Even if Jets struggle on offense, they still have that world-class defense
Jets safety Tony Adams (22) and cornerback Isaiah Oliver (23) during the Jets Training Camp Joint Practice with Washington at their practice facility in Florham Park, NJ, Thursday, August 8, 2024 Credit: Ed Murray
Robert Saleh has been spending a lot of time with the offense this summer, both in meetings and during practices. It’s part of a conscious effort to become a more well-rounded head coach and invest himself further in developing the part of the team that has failed the franchise most since he arrived.
But when Aaron Rodgers and his gang sputtered on Monday, putting forth one of their worst performances of the summer in a workout riddled with mistakes and flaws and capped by an ugly turnover, Saleh didn’t seem too concerned.
“Uh, there was a top five defense on the other side,” he said with a loud cackle when asked to explain the apparent slip backward from the offense. “Credit to the defense because defense was playing pretty tight today.”
It was a good reminder that no matter how many quarterbacking film sessions or schematic brainstorms he parks himself in the middle of, Saleh is and always will be a defensive coach at heart.
It also serves to remind us that despite all the glamour and much-needed playmaking ability Rodgers and Garrett Wilson and Breece Hall and the rest of the ball-toters bring to this team, the Jets are still built to function around their world-class defense.
Not that the players who are part of it need to recall any of that. They’re living it, down to down, day to day. They know what they have been, what they are and what they need to be.
“This is our third year under the same staff, the same guys,” said safety Tony Adams, who pulled in that interception of Rodgers that capped practice. “You grow up with these guys. You grow up and you see these players transform into these unbelievable players . . .
“We took some amazing steps, but now it’s time to take the next step. It’s time to be a dominant defense. We have been before, but we all know what’s at stake. We all know what time it is.”
Even players who have just joined the crew recognize that urgency and potential.
“It’s just a lot of speed everywhere, a lot of speed and a lot of heart,” said defensive lineman Javon Kinlaw, signed from the 49ers in the offseason. “Everybody loves everybody. I’m not even talking about on the field. It’s just off the field. There’s so much camaraderie, it’s not all cliqued up. Everybody likes everybody. Everybody respects everybody. Everybody jokes with everybody, you know? And you love to see that.”
Sometimes that can lead to frustration, such as when edge rusher Jermaine Johnson picked up a water bottle and hurled it in anger during Monday’s practice. Saleh laughed that off, too.
“They get mad at me because I don’t call sack,” he said of swallowing his whistle in practice even when defenders such as Johnson — or Will McDonald twice on Monday — are within pouncing distance of the passer. “I never call a sack. It’s got to be super-obvious because as a [former] defensive coordinator, I have empathy in the fact that at the end of practice, we claim to have 30 sacks, but in the game, we only get two.”
So equipment gets hurled. Tempers flare. Hunger grows.
And the offense? Even after going 11-for-27 with the interception, Rodgers appeared on ESPN Radio’s “Bart & Hahn” show shortly afterward and found the bright spots.
“You look at a practice like today and it wasn’t the most efficient practice for us, but I think it was one of our better learning-experience practices,” he said. “There was stuff that happened today that is going to go a long way, little, subtle things that you wouldn’t even think are big at all . . .
“There were four or five plays today that are anchor point plays that will show up late in the season and we’ll be able to recall, go back to something that happened today, that will allow us to make the proper reaction down the line.”
Down the line, maybe. On this day, though, the defense was carrying the team.
“That felt good,” Adams said of the overall performance and walking off the field with a Rodgers pass in his hands.
But he also knows that to finally achieve what they’ve been after, get to where this defense must lead them, the Jets will have to show up and do that a lot more often in the coming months.
“Going out there and executing and helping guys play to their potential, that’s the goal,” Adams said. “Help this team get a Super Bowl. That’s all that matters.”
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.
