New York Giants Week 8: Examining the New York Jets Defense

Let's turn our attention to the Jets defense.

While the New York Jets offense has been lackluster this season, save for the game against the Denver Broncos, their defense has been among the best in the NFL. This New York Giants offense could be in for a rough one, given what they’re about to face.

Personnel

Allow me to introduce you to the elite of the elite: the Jets defensive line. It’s very telling how dominant a defensive line group is when the player with the seventh-most pressure in the NFL is a rotational edge rusher. Bryce Huff is the Jets leading pass-rusher with 34 pressures--incredibly, he’s done that on just 114 pass-rushing snaps.

The defensive line star is Quinnen Williams, who’s been a dominant force in the NFL since the beginning of his career. With the ability to make consistent impact plays as both a run defender and pass-rusher, Williams is one of the top interior defensive linemen in the NFL, in conversation with Aaron Donald and Christian Wilkins.

The supporting cast for Williams is Al Woods, Solomon Thomas, and Quinton Jefferson - all of whom play significant roles on the interior, with Jefferson lining up wider than Woods and Thomas.

On the edge, there’s a consistent four-deep rotation featuring Jermaine Johnson II, John Franklin-Myers, Bryce Huff, and Michael Clemons. Huff has been a menace off the edge, as we talked about earlier, and John Franklin-Myers is pacing for the most pressures of his career by a large margin - on pace for 74 when his previous career-high is 53.

Few edge rusher rotations in the entire NFL are as consistent as this Jets group is as pass-rushers. Not being complete liabilities against the run helps these edge defenders into the elite company of the Philadelphia Eagles.

The second level for the Jets is one of the best, with CJ Mosley and Quincy Williams handling most of those snaps. Mosley’s been a cerebral inside linebacker throughout his career, but having a front four like the Jets have has made his job significantly easier when finding clean lanes to attack the ball carrier.

When Quincy Williams was first signed by the Jets, he was considered a bit of a charity signing to keep Quinnen Williams healthy. Quincy was an athletic freak who could cover a ton of range but wasn’t a big-time playmaker. Fast forward to 2023, and he’s getting his name in the conversation for the best young inside linebacker in the NFL.

Both linebackers have great range and instincts and are given free lanes to attack, making it a recipe for disaster for opposing rushing attacks.

Sauce Gardner continues to headline this secondary as arguably the best cornerback in the NFL. However, he’s come back to Earth in his second season as a pro and is looking to return this week after missing the Eagles game with a concussion. The bigger issue has been who’s working opposite him as the secondary is dealing with injuries at multiple spots.

DJ Reed had been the guy, but he’s been dealing with a concussion, although he returned to practice fully on Wednesday, so he has a solid shot at playing. Michael Carter II, in the slot, is dealing with a hamstring injury that keeps him limited in practice so far.

If Reed can’t go for some reason, I would expect Bryce Hall to again take his place on the outside.

Jordan Whitehead will likely handle more slot snaps if Carter II can’t play. Whitehead will be starting at safety along with Tony Adams and veteran Adrian Amos as the three safeties that work this back end.

Although all did practice on Wednesday, Carter II, Clemons, Gardner, Johnson II, and Reed are listed as unspecified for this weekend’s game.

Scheme

This is an example of getting the perfect personnel to work your scheme. The Jets don’t reinvent the wheel schematically, but the things that they do, they do well.

Coverage-wise, the Jets play most of their snaps with cover 1, cover 3, or quarters coverage. The Jets also tend not to try to get cute with their pre-snap looks compared to post-snap coverage.

If you see two-high safeties pre-snap, the Jets will often be playing a two-high shell. If there’s just one deep safety pre-snap, it’s a sound bet to expect the Jets to play either Cover 1 or Cover 3. It’s one of those situations where they don’t care too much if you know what they’re doing because you still have to beat it.

If the Jets change their coverage post-snap, it’s almost always to go from a two-high look down to Cover 3, but even then, it’s rare.

The Jets are also the least aggressive team in the NFL regarding blitzing. The Jets blitz just 17% of the time, a luxury only teams with the most elite defensive fronts get. The most likely player to blitz for the Jets is Quincy Williams, which makes the most sense as his elite explosiveness makes him a prime candidate to shoot gaps and disrupt the backfield.

A big part of the pass-rush plan for the Jets is to run stunts. Stunts involve one defensive lineman rushing and occupying an offensive lineman while another rusher loops around behind the defensive lineman to create a free rush. It’s mayhem to defend, and with a defensive line like this, the Jets are lethal.

What This Means for the Giants

Tyrod Taylor revolutionized the Giants offense last week by trying this new crazy concept called “get the ball to your playmakers and let them make plays.” Perhaps the most impressive thing about Taylor’s performance to Giants fans was his willingness to throw the deep ball to Jalin Hyatt multiple times.

All five of Hyatt’s targets last week were 20+ yards downfield, and Taylor should look to make that happen more this weekend. We saw Hyatt get the best of Gardner in the preseason, but the throw wasn’t there this time.

The run game will likely continue to be a back-and-forth battle for the Giants as long as they’re still trying to sort through their offensive line. Luckily for the Giants, running backs have found consistent success against the Jets as pass-catchers, and Taylor should have no problem looking Saquon’s way consistently.

Last week, we saw Saquon in pass protection on a season-high 29% passing down snaps. Frequency in pass pro, as well as Saquon’s improved effort and technique there, has helped this offense have more time to look for open receivers, and using him on checks and releases could be a big part of the plan this weekend.

Final Thoughts

Neither offense is likely to have a great time this weekend. The Giants are the last team to score 100 points this season--they’re at just 85 points scored so far, and I don’t know if the Giants will hit the 100-point mark this weekend.

However, with how these offenses have looked, they may not need to score those 15 points to win this game.

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