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The New York Jets, who entered the 2024 season with Super Bowl expectations, now find themselves planning their offseason plans before Thanksgiving even rolls around, as the team currently sits at 3-7. Not only that, but they’ve been so bad on defense that their head coach is taking the team “back to basics” with tackling drills.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday ahead of the Jets’ Week 11 home matchup against the Indianapolis Colts, interim head coach Jeff Ulbrich — who has a 1-4 record since taking over for the fired Robert Saleh — said the team will be wearing pads for the rest of the week in order to work on tackling.
Ulbrich’s decision comes in the wake of a pitiful Week 10 performance against the Arizona Cardinals that saw the defense give up 31 points and miss multiple tackles.
“Today, we’re going to be in pads for indo [individual practice] , tomorrow we’re going to be in pads for the entire practice, and we’re going to drill, like, if there’s 15 minutes of indo, there’s going to be 14-and-a-half minutes of tackling,” Ulbrich told the media on Wednesday, November 13, ahead of the Jets’ Week 11 matchup against the Indianapolis Colts.
“We’re going to get back to fundamentals and basics. I did a tackling presentation for the team today, not just the defense, so everybody knows exactly what we’re doing, how we’re attacking it, how we’re going to get it fixed.”
The Jets will practice in full pads this week in order to work on their tackling pic.twitter.com/hp5lkR1evE
— Jets Videos (@snyjets) November 13, 2024
While Ulbrich was thrust into a difficult position due to the erratic decisions of much-maligned team owner Woody Johnson, the Jets have undoubtedly gotten worse since he took over for Saleh, as the defense — once the strength of this team — has looked like a shell of its former self.