D.J. Reed invokes ‘85 Bears in ‘historical’ Jets defense boast
The Jets don’t have a folk hero like Refrigerator Perry or a crazy-eyed Hall of Fame middle linebacker named Mike Singletary on their roster, but one of their starting defensive players dared to invoke the 1985 Bears as a “historical” target for the Jets’ defense to shoot for this season.
Unprompted, cornerback D.J. Reed brought up Chicago’s famed Super Bowl winning “46” defense from nearly 40 years ago — as well as the Seahawks’ Legion of Boom squad from 2013 — as the types of dominant defenses the Jets are striving to be in 2023.
“I’m very confident. I think we have the potential to be the best defense in the NFL and honestly I think we can be historical,” Reed said Monday on a Zoom call after practice in Florham Park. “Not just the best defense in the league, but I think we can have a historical defense like the ’85-86 Bears, like the LOB in 2013.
“I think we can be that dominant if we put all the things together and we just focus on the now and we’re deliberate. If everyone plays up to their potential, I think the sky’s the limit for us.”
Under head coach Robert Saleh and defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich, the Jets’ defense ranked fourth in yardage allowed (311.1 per game) last season, broken down to third against the pass (189.4) but a middling 16th against the run (121.6).
They also allowed the fourth-fewest points in the league at 18.6 per game.
Reed’s bookend corner Sauce Gardner won NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year last season, and Pro Bowl tackle Quinnen Williams recorded a career-best 12 sacks before being re-signed to a monstrous $96 million contract extension with $66 million guaranteed.
Defensive end John Franklin-Myers said the Jets “100 percent” should embrace Reed’s lofty expectations.
“S–t, why not speak your goals?. We all talk about manifestation and you have to talk about and believe it and say it in order to do it,” Franklin-Myers said. “We’re not afraid to sit here and go out on a limb and say that. We want to win the Super Bowl. We want to go out there and be the best defense in the NFL. If those aren’t your dreams, then you’re in the wrong place.
“And it starts with saying that. You have to start by saying we’re gonna be the best defense in the NFL. If you don’t say that, you don’t get held to that same expectation. We want to be held to that expectation, that standard. Our standard is to be the best defense in the NFL.”
The Jets largely have brought back the same unit on that side of the ball, other than signing starting safety Adrian Amos from the Packers to a one-year deal after trade acquisition Chuck Clark suffered a torn ACL during OTAs in June.
Starting center Connor McGovern believes going up against the Jets’ defense all summer only can help a revamped offensive unit incorporating several new faces, most notably four-time MVP quarterback Aaron Rodgers.
“They’re a special group. Going against them every day in camp, it’s been a battle,” McGovern said. “The offense has won some, the defense has won some. We’ve definitely been living by the ‘iron sharpens iron’ motto. They’re special.”
Veteran middle linebacker and defensive captain C.J. Mosley called the ’85 Bears “a pretty big comparison,” and certainly is taking more of a measured, wait-and-see approach than his teammates.
But he also said he hopes this defense is talked about one day with such reverence.
“They did some great things, and obviously history tells you that,” Mosley said of the Bears. “Right now we’re getting ready for this first game [against the Bills], and we have a long road ahead of us. … At the end of the season, we can talk about it.
“Honestly right now, we have pretty big expectations for ourselves, individually and as a defense, but we gotta put it all to the test, and we got a long way to go. I don’t want to say we’re up to the ’85 Bears yet, but who knows what can happen this season? So let’s find out.”
