When you watch the New York Jets on film, you can’t help but think that they don’t do enough on defense.

The reality is, they don’t do a lot defensively. Head Coach Robert Saleh and defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich come from the Pete Carroll school of defense. It is all about eight man boxes and the defensive line getting pressure on the quarterback.

The Jets will never be in the top third in the league in blitz percentage. It is not who they are. What they are is a 40 front, single high safety defense that runs exchanges and twists along the defensive line and collapses the pocket. Diagrams 1 and 2 are examples of the Jets base 40 front.

Diagrams 1 & 2: 40 Front with 3/1 blend in the secondary

Movement in all three levels is a staple of the Jets defense. They stem and show a lot with their front and they will start in a 2 shell and rock their safeties as well. They do a lot of this based on formation and down and distance.

Diagram 3: Safeties rocking pre and post snap.

The Jets will also line up in a 2 shell and play the coverage called. They also bail to a quarters look (Cover 4).

Diagrams 4 & 5: Jets 2-Shell with a Cover 4 Bail look

As I mentioned earlier. The Jets do a lot of twisting and exchanging with their defensive line. The movement is predicated on down and distance and formation. They will run game twists against the run and the pass. The goal is to be disruptive regardless on when they are called.

The Jets also use tilt techniques with their wide five defensive ends. By lining them up wide, it puts a lot of pressure on the offensive tackles and it allows them to get up the field via a speed rush or to use that speed rush to set up a secondary move.

As you can, the Jets defense is diverse. They are a top ten defense statistically for a reason. They aren’t complicated by any means. But what they do, they do well and that is what makes them tough to move the ball against.