Biggest Factor in Defensive Turnaround?

[Barry McCockinner]

Under Saleh/Ulbrich in 2021 the Jets had the 32nd ranked DVOA defense. In 2022, they had the 5th ranked DVOA defense, a massive turn around. It's probably a combination of factors but I'm wondering what people believe was the biggest factor in this massive turn around.

[Claymation]

Sauce & Reed

(sounds like a bar I would like to visit)

[genot]

I'm with Claymation. Sauce and Reed. Makes everyone in front of them better players. Still need a ball hawking safety. Our defense was good this year. Disturbing the lack of turnovers the second half of season, though.

[#27TheDominator]

It really surprised me that they went out and got corners.  Everything I read said they didn't care that much and that they just needed guys to run their system.  Then they go get two corners and all of sudden everybody is better.  Hall being scuttled was even bigger for me.  He seems like a victim.  A target on every down, moving on from him showed me their direction was more in line with what I want.  

[jetstream23]

Separate topic but just thinking how outrageous it will be to afford keeping both Sauce and Quinnen here longterm.  And, those are the two guys who I'd submit need to be the anchors for the defense.  Jets haven't done well keeping its homegrown talent longterm.  To be fair, a lot of their homegrown talent hasn't earned a second contract.  These two look like they have or will.

[Irish Jet]

Sauce and Reed - Obviously.

We didn't allow a 300 yard passer all year and done amazingly well against some of the most stacked WR teams in the league. 

It's the best CB group around imo and it's why I'm not overly keen in investing much in safeties this year - With that level of corner play even mediocre play should do.

Linebacker is another story...

[Warfish]

Other - Please Explain

Soft schedule of opposing offenses, in which the Jets played how many #2 and #3 QB's?  

We were improved, make no mistake. Much more talent on D than in 2021.

But playing half our games against backups and third stringers absolutely helped.

Browns, their #2
Steelers, their backup/then their rookie's first game
Dolphins, their #3
Denver, their #2
Bears, their #2
Dolphins, the #3 again.

That's 6 games against backup, third string and/or rookie QB's.

That helped alot, all things considered.

We also played some real weak Offensive teams in general, and/or teams who were down offensively at the time they played us.  Too lazy to do a full analysis, but I'd wager we played one of the weaker SoS strictly in terms of opposing Offenses in the NFL this year.

Don't be shocked if this D takes a step back in 2023.

[#27TheDominator]

6 minutes ago, jetstream23 said:

Separate topic but just thinking how outrageous it will be to afford keeping both Sauce and Quinnen here longterm.  And, those are the two guys who I'd submit need to be the anchors for the defense.  Jets haven't done well keeping its homegrown talent longterm.  To be fair, a lot of their homegrown talent hasn't earned a second contract.  These two look like they have or will.

They still have 4 more years before they really have to worry about Sauce. It would be nice to sort Quinnen out now, but they have him locked up for 2023 already. 

[CanadienJetsFan]

Talent. Nothing to do with scheme. We have playmakers all over the place on the defensive side of the ball.

[Barry McCockinner]

29 minutes ago, Warfish said:

Other - Please Explain

Soft schedule of opposing offenses, in which the Jets played how many #2 and #3 QB's?  

We were improved, make no mistake. Much more talent on D than in 2021.

But playing half our games against backups and third stringers absolutely helped.

Browns, their #2
Steelers, their backup/then their rookie's first game
Dolphins, their #3
Denver, their #2
Bears, their #2
Dolphins, the #3 again.

That's 6 games against backup, third string and/or rookie QB's.

That helped alot, all things considered.

We also played some real weak Offensive teams in general, and/or teams who were down offensively at the time they played us.  Too lazy to do a full analysis, but I'd wager we played one of the weaker SoS strictly in terms of opposing Offenses in the NFL this year.

Don't be shocked if this D takes a step back in 2023.

DVOA takes strength of opponent into account. What I don't know is if they take injuries/backups into account. I suspect they don't but maybe someone who's more familiar can speak to that.

[slimjasi]

32 minutes ago, Warfish said:

Other - Please Explain

Soft schedule of opposing offenses, in which the Jets played how many #2 and #3 QB's?  

We were improved, make no mistake. Much more talent on D than in 2021.

But playing half our games against backups and third stringers absolutely helped.

Browns, their #2
Steelers, their backup/then their rookie's first game
Dolphins, their #3
Denver, their #2
Bears, their #2
Dolphins, the #3 again.

That's 6 games against backup, third string and/or rookie QB's.

That helped alot, all things considered.

We also played some real weak Offensive teams in general, and/or teams who were down offensively at the time they played us.  Too lazy to do a full analysis, but I'd wager we played one of the weaker SoS strictly in terms of opposing Offenses in the NFL this year.

Don't be shocked if this D takes a step back in 2023.

Also held josh Allen in check twice. Arguably played that offense better than any defense in the league

having said that, I think we were second to last in turnovers, which is terrible 

we have a good, but not yet great, defense 

[Sonny Werblin]

Other: Multifactorial. Better D line play; Better D-back play; Better LB play. Combine that with the lack of any significant injuries and the second year in the scheme and that explains why the D played well. Or, at least well enough for 7 wins because honestly, they crapped the bed on a few occasions when a stop would have gone a long way toward securing a win. 

Frankly, I think Saleh's D scheme needs to be tweaked because if it has a one score or less lead near the end of the game, it has a history of folding when faced with an above average offense. They need an alternate scheme to put in place to close out games.

[Fantasy Island]

38 minutes ago, Warfish said:

Other - Please Explain

Soft schedule of opposing offenses, in which the Jets played how many #2 and #3 QB's?  

We were improved, make no mistake. Much more talent on D than in 2021.

But playing half our games against backups and third stringers absolutely helped.

Browns, their #2
Steelers, their backup/then their rookie's first game
Dolphins, their #3
Denver, their #2
Bears, their #2
Dolphins, the #3 again.

That's 6 games against backup, third string and/or rookie QB's.

That helped alot, all things considered.

We also played some real weak Offensive teams in general, and/or teams who were down offensively at the time they played us.  Too lazy to do a full analysis, but I'd wager we played one of the weaker SoS strictly in terms of opposing Offenses in the NFL this year.

Don't be shocked if this D takes a step back in 2023.

We draft a stud Safety and wave farewell to CJ Moseley and our defense will be just as good or better, IMO.

[RedBeardedSavage]

It's difficult to figure out which of these two was more important, but

• Quinnen breakout
• DJ Reed & Sauce additions

[Barry McCockinner]

37 minutes ago, slimjasi said:

Also held josh Allen in check twice. Arguably played that offense better than any defense in the league

having said that, I think we were second to last in turnovers, which is terrible 

we have a good, but not yet great, defense 

I wonder how much our lack of creating turnovers has to do with the inept offense. Opposing offenses were never forced to press to score points against us and so they had little motivation to take risks. They just needed to wait us out, take what they could get offensively and not make mistakes to get the W. We also didn't have the opponents in many "must score" situations where the pass rush can pin their ears back and the secondary gets opportunities.

It's part of playing complimentary football. When you have a unit that is just not pulling their weight it pulls down everything else.

[Joejet]

I’m A plus 1 on Sauce and Reed

[bla bla bla]

For me it was a few factors coming together:

1) Talent - adding Sauce, Reed, Whitehead, Joyner, Lawson, Kwon, JJ, and Clemons in 1 offseason is a ton of talent

This was the major, overarching reason what we saw improved play. Our defense was at its best though, when:

2) Offense Scores Points - to me this was when we are at our best. We invested heavily into pass rushers, who only get to really pin their ears back with a lead. We also heavily invested into players to generate turnovers in the secondary. That becomes a lot harder when opponents are trying to run clock on us. Notice how, for the most part, the turnovers stopped coming after AVT and Breece went out? The defense was still good but not as lethal.

 

I think QB and healthy AVT/Breece are going to be something special.

[Dax89]

54 minutes ago, #27TheDominator said:

It really surprised me that they went out and got corners.  Everything I read said they didn't care that much and that they just needed guys to run their system.  Then they go get two corners and all of sudden everybody is better.  Hall being scuttled was even bigger for me.  He seems like a victim.  A target on every down, moving on from him showed me their direction was more in line with what I want.  

I think they recognized while they had some depth at CB there was no top end CB talent on the squad and picked up DJ Reed.  I don't think they thought Sauce would still be on the board, and taking him was something of a no-brainer on a talent, value, and character basis.  

[SayNoToDMC]

Having edge rush threats for the first time since Jonathan Abraham so Williams could work and adding a pair of real corners

[Claymation]

59 minutes ago, jetstream23 said:

Separate topic but just thinking how outrageous it will be to afford keeping both Sauce and Quinnen here longterm.  And, those are the two guys who I'd submit need to be the anchors for the defense.  Jets haven't done well keeping its homegrown talent longterm.  To be fair, a lot of their homegrown talent hasn't earned a second contract.  These two look like they have or will.

I don't care, just make it happen. 

[Matt39]

Backup QB’s. Jets still couldn’t cover the middle of the field. 3rd down defense was terrible. Corners are great to have but the Jets need a playmaker in the secondary that scares opponents. Gardner and Reed are cover guys, not playmakers. Also still need the critical piece- edge rusher.

[DoubleDown]

1 hour ago, Claymation said:

Sauce & Reed

+1

Sauce is a huge part, but Reed's play and leadership can't be overlooked.  He should be included.

[SomebodytoAnybody47]

When you have good players, things magically get better! Crazy how that works. 

Do that with QB and watch what happens. 

[rangerous]

it's having two really good corners and then having most of the other players already in the system for a season.  they would've been better if the safeties were upgraded.

[Jets0712]

Not really having to blitz and put pressure on QB. Sauce & Reed big time. Emergence from Q and him getting vocal with Ulbrich early on. Now if we can just get a safety that can cover TEs VONN Bell maybe??


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