NFL

Jets trying to be No. 1 defense of all time

The Jets ranked No. 1 in defense in numerous NFL categories last season, perhaps most significant of those allowing a league-low 236 points despite 48 of those points coming off offensive turnovers returned for eight touchdowns.

They’re slated to begin the 2010 season missing only two starters from the 2009 team that dominated the league on defense in Rex Ryan’s first season as head coach.

What’s in store for an encore?

“You try and be the No. 1 defense ever,” Jets linebacker Bart Scott said yesterday after an offseason practice. “Why not? Why wouldn’t you try and be the No. 1 defense ever?”

Asked if this 2010 group is capable of that kind of historic accomplishment, Scott said: “You look around and you tell me. You can answer that question yourself.”

Scott’s looking around the locker room was a referral to not only the returning players, but the offseason additions of cornerbacks Antonio Cromartie and Kyle Wilson, linebacker Jason Taylor and safety Brodney Pool.

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Asked what more Ryan and his staff can do to push the defense to even loftier heights, Scott said: “Now it’s not what the coaches can do more of, it’s what the players can do more of. Last year we were doing everything pretty much straight by the book. Now we can improvise.”

Last year, Scott said, Ryan was implementing his system to a roomful of players who were seeing it for the first time so there were growing pains.

Scott, along with safety Jim Leonhard and defensive end Marques Douglas (who remains an unsigned free agent at the moment), were three players Ryan brought to the Jets from his Ravens’ defense to help integrate the program to the players new to it.

“The only field coaches we had last year were me, Marques Douglas and Jim Leonhard,” Scott said. “Now you’ve got 22 people here that know the defense and can teach the defense” thanks to a year in the system.

Scott said he can see this Jets defense taking on the same kind of yearly dominance he was a part of in Baltimore with the system now in place and returning players to keep the continuity.

“We [got to the point where] we just made [bleep] up,” Scott said. “Then teams were like, ‘Damn, what are they doing?’ Then the coaches are like, ‘What did you all do? Oh, OK.’ ”

That kind of play takes immense trust from Ryan and the defensive coaches.

“When you want to have a great unit or a great team coaches give the ownership of it to the players,” Scott said. “You think Phil Jackson is doing much coaching of Kobe [Bryant]? That’s what makes [the Lakers] special.”

As for the addition of the new pieces to the defense like Cromartie, Taylor, Pool and Wilson, Scott said: “Those are all cherries on top. We’re still returning nine of 11 starters. Check the league. How many people are bringing back 11 of 11? How many people are bringing back nine? You talk about chemistry. How many people did we replace last year?”

Indeed, the 2009 Jets defense had a significantly different look than it had in 2008 under Eric Mangini.

“Now,” Scott said, “you eat that and you get full and you’re like, ‘Damn I get a cherry, too?’ ”

To be considered the best defense ever, though, Scott acknowledged that cannot be done without a Super Bowl title as the true cherry on top.

Referring to the 2006 Ravens team he played on that allowed only 201 points, produced 60 sacks and 28 interceptions, Scott said: “If we’d have won the Super Bowl [that year] Baltimore we’d have done it. But we didn’t win the Super Bowl. You have to win the Super Bowl to be even in consideration [as the best ever]. You’ve got to win the Super Bowl.”

mark.cannizzaro@nypost.com