2009 New York Jets: Change Is In The Air

The New York Jets will enter a season in which the philosophy of the team will change.  That will not be only winds of change that will be coming out of Florham Park, NJ and East Rutherford, NJ this season.

Namely, the Jets will be changing much of their offensive and defensive playbooks due to the incoming head coach Rex Ryan. Ryan comes in from the Baltimore Ravens where he led a dynamic and top notch defense under Brian Billick and John Harbaugh.

Offensively, the Jets will be going through a transitional period in 2009. Brett Favre is gone taking his gun-slinging ways with him. Rookie Mark Sanchez has many qualities that he shares with Favre; however, Ryan will work him in at a comfortable pace.

During his time in New York, Eric Mangini brought the Belichick hybrid defense featuring the 3-4 extensively. Unfortunately for Mangini, the parts didn't fit the system as players like Jonathan Vilma and Dewayne Robertson were sorely misplaced in the 3-4.

Ryan brings in a defensive scheme with the base 3-4, however, Ryan's scheme is very aggressive, keying on plenty of blitzing and pressure. The Jets have some quality established talent to man the 3-4. 

Kris Jenkins and Shaun Ellis are two established veterans in the 3-4 defense, and both are quality players who are good at what they do. The other end position is up in the air a bit this year, with Kenyon Coleman going to Cleveland in the Mark Sanchez trade but Marques Douglas looks to be the front runner.

At Linebacker, Calvin Pace and David Harris return as stalwarts from the Mangini regime and they look to be joined by former Raven Bart Scott who will bring attitude and passion to New York, as well as former UAB star Bryan Thomas.

Depth is solid as Marques Murrell, Larry Izzo, and the underachieving Vernon Gholston are the key reserves.

The secondary should be strong and back with a vengeance with trade acquisition Lito Sheppard and young star Darrelle Revis manning the outside with Donald Strickland, Ahmad Carroll, and Dwight Lowery adding depth.

Safeties Kerry Rhodes and Jim Leonhard will be key parts of Ryan's defense as due to his aggressive scheme, they will both blitz as well as play in space and coverage at times. 

On offense, Brian Schottenheimer has some issues to iron out however, as the Jets defense will very much be ahead of the offense.

Mark Sanchez, the Jets first round draft pick will likely be the guy going into the season and unfortunately rookie quarterbacks generally struggle. Sanchez has superb skills, but he has only started 16 games in college at USC, so there likely will be a learning curve and struggles.

Thomas Jones, Shonn Greene, Tony Richardson, and Leon Washington provide an excellent stable of backs for Schottenheimer to key on as he will need to with Sanchez being the likely starting quarterback.

The line is very strong with D'Brickashaw Ferguson, Damien Woody, Alan Faneca, and Brandon Moore being anchored at the pivot by Nick Mangold.  This group was able to pave the way for Thomas Jones trip to Honolulu last year and Ryan and Schottenheimer must get that same production this year.

The Jets could have some trouble at receiver however.  The only established wideout is Jerricho Cotchery, with Laveranues Coles having signed with Cincinnati in free agency.  The unproven trio of Chansi Stuckey, Brad Smith, and David Clowney are the other main options opposite Cotchery.  Dustin Keller will again be reliable as the tight end again.

Therefore, the biggest changes in the Jets playbooks from last year to this year are two fold. The Jets offense will very much be a conservative, pound the football type of offense that probably goes to a ratio of 60-40 run-to-pass at the very least unless the Jets need to make up ground quick.

The Jets offense will play a ball control game, with the philosophy to likely be to protect the football. They will rely on the offense to do just enough and the defense to come up big compared to last year's aggressive, and wide open offense to suit Brett Favre's gun-slinging ways.

Defensively, the Jets will feature a much more aggressive philosophy and system under Rex Ryan compared to Eric Mangini and Bob Sutton. Their 3-4 was predicated on keying on pass defense, as well as blitzing around 25 percent of the time according to the New York Daily News. 

Ryan's defense will "lay the wood" to opposing offenses by being aggressive and really letting guys like Calvin Pace, Bryan Thomas, and Kerry Rhodes loose. They will come after you week-in and week-out and will make you play a strong game to beat the aggressive 3-4 style.

It will take some time to figure out whether the changes in philosophy will work. Based on Ryan's previous work in Baltimore however, I wouldn't bet against him.