Jets Are Among NFL’s Best Defenses … and There’s More Work to Do

So in one quote graph, the coordinator said the Jets this year are very good and can get better still. In the total yardage rankings, the Jets are fifth, putting them on pace to be a top-10/top-5 team in both yards and points allowed for the first time since Rex Ryan’s first two teams in 2009 and ’10.

This is remarkable considering in the first year of the Robert Saleh/Ulbrich scheme, the defense struggled to 32nd rankings in both yards and points allowed. “We always had a belief,” Ulbrich said, “even when it was dark last year at times.”

And so the work is not done. More needs to be done to make this unit even stronger by regular season’s end. Franklin-Myers agrees, calling it “a lot of meat left on the bone for us.”

“We can talk about some of the sacks we missed, some miscommunications. Missed tackles is another thing,” JFM said. “So everything is on us. We have to tighten some of that stuff up.”

“I can’t really point to one thing we can get better at as a team, but it’s just individual,” Williams said. “Each and every one of us knows the individual things we can get better at, the things we can do to take this team and this defense especially to a new level, with the small details we can do to get better. And I just feel like each and every one of us has bought into getting those things better.”

There are no guarantees that the Jets’ defensive numbers will continue to rise into the stratosphere. The Jets’ final six opponents — at Minnesota and Buffalo, home for Detroit and Jacksonville, at Seattle and Miami — would be a test for the best defense. Those teams’ average total-yards ranking is 8.5, their average scoring-offense rank is 9th, and their starting QBs have crispy combined passer rating of 98.1.

But the Jets have the numbers to match, at least after Week 12 and perhaps after Week 18 as well. Get out the Green & White popcorn. It should be a fun stretch run.

“I’d probably say this is the No. 1 overall defense I’ve played on,” Franklin-Myers said. “I’ve never been part of a team that on all levels was just dominant. We do a good job of covering, getting after the quarterback, and the linebackers do a good job of running and hitting. I can’t say anything negative about anybody on the defense or on the team. Definitely I can’t think of a defense that’s better.”