Since drafting all-world cornerback Sauce Gardner in 2022, the New York Jets have become one of the best pass-defending teams in the NFL. In fact, their pure pass coverage may have been the league’s best over the past three years. From 2022-24, the Jets allowed the lowest opponent passer rating in the NFL (81.8).
The most shocking aspect of that stat? They did it despite snagging only 36 interceptions, tied for 19th.
Among the top six teams in opposing passer rating over the past three seasons – the other five being New Orleans (82.8), San Francisco (84.4), Baltimore (84.7), Houston (85.6), and Buffalo (85.9) – the Jets are the only one that did not also rank in the top half of the league in interceptions. Their lack of interceptions relative to their elite overall coverage is quite the phenomenon.
While the Jets’ pass coverage has been fantastic (it’s one of the only reasons the Jets won any games at all over the past three seasons), New York needs more from this unit in the takeaway department. Oftentimes, just getting that one interception (or failing to) can be the difference in tilting the result of a close game.
Consider this: Since 2022, the Jets are 2-15 (.118) in one-score games when they fail to record an interception, the worst record in the NFL. But when the Jets pick off their opponent at least once in a one-score game, they are a fantastic 9-4 (.692), sixth-best in the NFL.
As great as this pass defense has been, it can flip so many losses into wins just by getting one more interception here and there.
The Jets are coming off a season in which they picked off only seven passes, tying them for 26th in the NFL. The new pairing of Aaron Glenn and Steve Wilks will be tasked with facilitating significant improvement in this area.
Can they pull it off?
In many ways, the Jets are equipped to turn their interception woes around. The ceiling is there. They just need to capitalize on it – both the players and the coaches.
Here are the Jets’ top three avenues to recording more interceptions in 2025.
1. Aaron Glenn coaching Sauce Gardner and Brandon Stephens on how to translate PDs to INTs
The Jets’ team-wide struggles in the interception department are an embodiment of their leader, Sauce Gardner.
Since entering the league, Gardner has arguably been the NFL’s best cornerback in terms of purely sticking with receivers. However, he only has three career interceptions, a strangely low number relative to the quality of his overall coverage.
Gardner has absolutely no issue getting his hands on the ball, though. He is tied for seventh in the NFL with 40 passes defended since 2022, which puts him just two shy of second place. This is despite Gardner getting targeted at an extremely low rate.
The challenge for Gardner is to translate more of those PDs into interceptions.
Across the league in 2024, teams combined for 387 interceptions and 2,288 passes defended. Therefore, the league-average ratio between INTs and PDs was 16.9%.
Gardner, meanwhile, has a career ratio of just 7.5%: three INTs to 40 PDs. That’s less than half of the league average.
If Gardner merely ticked up to league average at converting his PDs to INTs, he would have about seven interceptions on his career total of 40 PDs, which gives him slightly above two interceptions per season. Depending on how the Jets’ games play out, that alone could be enough to add another win or two.
Gardner’s new partner on the outside, Brandon Stephens, also needs to improve in this area. Stephens has two career INTs to 32 PDs (6.3%).
Speaking at the NFL owners meetings earlier this year, Glenn expressed his desire to help Gardner and Stephens improve their ball skills.
“When you play with your back to the quarterback the majority of the time, it’s hard to get all those interceptions that you want, but when you look at it, [Gardner] has denied the ball quite a bit. Him and Brandon [Stephens].
”When you play man coverage as much as those guys have, you’re going to have a good amount of PBUs, and interceptions not going to be there. But that’s one thing I want to work on with both those guys, is making sure that they can get their heads around to locate the ball and intercept the ball.”
Glenn is an ideal mentor in this specific aspect of the cornerback position. Despite his small stature (5-foot-9), Glenn was a fantastic interceptor during his playing career. After the NFL began tracking PDs in 1999, Glenn had 29 interceptions to 102 passes defended over his final 10 NFL seasons, a remarkable 28.4% ratio.
Glenn helped multiple Lions defensive backs unlock their potential as playmakers. Free safety Kerby Joseph recorded 17 interceptions in three seasons under Glenn, including an NFL-leading nine in 2024. Joseph only had five interceptions in four college seasons. Hybrid safety/slot corner Brian Branch had seven picks in two seasons under Glenn after getting four in his three years at Alabama.
While Glenn’s primary job is to lead the entire team (leaving most of the player development to his assistants), his unique perspective as a three-time Pro Bowl player should allow him to continue providing player-development value in his areas of expertise. This is one of them.
2. The addition of Andre Cisco
Over the last few years, the Jets’ starting free safeties have tended to be players who are conservative in the ball-hawk department.
In 2022, they started Lamarcus Joyner, who entered the year with only four career picks in 96 games (although he somehow managed to get three that year). In 2024, they turned to Chuck Clark, who entered the year with five picks in 96 games and finished the season with none in 12 games.
The Jets’ starting free safety in 2025 projects to be Andre Cisco, a free agent pickup whom they signed to a one-year, $8.5 million deal from Jacksonville. Cisco is coming off a down year and has some holes in his game (he is quite an erratic player), but he is the most successful ball hawk the Jets have added at this position in a while.
Over the last three seasons, Cisco has eight interceptions in 63 games. From 2022-23, he was fourth among safeties with seven interceptions.
For his career, Cisco has eight interceptions to 24 passes defended, a stellar 33.3% ratio. Compare that to Joyner’s 12.1% rate before joining the Jets, and Clark’s 14.7%.
There is a good chance that Cisco will snag an extra couple of interceptions that his predecessors would not have.
3. More blitzing
The Jets were notorious for their lack of blitzing under Robert Saleh and Jeff Ulbrich. They were intent on trusting the four-man rush to create pressure on its own.
Saleh and Ulbrich would sometimes blitz on third down, but it was rare to see them blitz in any situation was that not an obvious passing situation. Under Glenn and Wilks, though, blitzing will be on the table in any situation. Expect the Jets to rise from one of the lowest blitz rates to one of the highest.
There are many risks that come with blitzing at a higher rate, but one of the greatest benefits is that it increases the odds of the opposing quarterback making an ill-advised mistake under the heavy pressure. By blitzing more frequently, the Jets will raise their odds of generating interceptions.
Aaron Rodgers’ final pass attempt as a Packer was an interception against a seven-man rush from Glenn.
Interestingly enough, blitzing in itself does not raise the chances of the opposing quarterback throwing a pick. In 2024, the league-average interception rate was identical whether the defense blitzed or not: 2.1% in each situation, per FTN Fantasy.
What really alters the chances of an interception is whether the quarterback is pressured. QBs had a 2.9% interception rate when pressured versus a 1.9% rate when kept clean. That might not seem like much, but that’s a difference between one interception every 34 passes versus one every 53 passes.
And when you blitz, there is a greater chance of generating pressure. According to NFL Next Gen Stats, the league-average pressure rate when teams blitzed was 41.2%, compared to 30.3% when they did not.
More blitzing equals more pressure, and more pressure equals more interceptions.
So, what gives? Why is the league-average interception rate identical whether teams blitzed or not?
It’s simple: While blitzing offers a higher ceiling, it comes at the cost of a lower floor.
If you blitz and you get home, the reward is that an interception is even more likely than if you create pressure with a three or four-man rush. Quarterbacks had a 3.1% interception rate when pressured on a blitz compared to 2.7% when pressured without a blitz. The pressure gets home faster and tends to come from unpredictable directions, making QBs a bit likelier to do something reckless than if the pressure came from a traditional rush.
But if you blitz and you fail to get home, the cost is that the opponent is less likely to throw an interception than if you failed to get home with a three or four-man rush.
The league-average interception rate when kept clean was 1.7% against the blitz, compared to 2.0% with no blitz. It makes sense: If you blitz and do not get pressure, there are fewer defenders in the back end to bail out the pass-rush than if the pass-rush fails to get home with only three or four rushers.
Basically, the interception ceiling is raised when you go blitz-heavy, but the floor is lowered:
- Blitzing: 3.1% interception rate with pressure (INT every 32 attempts), 1.7% interception rate with no pressure (INT every 59 attempts) – 1.4% difference when pressured vs. not
- No blitzing: 2.7% interception rate with pressure (INT every 37 attempts), 2.0% interception rate with no pressure (INT every 50 attempts) – 0.7% difference when pressured vs. not
Check out the difference in interception rate based on whether the quarterback is pressured. The impact on blitzed plays is double that of non-blitzed plays.
When blitzing, your odds of generating an interception nearly slice in half based on whether the blitz gets home. It’s a high-stakes game. The risk is lower without the blitz, but the reward is also less appealing.
Overall, it balances out – 2.1% chance of a pick with a blitz, 2.1% chance without – but blitzing brings the highest upside. So, if your blitz packages get home with a high success rate, you will put yourself in position to generate a boatload of interceptions. If your blitzes are ineffective, you will be in trouble.
The Minnesota Vikings were the most impressive example from the 2024 season. They blitzed at a league-high 41.8% rate, per NFL Next Gen Stats, and those blitzes were effective. The Vikings generated pressure on 42.4% of their blitzes, above the league average of 41.2%, which is remarkable considering how often they did it. As a result, the Vikings led the NFL with 24 interceptions.
On the other end of the spectrum, you have the New England Patriots. They blitzed at the seventh-highest rate (34%), but ranked 29th in pressure rate on those plays (37.3%), so it is little surprise that they tied for the fourth-fewest interceptions (7).
The Jets already have nowhere to go but up in the interception department. For that reason, it would be a wise move for Glenn and Wilks to utilize a blitz-heavy approach in search of more interceptions. Considering their blitz-heavy histories, there is little reason to think they will not have the Jets blitzing at a high rate in 2025.
If the Jets can execute those blitzes, they will tee up more interception opportunities for Sauce Gardner and company than they ever would have seen under Saleh and Ulbrich.
It’s easier said than done, though. Blitzing does not automatically work. Succeeding with blitzes is a skill, both from a player execution standpoint and a play-calling/design standpoint.
Fortunately for the Jets, they are equipped to succeed here.
Glenn and Wilks are experienced blitz-heavy coaches who have proven they can deploy some of the league’s effective blitzes. The Jets also have the pieces to run the scheme. At linebacker, Quincy Williams and Jamien Sherwood are smaller, faster players who are built for shooting gaps. They have each displayed tremendous efficiency as blitzers in limited samples.
The Jets are no longer a team that will rely solely on a vanilla four-man rush to harass the quarterback. They are going to bring the house, and they are going to do it whenever they please. With the Sherwood-Williams pairing at linebacker and the Glenn-Wilks tandem calling the shots, those blitzes could be very effective.
At that point, it is up to the secondary to capitalize on the newfound takeaway opportunities that will arise. Adding Cisco at free safety will help. On the outside, Gardner and Stephens must absorb Glenn’s tutelage.
The Jets’ interception ceiling in 2025 is higher than it has been in quite some time. The next step is to capitalize on it, both in terms of their blitz effectiveness on the front end and their ball skills on the back end.
