Rex and Bowles have very different approaches to CB play. When Rex had great CBs (Revis & Cro) he pretty much always played a cover 1 scheme and his CBs first job was to make sure the receiver didn't get past them. Bowles mixes it up a lot and he plays both cover 1 and cover 2. When the Jets are in a cover 2 defense under Bowles the CBs are encouraged to take a lot of risks for the interception with the belief that if they screw up and the receiver gets by them then the safety will tackle the receiver. If you listen to what the CBs are saying this is what you're hearing. For example, Marcus Williams on his interception said he guessed the receiver was going to run an out just past the sticks so he undercut the route. Similarly, Cro's 2 TDs came when he gambled the receiver was running one route that he was trying to undercut and instead he was running a different route that Cro left wide open. Rex did run some traps where he specifically assigned a safety or an LB to double cover a receiver and encouraged the LB or CB to gamble, but that didn't occur that often - maybe 4 or so times a game and, in this situation, the safety or CB (if an LB was undercutting) was always pretty close to the receiver so the receiver wouldn't have a big pickup. Bowles clear emphasis on turnovers is very apparent here. Ironically, for this style of defense Marcus Williams is probably a better fit than Cromartie because his greater ability to disrupt the route with his press coverage means he's less likely to get burned.
It's definitely apparent that: 1) There's a greater emphasis on creating turnovers. 2) This defense won't do as well statistically as Rex's did. So far, so good.
I think it's the defense as a whole rather than just the corners. There's clearly an emphasis on creating turnovers and it's paying early dividends. It will be interesting to see how the team reacts to not creating all these turnovers some game - obviously it won't happen every week.
When Rex had great corners he didn't have the D-line to rush the passer. When Rex had a great D-line he didn't have corners. Bowles has both, so it's tough to compare the two. How would Bowles have done last season with Oprah Winfrey out there covering the #1 WR?
In 2009 and 2010 the Dline was good (not as good as today, but still good). Incidentally, last year the jets did play a lot of cover 2 because their CBs were so bad and the CBs were not given that kind of leeway (even Marcus Williams who flashed at various points last year). This isn't meant to be a criticism of Rex. I liked Rex (although I like Bowles more). I am merely observing the difference in defensive styles between the two.
So do I. If the Jets CBs are healthy around the trade deadline and milliner's recovery is progressing, I hope they trade Cromartie. Given that there'll likely be some teams desperate for a starting corner by then I'm hoping they can get some good picks out of that (at least a 3rd round pick and maybe more). They'll have to cut or trade cromartie next year anyway because of the salary cap, so they might as well trade him this year if around the trade deadline they're healthy and milliner is near returning.
I'll put more stock into what the players say the differences are. So far Cro has explained that the main difference is the front seven in that Rex's defense used 2-gap assignments where as Bowles predominately assigns 1 gap for the DL.
It also helps that the guys are actually catching the INT's. I swear I think the Jets led the league in dropped INT's.
This is the ideal situation to me. I'm not overly impressed by Cromartie, But there are plenty of teams who it would be a major upgrade for them. Either get a decent pick or I wouldn't even mind a crappy pick and an o-lineman.
I think we've lead the league in that category since 2011. And least fumbles recovered. Rex and Bowles blitz very differently. Rex disguises more and sends defensive backs from deeper spots on the field because they are faster so they can make up more ground. Bowles shows blitz with backers and sends the blitz right up from the line of scrimmage. Rex's approach seemed to work against big time quarterbacks early on in his tenure with the Jets. Bowles seems to play a lot of cover 1 with a robber safety and the other 6 blitzing. Gilchrist man's the deep middle of the field and the robber plays towards the side with multiple receivers when we aren't sending 7 on the blitz. Rex played a ton of cover 0 prior to last year and even early last year. Bowles defense will realistically give up more plays in the 20-35 yard range because of the deep deep safety. Rex's would give up more way over the top. Pick your poison. Under Rex's last two years we got killed on third down. We'll see how this defense ends up.
A quick way to get a sense of the two head coaches' styles and focus is to look at the game they played against each other. Week 17, 2011. Jets needed the win to get into the playoffs for the 3rd straight year and claim their 3rd Rex Ryan guaranteed Super Bowl. The Jets (with a younger Revis and Cromartie on the team) held the Todd Bowles coached team to 82 net yards rushing and 128 net yards passing. The Jets defense had 2 interceptions. Impressive stats. However Bowles's Fins team adjusted, managing 3 interceptions and settling for field goals when they could. Jets lost 17-19. Rex Ryan "shouldered the blame" for the loss but said "penalties" and "shooting yourself in the foot" made the difference.
I think its too early to say how Bowles blitzes. So far the Jets have played teams with weak interior offensive linemen so this would lead to your blitzing through the A gaps with LBs (which is also what Rex's bills did against the Colts). Bowles also had a wonderful Skrine blitz from the slot on the interception play where Douzable dropped back into a zone a bumped the crossing receiver. In his first few years Rex loved to blitz a bunch of DBs from one side of the line. It took a while but eventually offenses starting slide their protection towards the DBs so that technique lost its effectiveness. Also, on Rex's blitzes with DBs the safeties would cheat towards the blitzing player, so I think QBs started picking up on it. Bowles doesn't do that so its tougher to figure out its coming but there's a greater risk of a 20 yard play from an uncovered receiver. For example if on the Skrine blitz both receivers on that side of the field ran deep patterns or the outside receiver ran a deep out and the inside receiver ran a go route the jets could have given up a big play if they couldn't get to the QB.
Rex had Jack Stevenson and Doug Mcphillips (who? exactly)playing corner the last few years ....You really can't compare Rexs tenure to this D because he never had this personal
