It might not be what people think

They were shocked . . .

I was on a TV show this morning on VSIN with Pauly Howard and Mitch Morse, and they were surprised at an answer I gave about the Jets.

“What is the biggest concern with this team?”

And I said, “The defense.”

Let me assure you, I wasn’t trying to be a contrarian.

It’s what my opinion is.

Watching Aaron Rodgers in the spring, he looks like he’s still got it. Granted it was touch football, but he can clearly still spin it.

And the fact that he worked with the team in the spring, something he didn’t do the last few years in Green Bay, should benefit the Jets’ offense a great deal.

Just watching Rodgers, coaching up guys, moving them around to the right spots sometimes, all that work will benefit the Jets come the season. They won’t be starting from scratch in training camp. The offensive unit is already far-advanced up the growth curve.

I think their offensive line should be fine. People worry about Mekhi Becton and his discontent at playing right tackle, but you know what, he has no choice but to go out there, regardless of position, and dominate this year. As you know, the Jets didn’t pick up his fifth year option, so this is the last season of his rookie contract, and if he wants to earn big money in free agency, from the Jets or elsewhere, he needs to kick butt this year, whether he’s pissed at the Jets or not.

But this narrative that they have a great defense, that just needed a franchise QB to compliment, has been blown way out of proportion.

The Jets defense did improve last year from the previous campaign, but that previous year was an historically bad defensive season. They were ranked 32nd in a number of categories.  It was hard to go anywhere but up.

And last year, while their defense did improve, they played a lot of average to below average quarterbacks.

They faced Miami seventh-round rookie Skylar Thompson twice and a few other far-from-elite quarterbacks.

Their run defense was a tad overrated, and really bad during their six-game losing streak to end the season.

Perhaps one of the reasons the Quinnen Williams contract negotations are taking so long was the Jets porous run defense up the middle.

And quite honestly, the edge-setting wasn’t much better during that streak.

So the Jets need to get a lot better against the run this year. Perhaps Quinton Jefferson and Al Woods will help.

As we have written on many occasions, their coverage of tight ends must get a lot better, especially with strong tight end rooms in Buffalo (Dawson Knox and Dalton Kincaid) and New England (Hunter Henry and Mike Gesicki), and this includes at safety and linebacker.

Safety Jordan Whitehead and linebacker Quincy Williams need to improve in coverage.

And the edge-rush needs to be more consistent, and they need a lot more from Jermaine Johnson in his second year.

So to me, the questions with his team are more on defense than offense.

July 7, 2023

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