Across four years under Robert Saleh, New York Jets fans became accustomed to a particular style of play on defense.
Whether on a week-to-week or year-to-year basis, Saleh rarely made significant changes to the Jets’ defensive scheme, so you always knew what you were getting. The Jets were a 4-3 team that relied on its four-man rush to be successful. They rarely blitzed on first or second down and often dialed up the blitz on third down. In the back end, they were a zone-heavy team that kept its corners tethered to one side of the field, rarely allowing them to travel.
As the Jets prepare to hire a new head coach in 2025, their defensive scheme is likely to undergo major changes. Two of their most commonly linked candidates, Brian Flores and Aaron Glenn, come from defensive backgrounds and are known for employing vastly different strategies than Saleh and Jeff Ulbrich. This could lead to changes in what the Jets are looking for as they target new players in free agency and the draft.
Let’s take a look at Flores and Glenn’s resumes and get a feel for how they might alter New York’s defensive scheme if hired. I’ll spare you the explanation of each scheme’s entire lore and lexicon. The main goal here is to highlight the primary, most noticeable ways the Jets’ defense would change.
Brian Flores: Extreme blitzing
Carrying over the strategies he learned in New England under Bill Belichick, Brian Flores is the most blitz-heavy defensive coach in the NFL today.
In 2023, Flores’ first season as the Vikings’ defensive coordinator, Minnesota blitzed on a shocking 50.3% of passing plays, according to NFL Next Gen Stats. Not only did that lead the NFL, but it remains the second-highest rate of any team over the last eight seasons.
Flores dialed the Vikings’ blitz rate back to 41.8% in 2024, but that still led the league. No other team was above 40%.
Blitzing to this extent would be a culture shock for the Jets’ defense. Saleh and Jeff Ulbrich believed in leaving seven defenders in coverage and trusting the four-man rush to win. The Jets had the NFL’s lowest blitz rate in 2022 (16.3%) and 2023 (17.4%). In 2024, they jumped to 30.2% (13th) as a response to injuries and losses to the defensive line, but that is still a far cry from Flores’ standards.
A blitz-heavy scheme like Flores’ puts more pressure on the off-ball linebackers to produce as pass rushers. Vikings linebacker Blake Cashman ranked second at the position with 168 pass-rush snaps in 2024 (despite missing three games). In 2023, the Vikings had two linebackers in the top six of pass-rush snaps, Jordan Hicks (123) and Ivan Pace Jr. (109).
This season, Cashman finished fourth on the Vikings in both sacks (4.5) and quarterback hits (11). Remember, he’s an off-ball linebacker. That is an incredibly high ranking for the position, especially on a team that ranked fourth in the NFL in sacks. It means he was a more productive pass rusher than at least one of the team’s starting defensive linemen.
If they hire Flores, it will be important for the Jets to either add a linebacker with pass-rush skills or tutor their in-house linebackers to become more seasoned as pass rushers. Quincy Williams had fewer pass-rush snaps over the past three seasons combined (149 in 49 games) than Cashman did in 2024 alone (168 in 14 games).
While Williams does not have experience in a heavy blitzing role, he has shown promise as a blitzer when called upon. In four seasons with the Jets, Williams has 10 sacks (eight full, two half) on 211 pass-rush snaps, a fantastic 4.7% rate. That is significantly higher than Cashman’s five sacks on 168 pass-rush snaps (2.9%). Williams would become a dangerous weapon if he translated this efficiency to a larger volume of opportunities.
It is worth noting that most of Williams’ standout pass-rush plays in New York were unblocked, as the Jets typically only blitzed him when it would catch the offense by total surprise. In a blitz-heavy scheme, he’d have to develop some true pass-rushing chops, as one-on-one reps become more common if the offense expects the blitz.
Still, his closing speed gives him intriguing potential as a pass rusher.
Jamien Sherwood also showed potential as a pass rusher in 2024, collecting a pair of sacks on just 40 pass-rush snaps (5%). This one was nifty.
Sherwood also had nine total pressures (22.5% pressure rate), even more efficient than Williams’ 15 total pressures on 79 pass-rush snaps (19.0% pressure rate). Comparatively, Cashman had 28 total pressures on 168 pass-rush snaps (16.7%).
If Flores likes what he sees from Sherwood’s film in this area, re-signing him should become an even greater priority than it already is.
Another byproduct of Flores’ blitz-heaviness is that he relies on having edge players who can drop into coverage. This is because Flores’ blitz packages are primarily zone blitzes. Minnesota ran zone coverage 74% of the time (12th) and zone-blitzed on an NFL-high 28.4% of opposing passing plays. Zone blitzes comprised 67.9% of the Vikings’ blitzes (2nd).
As a 3-4 coach, Flores relies on outside linebacker types to man the edge – guys with enough size and pass-rushing chops to set the edge and rush the quarterback, but who are small and agile enough to be viable in coverage when asked to drop as part of a blitz. This contradicts the Jets’ 4-3 scheme, which called for pure defensive ends who would entirely focus on their trench responsibilities and almost never drop into coverage.
Andrew Van Ginkel embodied this model for Minnesota in 2024. Van Ginkel led edge defenders with 204 coverage snaps, and he thrived while doing so, snagging two pick-sixes (one off Aaron Rodgers). In the meantime, he racked up 11.5 sacks.
Pro Bowl Vikings edge defender Jonathan Greenard was not quite as versatile, but he still ranked ninth among edge defenders with 87 coverage snaps, allowing just 50 yards and zero touchdowns.
Compare this to the Jets, whose entire unit of edge defenders combined for 54 pass-rush snaps. Haason Reddick led the way with 22, ranking 63rd at the position.
New York would certainly need to add a Van Ginkel-type if they hired Flores, as they simply do not have a player of that mold on the roster. They also would need to coach up their defensive ends to be prepared for more reps in coverage, particularly Will McDonald and Jermaine Johnson. McDonald has played 20 coverage snaps in two seasons while Johnson has played 11 in three seasons.
While the Jets’ edge defenders lack experience in this role, McDonald and Johnson are tremendous athletes who move well in space for the position, so it’s easy to picture their upside as 3-4 outside linebackers if they receive proper coaching.
Aaron Glenn: Man coverage
While Aaron Glenn also blitzed at a high rate in 2024 (38.4%, third-highest), his usage of man coverage is more noteworthy.
Glenn’s Lions led the NFL with a 47.7% man coverage rate. That is much higher than the league average of 30%. It is also a contrast to Flores, who ranked 21st at 26%.
Flores’ bread-and-butter is zone blitzing, while Glenn relied on man blitzing. Minnesota zone-blitzed at a league-high 28.4% rate, while Detroit man-blitzed at a league-high 24.5% rate.
Interestingly, the Jets gradually increased their man coverage rate throughout Saleh’s tenure after establishing themselves as a zone-heavy team in 2022, when the core of the roster came together. Here are their man coverage rates under Saleh over the last three years:
- 2022: 24.6%, 23rd
- 2023: 33.3%, 11th
- 2024: 35.4%, 9th
Still, they never came quite close to Glenn’s remarkable 47.7% man coverage rate in 2024.
Emphasizing man-coverage skills at the cornerback position would be essential for the Jets. With D.J. Reed likely on his way out the door, the Jets will have a starting spot to fill across from Sauce Gardner.
New York has promising in-house options, including Qwan’tez Stiggers and Jarrick Bernard-Converse (while Brandin Echols is a free agent who could be re-signed). However, if you are going to run man coverage nearly half the time, you better be sure your corners can cover. It would be risky for the Jets to gamble on one of their unproven youngsters unless they were smitten by what they saw in practice.
Glenn showed intriguing malleability during his Detroit tenure, so it’s not guaranteed that he’d translate his man-reliance to a new team. The Lions’ man coverage rate went from 29.1% (2021) to 44.5% (2022), back down to 32.5% (2023), and back up to 47.7% (2024). He seems like a coach who is willing to adapt rather than strictly enforce a singular philosophy.
If Glenn does plan on carrying over the scheme that pushed Detroit to fifth-best in defensive DVOA this past season, man coverage will be a huge part of it, and the Jets must build their roster accordingly. Luckily, though, they already have multiple pieces who are suited for the transition.
Sauce Gardner would likely benefit greatly. Across his three years in the NFL, Gardner has dominated in man coverage, allowing 24-of-61 passing (39.3%) for 304 yards (5.0 per attempt) and no touchdowns (per Pro Football Focus).
However, only 29.4% of Gardner’s career coverage snaps were in man coverage, so the Jets have not fully maximized this ability – especially in terms of having Gardner travel with the opponent’s best weapon. In a man-heavy scheme, Gardner could be weaponized as an eraser against the opposing star, allowing the Jets to roll coverage to other parts of the field.
Slot corner Michael Carter II also has solid numbers in man coverage over the past three seasons, allowing 27-of-50 passing (54.0%) for 373 yards (7.4 per attempt) and one touchdown.
If Glenn is hired by the Jets, it would be fascinating to see whether he translates his man-heavy tendencies from 2024. It’s a strategy that paid great dividends for Detroit, leading them to fifth-best in defensive DVOA, but Glenn would have to make the decision that’s best for his roster. Great coaches find a happy medium between their personal philosophies and the cards they’re dealt.
