Jets' defense already looks dominant heading into season
Sauce Gardner of the Jets looks on against the Detroit Lions at MetLife Stadium on Dec. 18, 2022. Credit: Jim McIsaac
We caught a quick glimpse on Saturday night of what could make this season so special for the Jets.
Nope, not him.
Although Aaron Rodgers’ abilities, which finally were unveiled in the preseason finale, certainly will go a long way toward dictating how the next few months play out for the team, and his beaut of a touchdown pass to Garrett Wilson got everyone riled up, something else finally was on display for all to see and marvel over.
For seven plays over the first two drives of the game, the Jets’ starting defense was unleashed.
They looked terrifyingly awesome.
They swarmed the passer up front, they covered the receivers down the field, and they tackled with intense authority over the middle.
Seven plays, and Robert Saleh pulled them from the field. He’d expected them to play more.
“They’re ready,” he said with a lion tamer’s smile.
With all the hoopla and hype about the quarterback who came to town this offseason and spent the past few weeks dazzling every camera lens that has shown up to Jets practices, it’s easy to forget that the identity of this team — and this head coach — is not based on tight spirals and no-look passes and Jeopardy!-level checks at the line of scrimmage.
Rather, the Jets are a team that will rely on its dominant defense, a unit that finished last season ranked fourth in the NFL and has aspirations of being even better in 2023.
Lest anyone forget, the Jets’ defense is one of the main reasons why Rodgers agreed to come to the team in the first place. He saw them firsthand a year ago when they beat him up in Green Bay and understood that having them on his side every week would be just as helpful to him as having his buddy as the offensive coordinator or his old pals (and new one in Wilson) as targets.
Rodgers knows he doesn’t have to be MVP-great to win here. That’s a really good thing for a quarterback who certainly has the brain power and fire to succeed but may — may — be adjusting to the inevitable diminishing of his physical prowess.
He and this offense may very well be able to score 30 points a game.
With their defense, though, they know they won’t always have to.
This is a unit that a year ago nearly pushed the Zach Wilson and Mike White-led offense into the postseason. They might have succeeded if White had stayed healthy and Wilson had played with the relaxed confidence he has developed as Rodgers’ backup.
This year they won’t have to push anyone along. But they will.
Anyone else notice that, while “Hard Knocks” has focused almost entirely on Rodgers, whenever the show pans to someone addressing the team as a whole, it’s not the quarterback who does it, it’s C.J. Mosley?
Rodgers certainly has.
“The best teams are player-led teams, and that’s the one thing I was asking in March when they came out and visited,” Rodgers said on Saturday of the much-publicized recruiting trip the Jets’ brass made to California. “I was interested in what the leadership was like. There’s a lot of great guys who lead by example. Some of them are long-time vets and then there’s a lot of guys who step up and have their moment, whether it’s before the game or on the field when we take the field. I think the leadership is in a really good spot, especially on defense with our captain on defense, C.J.”
Saturday was just a taste of what they should be able to accomplish.
The three All-Pros — Sauce Gardner, Quinnen Wiliams and second-teamer Mosley — all made their impacts felt, as did some of their less-heralded teammates. Slot corner Michael Carter body-slammed tight end Lawrence Cager for an emphatic tackle and Solomon Thomas stuffed a run for a loss of 4 yards.
“Those first two series, I felt it,” Mosley told the Jets’ team website.
It was a small sample that made a huge impression.
Not huge enough to bump Rodgers from the back pages and highlight packages, but just as significant.
Back on the first day of training camp, when our eyes still were getting used to Rodgers in his new number and new shade of green, the Jets’ defense was openly stating its objective.
“The goal is to be the No. 1 defense in the NFL,” Williams said bluntly.
“Why not?” Mosley said when asked about his teammate’s statement. “We put in the work. So why not go for the best? Why not try to be the best?”
If they come anywhere close to that, if they play with the ferocity and violence they showed in their brief cameo on Saturday, they’ll be the reason for whatever level of success the Jets reach this year.
Whether they can fight through the glare of their own quarterback’s supernova to get that credit may be something else entirely.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
