Practice Notes: Advantage Defense

Edition 1218: Geno Smith fluctuated with a below par performance on the first day of padded practice.

Good morning ☕

You never get too high and you never get too low.

One session after going 15/15 with four touchdowns, Geno Smith came crashing back to earth with a 3/8 performance with 0 TD and 1 INT.

On the flip side, Cade Klubnik bounced back from his 2 INT performance at the weekend with a strong showing, completing 8/12 with 0 INT.

It’s worth noting that it was rainy and windy at 1JD today, but that’s a good thing. We play games in the North East, having to deal with adverse weather comes with the territory. Good to see Cade come through in that environment.

We’re living in an ultra coverage universe. Every single snap at practice is dissected and spread which leads to scrutiny.

In a way we’re seeing real balance in camp and if you’re a team wanting to play meaningful football into December, that’s a positive.

What you don’t want is an offense that dominates throughout, or a defense that shuts the offense down on a daily basis. You want it to flip-flop, giving you confidence in both sides of the ball.

Numerous things are true and we’ve seen all those things through the early portion of practice:

Jets are going to need to be on point in the red-zone.
Jets are going to need to protect Geno Smith.
Jets are going to have to generate pressure without blitzing.
Jets are going to have to force turnovers.
Jets are going to need to stop the run.

All of these things are key points for a team who wants to change the narrative that surrounds them and so far we have evidence they can do all these things. Geno put on a clinic in the red-zone on Saturday, Membou has won significantly more battles than he’s lost, Bailey has shown an ability to win his one-on-ones, as has McDonald and Enangbare. Fitzpatrick, Stiggers and others have already come up with INTs and now the pads are on we’ll start seeing some forced fumbles and yesterday the Jets defense dominated the ground game.

Of course doing it in practice against what many people consider to be one of the worst rosters in the league is one thing, doing it in Buffalo against Josh Allen or LA against Myles Garrett is another thing all together. But we only have the evidence that we have, and right now the signs are good. Energy is up, competitiveness is up, belief is there. But Mike Tyson was absolutely right, everyone has a plan until they get smacked in the mouth, how the Jets respond after getting smacked in the mouth is something we won’t know for a month.

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PRACTICE NOTES 🗞️

• While the game session belonged to the defense, the line drills were all offense with Armand Membou dominating Bailey and Will McDonald and Tippmann handling Onyemata. The only downside for the line was a hold on Fashanu (against Bailey).

• Minkah Fitzpatrick had the pick on Geno Smith. That’s exactly what Minkah has been brought in to do. So while I don’t like seeing our starting QB throwing picks, the turnovers we’ve seen are good for the defense.

• Omar Cooper Jr had a good deep catch off Geno where he adjusted on the fly, exactly what he did in Indiana.

• Jelani Woods had a good practice as he got extra reps with Sadiq sitting.

• Brandon Stephens and Dane Belton both had strong practices and Will McDonald had a would-be sack in 11-on-11’s.

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HIGHLIGHTS 📼

Arian Smith brings in a deep ball from Geno Smith.