, he'll line up some at nose tackle, sure. But not on every play. In fact, once he gets used to playing in Ryan's defense, there's no telling where you'll see him on a given play. He could line up on the outside and rush the passer. To hear Scott tell it, he could drop back and play linebacker, or slide back into pass coverage. Would it look ridiculous? Sure. But in this defense, that's part of the plan.

"Would you want to block him?" Scott asked, rhetorically. "If you're a running back or a receiver or a tight end, would you feel good about trying to block him? Just seeing him out there might be enough to put it in your head that you don't want to get hit by that. And then we've got you."

Ryan said he remembers watching Jenkins work out when Jenkins was still in school at Maryland, and he believes his massive tackle is athletic enough to be used in different ways.

"He's a phenomenal athlete," Ryan said. "His flexibility for a big guy, he's just like a huge cat. He really is. He can bend at his ankles, knees and hips. That's usually for a guy much smaller. So he's a rare guy. So absolutely, you're talking about standing him up and doing some of those things, I think we will probably see that a little bit. You may do it one snap a game, you may do it 20 snaps a game, you may not do it at all."

Remember, the whole point is that nobody, on either side really, is sure what this defense is going to do on any given play. It's new for Jenkins, and he's not 100 percent sure yet how he exactly fits in. But he knows he likes it.

"I'm going to do a little bit of everything, I guess," Jenkins said. "It kind of depends on what Rex feels like and what I'm comfortable with. But I like it because it doesn't just give me one responsibility. When you do the same thing every time, people start learning how to scheme against you."

That may be what happened last year, when Jenkins may have been the best defensive player in the league for the first three-quarters of the season but wore down (like the rest of his team) in the final month. He was banged-up and injured, and it's entirely possible that this new defense, which won't rely as heavily on him as the old one did, will keep him fresher for all 16 games.

Jenkins brushes off that kind of talk, of course. No athlete likes to talk about injuries or wearing down. What he does know about 2009, as he looks around his locker room, is that things are different.

"We've got some characters in here," Jenkins said. "There's no doubt about that. But it's a different group of characters. They're all about their work. And that's what makes them able to be out there and have fun. Because they know, and we know, they're all about doing their jobs first."

And that clears the way for them to have all this fun.

 

Brady's only weakness is lack of foot speed. Blitzing him is the obvious approach. Doesn't always work, but it worked for the Giants in the Super Bowl. Having a coach with a reputation for being a blitz expert is not a bad thing when going against Brady. Just be honest about that.