I miss very few things about the Mike Maccagnan era of Jets football. It was a scaring experience with very few moments of enjoyment or hope, but one thing we never had to worry about was the safety position. In true Maccagnan-esque fashion, many high end players at trifling positions like QB were passed over in favour of taking safeties Jamal Adams and Marcus Maye in the first and second round of the 2017 draft.
As much of a tit as Adams turned out to be, moments like watching him mug Daniel Jones (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukWm2iZvzsw) of his lunch money and his pride remain some of my favourite of the last few seasons.
We all know what happened next, Douglas loaded up on picks for Adams and let Maye walk and get picked up by the New Orleans Saints in 2022. Since Adams was traded, even when Maye was still around, the Jets have had some of the worst safety play in the NFL.
The position has been a blight on the defence, and a weakness that holds the unit back from being in discussion as the best in the league. Lamarcus Joyner was so terrible in 2022 that it hurt to watch. Even the plays where he seemed like he’d made a great play only looked so impressive because he had to made up ground after being torched on a route. TE’s and anyone else who wanted to run across the middle of the field on 3rd down did so freely and kept the defence on the field longer than it had to be.
Douglas has a lot to do this offseason with a QB question to answer and an o-line to shore up but it’s worth taking some time to think about what he can do to fix the safety position this off-season, even if the ultimate answer comes a year down the line.
1. Do Nothing
As anyone who’s ever written a proposal for change, your first option is the status quo, even if only to paint a horrific picture of what will happen if you do decide to stand still.
The Jets safety depth chart as of right now is: Jordan Whitehead, Tony Adams, Will Parks and Ashtyn Davis … let that sink in.
In a perfect world only Adams and Parks will be on the list once Douglas is finished with the position for 2023, but if it stays like this you’re looking at Jordan Whitehead, who had a terrible season in 2022, and Tony Adams a UDFA pick up who, while he may have some potential, you’ve not seen enough of to be happy with him starting in 2023.
That’s a recipe for missed tackles and missed coverages that will nuke all the good work the D-Line and corners will do leaving the middle of the field free for opposing offences to run rampant through all year.
2. Maximum Aggression
If Douglas wants this issue solved and solved now he could go out and pick up a few of the higher end names in free agency and the draft. If the Jets were in on Marcus Williams last off-season, like it sounds they were until the price got too high, this is what Douglas tried to do for 2022, but ended up with only half an equation in Jordan Whitehead that didn't pan out. Douglas should ideally take the opportunity to clean house and recoup some cap space by cutting Whitehead to fuel a revamp of the position.
It would be really easy to sit here and just say “Jessie Bates III” and walk away feeling like a genius. But his market is likely to get out of hand for someone who was … good the last two years but his value feels over inflated by his proximity to a team that has risen rapidly the past two seasons due in part to their defence.
If you want to go out and swing big on spend for production this year then I’d look at Chauncey Gardner-Johnson. The Jets need to start taking the ball away on a regular basis and this is something CGJ did at a high level in 2022. The argument against him being the swing is that he’s coming off his best season to date, and do you want to invest heavily on one year of elite production? Yes, you do. He’s a player on the rise who is showing development and year on year improvement and that’s exactly who you want to invest in. That’s what Douglas did last year when he brought in DJ Reed and that’s paid off very well.
With free safety sorted out, the Jets keep up the heavy resource allocation. After cutting Jordan Whitehead to save the $7million you can take Brian Branch 13th overall in the draft. I’ve not had chance to get properly into Branch’s game film yet, but what I have seen, and the early draft reports on the type of player he is and the varied use a defensive architect like Saleh could get out of him make me very excited. Paired with someone like CGJ the Jets’ safety position would undergo the same transformation that we saw at CB in 2022.
3. Mild Approach
If Douglas takes a more conservative approach (which he’s probably more likely to) to addressing the safety position this off-season, there are some decent second tier/third tier options. If that is the route he goes we’ll likely see Jordan Whitehead stick around in the strong safety role for another year. So addressing the position becomes solely about getting a starting free safety and some developmental players to take over next year.
Jimmie Ward isn’t a bargain bin option at safety, and from a cap point of view he’d be an easy one for the Jets to fit in on a 2-3 year deal. Ward likely isn’t going back to San Francisco after recently publicly airing some disagreements with Kyle Shanahan over his use in their defensive scheme. Ward feels like an obvious fit because of his crossover with Robert Saleh in San Francisco which would give both some comfort.
Ward had another solid year in 2022, and while he’s not a ball-hawk he’s had five takeaways in the past two seasons. His run defence is a better part of his game than his coverage play, but he’s a massive upgrade over Lamarcus Joyner.
I’m not going to sit here and pretend I know about any day three safeties in great detail, but that’s where you’d look to shop for developmental players at the position. If you have Ward under contract for three years you’re not looking for someone to start straight away, or even in 2024, so a day two pick on someone like Brandon Joseph is a little rich, and he’s probably the next best free safety prospect after Antonio Johnson in this draft.
As much as I’m tempted to ride the fence and say that Douglas will go the ‘mild’ route and try to patch the position in 2023, how he attacked the CB position in 2022 gives me pause. He knows he’s built a solid defensive line and an elite corner back duo, and if he can land an MVP QB he really will be all in on playing post season football this year, and if he misses he may not get another chance.
There’s a chance this will be his last season as GM in New York, and I’m not sure he’s willing to leave such an obvious gaping hole in the roster that could sink the season and his career. If Rogers or Carr end up being the starting QB in the next few weeks I’d expect to see JD attack any points of weakness on this roster with an urgency we’ve not seen from him before.
[shameless plug] Thanks for reading. Andy is a UK born Jets fan living in Japan. He writes Jets/coffee/Japan related nonsense on a regular basis over on Substack (https://coffeenjets.substack.com/) so check it out and feel free to leave scathing disagreements in the comments.
Comentarios