With the NFL season just a few weeks away, Andy Benoit is previewing every NFL team in reverse order of last season’s finish. Up today: the New York Jets, who finished 5–11 in 2017.
1. Last season was really the first time New York had what looked like a Todd Bowles defense. In his third year as head coach, he was finally comfortable uncorking the disguised pressure packages that shot him to the top of head coaching search lists as Arizona’s defensive coordinator. Bowles’s pressures, like most, require man-to-man coverage. They aim to surprise with a disguised blitz—often inside, to obscure the QB’s vision, and preferably with defensive backs, who are faster.