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Maybe I overrate the importance of run defense.
That is quite possible.
Analytics site Pro Football Focus recently ranked the Jets’ defensive line as the best in the NFL.
“Youth and Haason Reddick’s addition propel the Jets to No. 1: New York lost John Franklin-Myers and Bryce Huff this off-season but still boasts tons of talent, including star interior defender Quinnen Williams,” wrote PFF’s Sam Monson in his story ranking the Jets D-Line #1.
“The Jets have a fearsome defensive line, even with a couple of offseason departures in the form of Myers and Huff. Those were offset at least in part by acquiring Haason Reddick and could be entirely eclipsed if Jermaine Johnson and Will McDonald IV take steps forward.
“Quinnen Williams is one of the best and most disruptive defensive linemen in the game, making the Jets as good as it gets on the defensive line.”
But the Jets, even with Williams, who is very talented, weren’t very good stopping the run last year. Not blaming Williams, just saying the group as a whole was pedestrian in this area.
And they return players like Johnson, Solomon Thomas, Michael Clemons and McDonald, all who must improve against the run.
They are replacing Huff with Reddick, who essentially have the same skill set – very good edge-rushers who are undersized, so it hurts them against the run a little, especially setting the edge. It’s not a lack of toughness in either case, just a math problem – they are 240-50-pound defensive ends going against 300-320-pound tackles. McDonald could have the same challenge. We shall see.
But their run defense was pretty bad last year, and until this improves, I’d have a hard anointing them the #1 D-Line in football.
A few problems with the Jets’ run defense last year.
First of all, their ends weren’t great at setting the edge, and too many runners took the corner on them.
Another issue was defensive linemen, in a super-aggressive scheme, shooting upfield too far, creating big holes. However, sometimes this was the linebackers, not the D-Linemen. From a defensive line standpoint, this was more of a problem with scrambling quarterbacks getting escape hatches to take off and run because defensive linemen ran past them.
The third issue was related to some defensive tackles being undersized, and if they didn’t beat guards and centers off the ball into gaps with quickness, they sometimes got engulfed by interior linemen that outweighed them significantly. This is one of the reasons their goalline run defense wasn’t that good.
Now, to the Jets’ credit, they added two beefy defensive tackles in free agency – Javon Kinlaw and Leki Fotu, so perhaps that will help.
But if you notice, in what Monson wrote for PFF, he didn’t even mention these two players, so clearly, he’s very focused on the pass rushing, which is obviously very important, but not the whole picture, when it comes to evaluating a defensive line.
By the way, Fotu was held out of the whole spring, and I’m not going to lie, I don’t know what was wrong with him, and nobody asked the coach. I’m assuming he’s going to be okay for camp.
So we will see if Kinlaw and Fotu can help improve a run defense that needs to improve.
But until it does improve, I’d have a hard time ranking the Jets D-Line #1 in the NFL.
They should be good, don’t get me wrong, but #1, based on the run defense we saw last year – can’t go there.
June 27, 2024
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