Usually, when the boss enters a meeting room unexpectedly and unannounced it means trouble.
Not so with Herman Edwards and his Jets’ secondary. Edwards, an accomplished NFL cornerback for 10 seasons, is a frequent visitor of the Jets’ defensive backs meetings because it’s his passion.
“Wherever I’ve been it’s been mandatory that the secondary is good; it’s the unit that’s coached and graded the hardest,” Edwards said yesterday. “I told the players that the first day I took the job. Wherever I’ve been that’s the name of the deal. I told [secondary coach] Bill Bradley that.”
Edwards is a bundle of energy who’s constantly working with his players, talking them up, correcting their alignment, their positioning.
“He expects a lot,” Bradley said. “If that constitutes him being tough on the players, so be it. But he expects perfection at this level, and when he left Tampa Bay he had that [Buccaneers’] secondary to a perfection level.”
Bradley said he’s not intimidated or put off by Edwards’ frequent visits to the defensive backs meetings. In fact, he said he embraces them – the most recent of which occurred Tuesday night.
“He was just going over some fundamentals and letting us know there’s still a long way to go and absorb before we can start feeling good about ourselves,” Bradley said. “It made an impression on me and I’m sure it made an impression on the players.
“The more he’s involved with all of us, the better we are. Yes, there’s a little more scrutiny, but that’s OK. We all expect perfection.”
In Tampa, the secondary was one of the best in the NFL, and it was a reflection on what Edwards taught.
“The great thing about Herm is he’s a stickler to details, but on game day he lets his players play,” Tampa Bay safety John Lynch said yesterday. “That rubbed off on our other coaches, too. You work hard and do all your preparation all week and come game day go have some fun and let the players play. We all appreciated that.”
Edwards and Bradley are hoping at least near perfection comes from this group – Aaron Glenn and Marcus Coleman at starting cornerbacks, Damien Robinson and Victor Green at the safety spots and Ray Mickens at nickel back.
Green led the Jets with six INTs last year, and he was second on the team in tackles. Glenn and Coleman had four INTs each. Mickens, who’s usually around the ball as a playmaker (he had nine INTs from 1997-99), had an off year in 2000 and didn’t have a pick. Robinson had six INTs for the Buccaneers in 2000.
“These guys have a chance to be really good,” Edwards said. “The way they become good is believing in what you’re coaching. These guys are good players. The guys in Tampa were good players. When they buy into what you’re coaching, the sky’s the limit.”
The primary change in the system from the last few years to now is that the defensive backs will play in a “cover-two” as opposed to the primary man-to-man that was employed before.
Mickens said this system is based largely on the defensive backs using fundamentals in their alignments, making a lot of reads and aggressively making plays on the receivers.
“Every play can be blown up because of the position [a defensive back is in],” Edwards said. “You’ve got to be a tough-minded guy to play back there. I understand that. I played there my whole career. The more technical and fundamentally sound they become the better they are. These guys are a good set of guys. They want to achieve. They want to be the best.”