Author Archives: Bassett

The defensive line has been an obvious point of emphasis the last two years for the Jets with the drafting of Mo, Coples this year, the re-signing of Pouha and the addition of Karl Dunbar to coach the unit.  Dunbar used to work for Nick Saban, who apparently had a saying about his defensive bigs:

“He used to say, ‘Big guys are just like pretty women. There’s not a lot of them, and everybody wants them,’” Dunbar said. “You can’t find those guys everywhere.”

[...]

“If you want to have a good defense, you’ve got to have a good defensive front,” Dunbar said. “I think we have two of the better corners in the league. We have pretty good linebackers. It’s not to take away from any defensive linemen that were here before, but when you get a chance to get young, big athletic guys, you get them.”

It’s true.  The Giants have lived and died with this truism.  The Jets defensive line has gotten substantially younger and more athletic in the last two years with the additions of Mo and Coples – not to mention backup addition like Kenrick Ellis, Marcus Dixon and Aaron Maybin.  While I think Rex Ryan can put together an effective defense with lesser DL talent, the defense is going to be that much better by having young and extremely athletic players for him to utilize there over the next five or so years.  He’s still going to bring his numbers, but one of the biggest woes of the Jets defense was bringing real pressure with just three or four guys.

As far as what the Jets will do defensively in 2012?  Dunbar says it’s more of the same, but there might be more wrinkles too.

“We’re going to do what they did last year,” Dunbar said. “We’re going to do what Rex has done his whole career. I was fortunate to play for him in Arizona. We did the same stuff. … If you’ve got guys that can get on the field and be disruptive, you’re going to put them on the field.”

We really don’t want to get into this, nor do we hope you do either, but we did want to at least make you aware of a sad/troubling article that was in yesterday’s NY Post.  According to this article, Antonio Cromartie’s wife made a ‘fake’ suicide attempt in the last year.

It’s not something that we want to dwell on.  We wish Cromartie and his family all the best and hope that whatever issues there were have been resolved and don’t come up again.

As of last week, the Jets sought to bolster their secondary with the addition of Yeremiah Bell, the second veteran safety the team has signed so far this offseason.  James Walker wrote a quick blurb about this on the ESPN AFC East blog and what it means for the Jets depth chart.

The problem I have is Bell is similar to fellow free-agent signing LaRon Landry. Both are great tacklers, but the pair struggle in coverage. Will Landry or Bell play free safety and attempt to cover tight ends and receivers going across the middle? Neither is a good option. Eric Smith is probably a little better in coverage, but he’s not a viable starter. The Jets did not improve their pass coverage this offseason, which is a major issue.

Eric Smith is better in coverage than Landry and Bell?

I think I just threw up in my mouth a little.

Well if that isn’t an utterly frightening prospect about the Jets veterans coverage skillset at the safety position, then I have NO IDEA what is.  Let’s hope that Walker is misinformed about Smith’s comparative coverage abilities to Bell and/or Landry, otherwise the Jets are well and truly screwed.

Via Deadspin, Rex Ryan was in Florida recently and agreed to take a picture with a couple on their wedding day.  Have fun and be *somewhat* respectful … it’s their wedding after all!

We all know you were waiting with bated breath to know whether or not this was happening … but according to Kotaku, yes … Tim Tebow will be able to “Tebow” in  Madden 13.

When one Tebows, he drops to a knee and puts a balled fist to his forehead, somewhat looking like the armor-lock pose from Halo: Reach. There’s no signing of the cross or pointing to heaven, but because its namesake, the New York Jets quarterback Tim Tebow, is such a visibly religious person, everyone gets fired up about mixing religion and sport even though that has been done in the end zone for decades.

Big deal … Tebowing is sooooo passé, I will be on the lookout for when the game adds Taylor Swifting to the game’s repertoire.

Got questions? We’ve got semi-literate answers!

Today, send us any questions you have about the Jets to thejetsblog@gmail.com or hit is up on Twitter @Brian_Bassett.  As a special treat, the best question will get answered via our brand-spanking new Social Cam account!

Here’s a Brandon Moore interview from last night’s Jets Nation.

Since the Jets are going to call on Joe McKnight to take on a larger role in 2012 with the absence of LaDainian Tomlinson, it stands to reason that McKnight will need to be as durable as he’s ever been. According to Kristian Dyer in Metro NY, Joe McKnight added some serious lean muscle this offseason to get his weight level up.

“Joe needed to gain 10-plus pounds of lean body mass so we focused on increasing ‘clean calories’ such as lean proteins like chicken, fish, lean and red meats as well as carbohydrates with lower glycemic index such as brown rice, sweet potato, whole grains, as well as lots of vegetables and moderate fruits,” Martin told Metro. “He increased his calories to over 3,500 calories per day.”

Dyer notes that McKnight ended the season under 200 pounds, so he’s bulked up to about 216 right now, but hopes to get to an even leaner 205-210 once he starts having to wear pads in the summer heat. It’s great that McKnight took his offseason so serious, it’s going to pay big dividends for him this season.

With the news yesterday that the Jets had signed their second veteran free agent this offseason in the form of Yeremiah Bell, the team has done a good job of slow and steadily filling their team needs as they head into camp. Are some areas still more suspect than we’d like?  Yes absolutely, but no NFL team can have an impervious roster every year …

With that said, we want to know, which acquisition are you most excited about that the team has made this offseason?  Is it one of the free agents?  Is it one of the drafted players?  Let us know! (There’s a list after the jump) (more…)

There’s been a lot of talk over the past few months about whether or not the Jets should consider doing Hard Knocks, mostly after Tebow joined the team.  Woody said he’s interested, rumor was he thought it was great pub.  Rex leaked that he’s not.  Then last week, a TV source said the Jets were not on the short list.

Whatever the situation, according to Mike T, the Jets were never even asked to do Hard Knocks in the first place. Tannenbaum told PFT this week that “it has not been offered to us so right now we’re on the sidelines, and we don’t know who’s going to be asked at the end of the day.”

Guh … so writers and bloggers (like me) have been talking about this for months and as far as Tannenbaum is saying, the Jets haven’t even been asked in the first place.

What the crap have we even been doing wasting time talking about it then?!?

**Stomps off**

Here’s a feature back from the proverbial day on the 1984 Bears 46 defense.

With Bell potentially landing between the Jets and Eagles (of course now he’s with the Jets) Blogging the Beast did a serious breakdown of Yeremiah Bell’s abilities.

To get to the essence of the post, it sounds like he’s a good player, tough and durable and able to make plays around the line of scrimmage, but his age is starting to show in his coverage ability.  There was very little coverage skill in this year’s potential free agent or drafted safeties and Bell is no exception.  So basically about what everyone expected. 

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