Our LB's are without a doubt the weakest unit on the entire team. I know we could improve our OL play, WR's are young and unproven, RB's are not flashy or stud filled, but we have basically nothing at LB except Coples who is really a 4-3 end.
The Jags offensive gameplan last night completely exposed Harris (again) and showed he is still too slow. It seemed like every time the Jags broke a long gain there was Harris a step too late.
Slow LB's is the problem. Davis is not as bad as people seem to think he is. He's going to be able to stay with his man in coverage. Virtually everybody else in the LB corps is going to have trouble staying on the field when coverage is what is needed. That's a next few years draft issue. The Jets will have to do what the Texans and 49ers did on the way to building their defenses: draft a few good men early in the draft and build up critical mass there. This is a Rex Ryan blind spot BTW. When you must have great CB's it puts a lot of pressure on the talent pool in other areas of the team. When you draft defensive linemen, which is not a bad move, *and* you must have great CB's, well the LB's are going to suffer. The Jets real problem right now is that they need both offensive play makers and LB's in the worst way. If they also still need a QB in next years draft then the rebuild is going to go a year longer than it optimally would have.
They have to put 4 Defensive lineman DOWN, get penetration and pressure on the QB,, everything on Defense works off of that.
Maybe its not the talent, maybe you just miss Mike Pettine. Seriously though, the Jets D will be fine, Rex Ryan IMO is the best defensive coach in football. Weird to see Jets fans worried about their D, although Gabbert looking like Aaron ROgers could do that. You guys dont have to worry about a Rex Ryan defense.
Concerning display by the defensive 1's last night. I thought that with the exception of Wilkerson the line weren't particularly attacking off the ball and getting much in the way of push. Perhaps Ellis' absence is causing some inconsistency there? LBs looked slow, hesitant - Harris in particular and Demario Davis is still a big question mark in terms of starting I'm a touch anxious regarding Milliner at this point. I know about recovery from the shoulder surgery but he looked very tentative in respect of physical confrontation and looked to be getting manhandled in blocks and at times when he came up to make tackles. I also know it's preseason and he's a rookie can generally relate to his playing off as opposed to press - again is this related to how physical he can be at this point. I can't comment on his play in college in this regard as I don't follow it so maybe just baby steps Cromartie looked poor last night also. I'm going to rewatch the game later and look to see if there was any sign of 5-1-5 etc
We're in for a long season ifwe have Harris tracking RBS. The guy is too slow. Rex needs to wake up. His unabashed loyalty to his players will leave him completely out of a job if the defense goes to shit this year too.
Can you also check if Cro and Dee pressed the WR or mostly gave them cushions most of the night? It seemed like they were giving cushions which is usually not what Rex has his CBs do
From memory Cro played about 50/50 press/off and Milliner played largely off. I can understand Milliner being asked to play off as a means of getting him acclimated to NFL speed and improved route running by WRs as it keeps by and large the play in front of him, that's fine but you need to be a sure tackler and physical to do that. I'll see about getting a better handle on numbers of plays later
Okay, thanks for the info. I agree Dee needs to do a better job tackling from last game, but I do remember him giving up a decent amount of cushion which I think we won't see as much of in the regular season.
I'm hoping Milliner's simply going through growing pains. I recall the 2008 Jets v. Browns pre-season game in Cleveland (the game that was interrupted for over an hour by lighting) where 2nd year CB Darrelle Revis got his lunch handed to him on an opening drive by Derek Anderson & Braylon Edwards.
It's rookie growing pains. Milliner had very little time to physically adapt to the NFL this off-season due to the injuries late last season. He's been a tad slow to his man so far as a result. That'll work itself out as he gets more practice and game time in. He's a Saban coached player and he's handling things like covering running lanes very well. I'm still really psyched to see him play this year. I think he's going to be good.
Its also important to keep some perspective about this preseason game that the Jaguars game planned for and our D did not. Our D was purely vanilla and they attacked the edges, which has been our weakness lately. I'm not worried (yet) about Milliner missing some tackles but I am worried about Harris (still) being too slow.
