So all week long after the biggest Jet win in two years, all that has been debated is the QB. The focus of that discussion has been what it takes for the Jets to become a Super Bowl contender - a championship caliber team. Unfortunately, many of the real weaknesses of this team have been overlooked. The one true common denominator of championship football teams is defense. The Jets defense is in need of a major overhaul. You can talk about QB play all you want, but the one glaring weakness on this team has been the run defense. It has been awful. No team is going to win consistently in December and in the playoffs without a run defense. The Jets rank 24th in the NFL in rushing yards allowed (133 ypg). They rank 28th in YPC against - 4.6. The Jets have rushed for more yards than an opponent 5 times in 15 games (all wins ) and even that is misleading. Those games were Tennessee 91 to 86 yards (but Smith and Pennington gained 20 yards from the QB position), Detroit 221 to 125 (Detroit's entire DL was hurt), Houston 27 to 25 yards (throw that one out), Green Bay 178 to 149 (that is what happens when a team leads by 31 at halftime), and Minnesota 68 to 62. So three of the five games were about even. In the other 10 games, the spread is not even close. In the Jets' 5 losses they were outgained 147 to 51 (New England), 160 to 135 ( Indy), 181 to 132 (Jacksonville - misleading because Leon Washington gained 100 yards after the game was decided), Cleveland (147 to 88!!) and Buffalo (174 to 134). Along the same lines, the Jets rank 20th in rushing offense, but 31st in ypc. It is clear to me that the Jets first priority this offseason is to upgrade the DL. The DL has pushed around all season long, leaving their talented linebackers to fend off OL that outweigh them by 50-60 pounds. This is made more evident when you look at the stats and see that the Jets have only given up 6 runs of over 20 yards but are 31st in ypc. That means that they are being bled to death with 5-6-7 yard runs. THe linebackers are making the tackles, but not on or near the line of scrimmage. Van Oelhoffen has been a waste. He has 26 tackles. That is an embarrasment. Sean Ellis has been horrible since he signed his big contract (notwithstanding his game Monday night). He was invisible last year and has only 5 sacks this year. He is paid as an elite DE but puts up pedestrian numbers. Robertson has played well, but there are questions as to his size as a NT. The Jets need to upgrade this position in order to win a championship. Their losses this year can be directly attributed to their inability to stop the run. They need a run stuffing DT and a DE that can rush the passer on a more consistent basis than Ellis. It also clear that the Jets need to upgrade their rushing attack. It makes it hard on a QB when the offense is one dimensional, and the Jets have lacked a running threat all year. The Jets need to upgrade the right side of the OL. Moore has been the weakest OL all year and Clements is a journeyman. And the Jets need a RB that will keep defenses from keying on Pennington and the passing game. As for the rest of the team, the LBers and Secondary have played well. Hobson has had a career year. Vilma will be fine if he had someone to plug the holes in front of him. Dyson has shut down some big name receivers this year. Rhodes is an All-Pro and Coleman has played the second half of this year as well as he played in his rookie year. The Jet receivers are also in good shape. Coles and Cotchery have put together one of the better years for a receiving tandem in Jet history. So, the recipe for future success, IMO, is to upgrade the defensive line to stop the run and rush the passer consistently. Add a running game and the Jets will be true SB contenders.
Excellent, excellent piece. I pretty much agree with everything you said. You've provided an excellent outline for what we should be looking for in the next draft!
The jets have allowed the fewest amount of points in the past 7 games. This really shows our defense has been improving.
I don't necessarily agree... Despite our poor numbers versus the run (which I do think need to improve) we have given up fewer points than anyone in football over the last 8 weeks... Our defense is NOT our biggest problem... At all...
who cares, if we face the colts, we can out gain them there even worse then us (last 8 games not including the game we played against them)
It's been overlooked because the Jets are winning but check out the rushing defense stats after the bye. If the two 3 point divisional wins flipped the other way all we'd be talking about was how our horrible run defense(that has been giving up over 5 YPC since the bye) cost us a shot at the playoffs.
The Jets need to improve von Oelhoffen's DE spot, get someone bigger and younger to play that spot. There is no need to upgrade the pass-rush of the DL. That is not the job of the DL in the 3-4, their job is to stop the run. As horrible as the numbers are, that is mainly all because of von Oelhoffen. In the 3-4, with only three down linemen, it's very important that all three are very effective at what they do. You can hide the weakness of one or maybe even two linemen in a 4-3, but that is definitely not the case in the 3-4. When even just one of them isn't producing (like is the case here with Kimo), then you have a major problem. Ellis and Robertson are fine, it's a matter of upgrading that other DE spot.
Our DL has been getting pretty much pushed around at the line of scrimmage all season. If Saban would have gone for it on 4th down last week, he would've gotten it with the success they had been having with their run. If we're gonna beat better teams next year we're going to need to do something with the D-line and the right side of the O-line, IMO. I could see Tangini going with another unspectacular 1st Day (like we did in April), with critics saying, "But you could have drafted that excellent WR or that RB!" No... I could see Tangini beefing up the lines even more, then going for the others on Day 2.
great post. Regarding your thoughts on Robertson, I think we should move him to DE and pick up a true 3-4 NT.
I understand that, but the orignal poster was making out our defense to be our most pressing area of need.. And I disagree.... We need a RG or RT or both before we need defense, and we need someone to run the ball, along with consistency at QB.... Then I'd say DE is our next pressing need, followed by corner, and that seems to be about it... Maybe FB too, but I'm not sure...
Okay, I'm hearing you, but some of this talent can be had in F/A. Consistency at QB... I don't know what to tell you there because I don't see us looking at any QB's in next year's draft. If we need a #3 QB we can bring one in from someplace else. There's always (EDIT: Brad Smith) at #4. The RB position is the thing that's still up in the air for me. I like Houston but now I'm not sure he can show up for 16 games and I still don't have a handle on how well he can run against good defenses either. The Raiders game will be at least a decent indication I suppose.
I agree we need to beef up our front 7 a bit and the right side of the OL needs to be improved but our D is actually better than the O at the moment and is the reason we are winning. In the AFC we have the 10th ranked O out of 16 and the 13th ranked D out of 16 in yards allowed we are 12th ranked in actually scoring and 9th ranked in allowing points. Apparently the D is more efficient at holding teams from scoring than they are at giving up yards and our O is more efficient at getting yards than scoring points. What's interesting about stats is while our passing O is ranked 8th in yards it's ranked 11th in passing TD's and while our running O is ranked 9th in yards it is ranked 5th in rushing TD's. There are only 4 teams in the AFC with more rushing TD's than the Jets but there are 9 teams in the confrence with more passing TD's than the Jets. I think teams don't respect our QB arm and stack the box on us which is why we can't run the ball effectively compared to the rest of the league until we are in the red zone where we become as good as the rest of the league that is faceing essentially a stacked box in the red zone that our RB face all field long. I think Washington and Barlow or Washington and Houston can be an effective running back tandem if we had a QB who could release the ball out side the hash marks down the field quickly and accurately against a stacked box.
Can't agree with this really. Our defense since the Cleveland game has been quite good. In fact on ESPN said that since that game we have been #1 in pass defense, and a previous poster said we have been #1 in points allowed over the last 7 games. That is not the marks of a bad defense. We can certainly improve on run defense no question, but it too has been much better lately. Even the run defense numbers lately have been skewed by yardage at the end of games we had put away. Dewayne has been doing a great job at NT lately. Also, we have given up somne big gains on the run, usually when the DL has TOO MUCH penetration and does maintain their gaps, which allows the runner to get past the linebackers and get into the secondary. All that said, I think we will go DL and OL again in the draft early with some possibility as well for a DB or DE/OLB tweener.
How would run defense be skewed by games we had put away? Wouldn't teams pass more and have that affect our pass defense more?
Excellent point. What you are saying is that Chad faces a cramped "Red Zone" on every down. Off the wall question for you and others: Do you think it's possible for Chad to improve his arm strength over the offseason? If he were to have a better right side and an improved running game, is it possible to eliminate some of this stacking? Maybe this is a question for a whole new thread.
