It’s the Jets’ Defense We Should Be Talking About, Not Aaron Rodgers

Robert Saleh’s group could be a force this season based on practices with the Panthers and Buccaneers. Plus, contract updates on Nick Bosa and Brian Burns; captain C.J. Stroud; a tribute to Gil Brandt; Tyree Wilson’s development; and the Patriots honoring Tom Brady in Albert Breer’s Tuesday notes.

The Lions and Chiefs are wrapping up their game preparation today, and we’ll be rolling into the 2023 NFL season in a little more than 48 hours …

• Yes, DJ Reed was a little over the top in comparing the Jets to the 1985 Bears and Legion of Boom Seahawks (the Jets corner did that in an interview with ESPN). Maybe he’ll look silly in a few months for saying what he did.

But I can say, confidently, that Reed’s not saying that without reason.

While everyone else was (understandably) obsessing over Aaron Rodgers this summer, the teams that went toe to toe with Robert Saleh’s bunch in joint practices walked away talking more about the defense than they were the offense. Panthers folks I spoke with gushed about what they saw in practice and a preseason game against the Jets. And the Buccaneers, after a fight-filled session, then a game, could see the potential there, too.

Remember, those AFC South teams felt pretty good about their offensive lines going into the summer. And the Jets gave those groups all they could handle with a front that legitimately went 10 deep and had a seemingly endless array of athletic mismatches on passing downs. Add to that an athletic linebacker group anchored by C.J. Mosley and a wealth of corners headlined by Sauce Gardner, and so long as the safety spots shake out as expected, the Jets should be plenty good on defense.

The Panthers and Buccaneers went toe to toe with Robert Saleh’s defense in joint practices, and walked away talking more about the defense than they were the offense :: Jim Dedmon/USA TODAY Sports

As good as the Bears’ Mike Singletary and Richard Dent and all those guys? Probably not. Gardner and Quinnen Williams are the only two truly elite guys out there, and, before anyone worries about this being a generational unit, a bunch of things do need to fall in place just for it to become a top-five defense this year. But I’m not gonna blame a guy who sees his group as being loaded and is willing to aim high. Reed should. All the Jets’ defenders should.

• Mike Silver’s column Monday in the San Francisco Chronicle on Nick Bosa reminded me of a bunch of conversations I’ve had with that family over the years—and one in particular from June, when John Bosa, Nick and Joey’s dad, beamed with pride over how his boys were investing in themselves with a gym in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., the same way he and their mom, Cheryl, had invested in the kids over the years.

Part of that investment has been surrounding the sons with the best people in every way, people who will help them know their potential and their worth. That’s why, in my opinion, the Bosas have always been willing to draw lines at the negotiating table and why it’s hard to expect them to give the way other players might when a team turns the temperature up.

As such, history should tell you not to doubt Nick Bosa’s resolve.

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Remember, John Bosa was a first-round pick, and, with a slew of injuries, his earning power as an athlete went up in smoke in the late 1980s. Neither the Dolphins, nor any other team, nor the league itself, was going to afford him financial sympathy for that. So if anyone knows that it’s important for a player to use his leverage to its fullest extent, it’d be Nick Bosa.

And his brother’s actions reflect that, too. Joey carried a training camp holdout into late August before signing his rookie deal with the Chargers in 2016, then took his negotiations down to the wire on a five-year, $135 million extension hours before camp in ’20. Until now, the younger brother had avoided such acrimony. But at this point, based on the year he’s coming off, and the position that he’s in, you could argue that he has more leverage than his big brother ever had.

• Related: Brian Burns has missed the Panthers’ past two practices, and I’ll just say it’s fair to assume, with Carolina remaining mum on the situation, it’s tied to his contract situation.

The landscape is a little complicated.

First, there’s the matter of Burns’s leverage, which comes down to his own knowledge of what Carolina turned down for him on the trade market last October. My understanding is the Rams offered first-round picks in 2024 and ’25 (remember, L.A. didn’t have its own pick this year), and a ’23 third-rounder for Burns. So, logically, if you consider that, it’s tough for the Panthers to minimize Burns’s value to them based on what they turned down to keep him, and that’s a leverage point for the star pass rusher.

Second, there’s the presence of Bosa’s negotiation, which could be one reason for Burns to slow play talks a little. No, Burns isn’t on Bosa’s level, statistically or otherwise, so if Bosa were to get $32 million per year, it’s not like Carolina would pay him $32.5 million. That said, if Bosa moves the market, it’d make it easier for Burns to say he deserves what, say, T.J. Watt got in Pittsburgh (four years, $112 million). And that’d be helpful for a guy whose contract comp, if you look at the stats side by side, might be Maxx Crosby ($24.745 million per year in Las Vegas).

Third, there’s the fact that Carolina has a new coaching staff, and investment from the locker room is important as a result of that. And along those lines, other guys are watching how the team handles Burns. Do I think Burns will miss Sunday’s opener? No. But skipping practice does give everyone a look at how things look without him in Ejiro Evero’s new defense, and that can, for sure, have an effect on things.

Now, the good news is the Panthers would like to get something done, and Burns had a great camp, and an artificial deadline is looming (Week 1). Stay tuned.

• In doing my MMQB story on the Colts’ coaches on how they’re building an offense for Anthony Richardson and readying the No. 4 pick for his first NFL start, we dug through a lot of the details on how the staff studied different types of offenses (even high school and college offenses) and reflected on their own experiences to cook up the plan.

So as I was wrapping up with offensive coordinator Jim Bob Cooter the other day, I figured I’d ask whether the experience has brought some professional growth for everyone involved.

“I would say, this offseason, my mindset’s maybe different than it would’ve been five or 10 years ago,” Cooter says. “I’ve learned a lot in the last, let’s say, five years, just developing and growing as a coach. And we were traveling around, working all these guys out, interviewing all these guys. And you go through different workouts and interviews, you have your notes and you get excited about guys, and we just all kept repeating to each other like, Hey, this offense is going to look different depending on which of these guys we end up drafting.

“And it was kind of our mindset, like, We are adapting. We are adapting to our players, we’re adapting to whoever we draft. So, yeah, it’s been great. I’m sure if you found me five years ago or 10 years ago, I may not have been as open-minded. But it’s been a growth process for myself, just like these players go through.”

And, interestingly enough, Cooter added that he thinks one thing that’s helped is the simple advances in technology that have made what coaches are doing at all levels accessible.

“That’s the fun thing about this time, the era that we’re in right now,” he says. “Things are on the internet. Things are accessible. Obviously, we all watch a ton of football when it’s on. But just to be able to hear about such-and-such team, maybe it could be a high school team, could be a college team, just doing something unique or putting up unique stats, and get to just go check them out real quick, it’s a lot easier than it used to be. And it’s exciting.”

Anyway, I thought that was a pretty cool insight into this generation of coaches and how they differ a little from their predecessors.

Stroud was named a captain by the Texans, continuing a trend of NFL teams naming their rookie starting quarterbacks into that role :: Brian Fluharty/USA TODAY Sports

• I think it’s pretty interesting that the Texans named C.J. Stroud a team captain Monday, on the heels of Richardson becoming one in Indianapolis a few weeks back.

It is, first, because Stroud’s personality was questioned going into the draft, so the fact that he was able to win his coaches and teammates over this fast to seize that honor, while also winning the starting job, is a good sign.

It is, second, because of how the philosophy seems to have changed on naming rookies as team captains. If Bryce Young is named a Panthers captain (Carolina hasn’t announced its picks yet), then all three rookie QBs will have gained the honor. Last year, in part because only one rookie went in the first round, no rookie QB gained the honor. Over the two years before that, three of eight first-round QBs (Joe Burrow, Trevor Lawrence and Zach Wilson) were captains as rookies. If you go further back, such cases are hard to find.

What changed? Well, I think coaches are quicker to drop the charade and get rookie QBs with the first team, which puts those guys in leadership positions earlier and makes it easier for everyone to envision them serving in such a role. Or, at least, that seems to be exactly what happened in Houston, Indianapolis and Charlotte this summer.

• Well wishes are in order for retiring former Vikings, Giants and Buccaneers tight end Kyle Rudolph, who’s officially hanging it up after a dozen NFL seasons, two Pro Bowls, 482 catches, 4,773 yards and 50 touchdowns.

Rudolph’s an all-time-great guy, evidenced by his being selected captain in each of his last four years in Minnesota, and should transition easily to the media. He starts his weekly radio show Sunday and will debut with NBC on Oct. 7. Rudolph, for what it’s worth, did keep the light on for a potential 13th NFL season for a while, but just in touching base with him since, I can tell he’s excited to turn the page now.

Best of luck to him.

• While we’re here, my condolences to the family of Gil Brandt. I snuck his name into that Colts story on Monday as a little subtle tribute, and I can say that, having worked with him over my six years at NFL Network, that his passion for and wealth of knowledge in football would be very, very hard to match.

Who else would be out there on a golf cart sweating out triple-digit temperatures at training camps, day after day, well into his 80s? Who else would be helping to run the combine and be there every year after working the halls in Indianapolis, when most folks at that age choose to retire? And who else would unendingly continue to be a resource for those who are in the game?

There really was only one Gil Brandt.

He’s rightfully credited with modernizing scouting in how his Cowboys would body-type players and study tape, and his role in creating those iconic teams is well documented. But if there’s a lesson any of us can take from him, to me, it goes back to a simple old saying—figure out what you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life.

RIP, Gil.

• Tyree Wilson didn’t practice until Aug. 16, rehabbing from November foot surgery. He played in one preseason game, and I definitely wouldn’t rule out the idea that he’ll make an early impact for the Raiders.

This is one of those “don’t overcomplicate it” deals for me. Every Vegas person I’ve asked about Wilson gives me the There Aren’t Many Guys Like Him on the Planet line. And that means, while he still has a ways to go developmentally, the coaches should be able to get him favorable matchups where he can leverage who he is athletically on passing downs, and maybe even together with Crosby and Chandler Jones out there.

Suffice it to say, by the end of the season, the Raiders’ pass rush could be pretty scary.

• In case you missed him last weekend, be sure to check out Colorado’s two-way dynamo Travis Hunter against Nebraska this weekend. There are only a handful of guys I can remember being used this way at that level before (Charles Woodson, Champ Bailey, Chris Gamble), and those guys wound up becoming first-round picks and top-shelf pros.

Hunter will be eligible for the 2025 NFL draft.

• Tom Brady will return to Gillette Stadium on Sunday to be honored by the Patriots, and the tidy reconciliation between the quarterback and team is a good reminder that when dustups happen near the end of an iconic player’s career in due time, all family business will be settled.

And, for sure, we’ll see something along these lines with Rodgers and the Packers soon enough, too.