The Jets can live with an uneven game from David Bailey. What they can’t live with is the rest of the edge room going quiet.
Bailey’s Week 3 showing against the Detroit Lions has sparked plenty of debate. Some saw a rookie who faded into the background.
Others thought he held up better than the box score suggested. The simplest read is this: Bailey was fine, but the Jets’ pass rush as a unit never put Jared Goff under enough stress, and Detroit’s quarterback had time to work.
That extra time mattered. The Jets only got to Goff twice, and both sacks came when Aaron Glenn sent extra pressure and the blitz got home. Outside of those moments, the rush didn’t consistently collapse the pocket.
Bailey at least did his part more often than not. He finished with three pressures on 18 pass-rush snaps, which is solid work, even if it leaves room for more. Through three weeks, he has 10 pressures, which ranks 19th among all edge rushers entering Monday night’s action, per Pro Football Focus.
Still, there are context clues that keep the expectations in check. His strong start in Week 1 came against a Tennessee Titans offensive line that was porous.
In Week 2, the Green Bay Packers’ line was already battered and bruised. Detroit was a tougher test, but Bailey did not line up across from three-time All-Pro Penei Sewell.
He spent a lot of the afternoon matched with rookie right tackle Blake Miller. Fair or not, that makes it hard to call the performance a breakout.
Even so, Bailey was not the issue. The bigger problem is that the Jets are getting very little help around him.
The interior rush hasn’t done enough to force quarterbacks off their spot or push them into Bailey’s lane. That matters because edge pressure works best when the pocket is compressed from the middle and the quarterback can’t simply climb away.
The production from the rest of the edge group was also thin against Detroit. Kingsley Enagbare, who is better known for his work against the run, was shut out as a pass rusher.
Joseph Ossai, expected to bring more balance as one of the Jets’ free-agent additions, didn’t bring much juice in his season debut. Will McDonald IV, meanwhile, remains the streaky presence he’s been before.
His eight sacks last season came in just four of his 15 games, and after a big outing against the Titans, he has disappeared over the last two weeks.
Against the Lions, that trio combined for one pressure on 43 pass-rush snaps. That works out to a 2.3% pressure rate. Bailey alone was at 16.7%.
That’s the gap the Jets have to close. Bailey can benefit when a teammate forces the quarterback his way and he gets a cleanup sack.
More than that, the whole rush has to function as a unit. The best versions of this kind of defense come when both edges feed off each other, like Bryce Huff and John Franklin-Myers did when they were at their best in New York.
Right now, the Jets haven’t found that. Enagbare or Ossai needs to give them something.
McDonald IV needs to become the situational weapon Aaron Glenn clearly imagines. Until that happens, Bailey’s solid work will keep looking incomplete.
There was one bright spot for Bailey against Detroit: his run defense. He was credited with two run stops and showed off the athleticism that can turn him into a disruptive piece in that phase.
Run defense was not his calling card coming out of Texas Tech, and he still has work to do as an edge setter, especially when it comes to stacking and shedding blocks. But when he diagnoses the run quickly and gets off the ball, he can knife into the backfield and make plays.
So Bailey has not been bad. He has just been carrying more of the load than he should have to. And even if he takes another step in Week 4, the Jets won’t unlock this pass rush until the rest of the group starts pulling its weight.
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