Jets defensive line coach Karl Dunbar worked under Nick Saban for a time at LSU. Last week Dunbar referred back to something his old boss used to say, as he discussed defensive end Quinton Coples, the Jets’ first-round pick.
“He used to say, ‘Big guys are just like pretty women. There’s not a lot of them, and everybody wants them,’” Dunbar said. “You can’t find those guys everywhere.”
Fortunately for Dunbar, who was hired in February, the Jets have made finding those guys and reshaping their defensive line a priority over the past two offseasons. The team drafted defensive ends with their first picks in each of the last two drafts, as they selected Coples this year and Muhammad Wilkerson in 2011.
“And I love it,” Dunbar said with a big smile.
The makeover of the Jets defensive front began long before Dunbar arrived. After watching the Steelers gain 135 yards rushing in the first half of the 2010 AFC Championship, the Jets knew they had to get younger and more athletic up front.
They made the unpopular decision to let end Shaun Ellis (34 years old last year) leave as a free agent and they also said goodbye to end Trevor Pryce (36) and rush linebacker Jason Taylor (37).
Besides adding Wilkerson and Coples, the Jets also chose nose tackle Kenrick Ellis in the third round of last year’s draft and added linebacker Aaron Maybin to be an outside rusher early last season. When nose tackle Sione Pouha, the anchor of the line, was about to become a free agent in March, the team re-signed him to a three-year, $15 million deal.
“If you want to have a good defense, you’ve got to have a good defensive front,” Dunbar said. “I think we have two of the better corners in the league. We have pretty good linebackers. It’s not to take away from any defensive linemen that were here before, but when you get a chance to get young, big athletic guys, you get them.”
The Jets now feel like they have plenty of parts to mix and match up front and give offenses headaches. There has been speculation the Jets, traditionally a 3-4 team under Rex Ryan, could use more four-man fronts this year.
Dunbar said the Jets will stick with what Ryan has always done, mixing in 4-3 with the 3-4 and using the 46 defense Ryan’s father, Buddy, made famous with the Bears. Dunbar played under Buddy and Rex Ryan with the Cardinals in 1994-95 when Buddy was the head coach and Rex coached the defensive line.
“We’re going to do what they did last year,” Dunbar said. “We’re going to do what Rex has done his whole career. I was fortunate to play for him in Arizona. We did the same stuff. … If you’ve got guys that can get on the field and be disruptive, you’re going to put them on the field.”
The Jets hope they now have more than a few of those.