Wrong Players or Wrong System

Over the past few years, Jets fans have debated Eric Mangini’s 3-4 defense.  In the years before Kris Jenkins arrived it seemed like this was defense was impossible to run.  Early in Mangini’s tenure they played an agressive style and blitzed often.  Last year with Jenkins they seemed to get more conservative.  The blitzes didn’t happen quite as much.

More than that the overall mood of the defense seemed uptight.  This article is a few days old but PFT.com wrote a piece contrasting the differences between what we saw under Mangini and how a typical Rex Ryan defense behaves:

“When the three players arrived here, they were shocked at the culture around the Jets holdovers. In meetings, they watched their new teammates sit silent, heads down taking notes, seemingly afraid to speak up.

“The one thing I noticed was everybody was really tight when I first got here,” Leonhard said. “I think guys are starting to relax. With Rex and his staff it’s more like the coaches are working with you. They’re not above you, talking down to you. I think the guys are really open to that now.”

The Jets’ practices are now filled with the sound of Scott talking trash and the locker room is more alive than it was last year.”

The three players the article refers to are Marques Douglas (DE), Bart Scott (LB) and Jim Leonhard (S).  This is definitely a completely different culture but will it result in more wins for the Jets?

Tell us what you think.

admin

See Full Bio