Camp Preview: Defence

Edition #438

Good morning! ☕

Yesterday we focused on the offensive side of the ball, today we’re turning our attention to the defensive side,

Oh, we’re also 24 hours away from the players getting back to work. The field is ready, players are packing up their bags, I actually posted a photo on Twitter of Jamien Sherwood packing his case and all the things that go into it.

We packed in the Quick Throws yesterday, so we’re not going to have as many today, and then we’re going to dive straight into it.

5️⃣ ESPN ranked Quinnen Williams, Sauce Gardner and Aaron Rodgers in the top-5 of their respective divisions. One NFL scout had this to say about Quinnen: "As good as a defensive tackle that I've studied coming out of Bama [in 2019] – he was a young guy who needed time to mature," an NFL scout said. "It took him a while, but now it's clicking and he's still ascending. When he gets paid, I don't think he'll regress. He's as good as any pass-rusher out there right now."

✈️ The official site took a look at special teams and in particular the return man: "We'll see where this goes," Boyer said. "You have some very capable players out there; you have a group of young guys and some veteran guys. Randall Cobb's done it, [Mecole] Hardman's done it, Diontae Spencer's done it and you've got some young guys like (Xavier) Gipson and Izzy (Israel Abanikanda), the rookie running back with some kick return stuff, and Bam Knight with some kick return stuff. We'll see how it goes and how they'll do in the preseason and throughout the offseason here. I'm not going to make any predictions."

🙌 PFF named their most important non-QB players and for the Jets, they had AVT: “Vera-Tucker suffered a season-ending injury in Week 7 last season, as did Breece Hall. The Jets were 5-2 when Vera-Tucker played and 2-8 when he didn’t. Despite playing just seven games at three different positions, he finished the year as the Jets’ highest-graded offensive lineman. He has Pro Bowl potential, especially in the run game, and a breakout this season could set the tone for an offensive line searching for answers at a few spots.”

🏈 Sports Illustrated have listed Aaron Rodgers as the number one question for the Jets: “We won’t know for a while if Rodgers will do better than Favre, but we’ll likely see glimpses of how good this Jets offense can be during training camp. We also might learn if Rodgers is fully healthy after he dealt with injuries during his final season in Green Bay. Perhaps the Jets’ social media team will be busy uploading several Rodgers-to–Garrett Wilson training camp videos to let us know Rodgers is still Rodgers.”

The Jets were a top 5 scoring defence last year in terms of points allowed. Quinnen is coming back happy with his new deal, Sauce is heading into year two and several key players like Jordan Whitehead and DJ Reed are entering year two in the system. Not to mention the fact that Carl Lawson is now two years removed from his Achilles injury.

The expectations for this defence should be top-5, it should be challenging for the top defence in football. That doesn’t mean it’s perfect though.

Defensive End

Depth Chart: Carl Lawson, John Franklin-Myers, Jermaine Johnson, Bryce Huff, Will McDonald IV, Deslin Alexandre

Analysis: You may be wondering where Micheal Clemons is, don’t shoot the messenger but most depth charts have him listed inside. The Jets won’t officially release their first depth chart until training camp kicks off, but I’m going to list him as a defensive tackle for now and will explain why in a bit.

The Jets have five really good pass-rushers in here. Carl Lason had 7 sacks and 49 pressures last year and that was considered a work-back year. Robert Saleh said it best when he said that what Carl Lawson offers is absolute gold. That speed and power combination absolutely terrifies offensive linemen, I’ve spoken to enough of them to know they hate facing a guy who can beat them on the outside shoulder or run through them.

John Franklin-Myers is often the forgotten man but he had 51 pressures last season to go with 5 sacks, and his versatility to move inside on passing downs, he also happens to be the best run-defending edge player although Jermaine Johnson pushes him close on that one. Jermaine is mentally and physically more prepared for the rigours of the NFL and Bryce Huff is coming off a year where he led the NFL in pass-rush win rate (25.6%).

A lot is made of the rotation system employed by Saleh and Ulbrich, but if it keeps producing results like this, count me as a convert. Could players have better stats with more reps? Potentially. But does the rotation keep them fresh to dominate their tiring opposition? Absolutely.

I wouldn’t sleep on Deslin Alexandre either, he was a two-time captain at Pitt and has the power and length to play on Sundays. He will likely find his way to the practice squad, but keep an eye on him.

Defensive Tackle