The Jets defense is coming into the season with high expectations after taking an astronomical leap last season, going from one of the worst in all of football in 2021 to ranking fourth in the NFL in both points and yards allowed per game last season.
Tiki says Gang Green figures to be a top five defense in 2023 behind reigning Defensive Rookie of the Year Sauce Gardner, but Shaun Morash says the Jets D was overrated last season, especially when examining the matchups.
“I think that’s bogus,” Shaun said. ‘I need to see it from them. I think we’ve seen way too many bouquets thrown at the Jets feet…take a deeper look at last year’s Jets defense.
“Week 1, they lose to Lamar Jackson, five up 24 points. Week 2, they beat Jacoby Brissett, but give up 30 points. Week 3, they lose to Joe Burrow, give up 27 points. If you look at the early returns from the jets defense, they gave up a lot of points, and lost to elite quarterbacks in Lamar Jackson and Joe Burrow.
“Let’s look at when they began to pick up the pace. They beat Kenny Pickett, the Steelers score 20 points in that game. Then they get to Week 5, it’s not Tua, it’s Teddy Bridgewater, and they gave up 17 points. Russell Wilson, Nate Hackett, team is a disaster, they give up nine points…their best win as a defense comes against Josh Allen, when they only give up 17 points. I’ll give the Jets defense that game. But the season takes a downturn after that and it’s all blamed on Zach Wilson.
“Lose to Kirk Cousins, lose to Josh Allen again, lose to Jared Goff, lose to Geno Smith, lose to Trevor Lawrence, lose to Skylar Thompson…I’m here to tell you, when you sum up the season on defense, that elite, top-five defense gave up big points to Burrow, Lamar, Kirk Cousins, Josh Allen , Trevor Lawrence in a windstorm, and Geno Smith. Their wins, Aaron Rodgers first week off a broken thumb, the Josh Allen game. Outside of that, every one of these quarterbacks that they beat were either young or bad, and they never faced Tua.”
Pointing to favorable matchups against mediocre quarterbacks, Shaun believes the Jets defense will be in for a rude awakening this season, even with what is expected to be a much improved offense in front of Aaron Rodgers. But Tiki still expects the defense to be formidable in 2023.
“When you look at the consistency of this defense after Week 5, it was pretty damn impressive, and you got to give them credit for that,” Tiki said. “And their passing offense in that time was anemic.”
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