NEW ORLEANS – Memo to Jets’ fans: Watch Donnie Henderson this season. Watch Henderson’s defense. Better yet: Watch them both.
Both are sure to provide entertainment in the form of some thrills and spills, too.
Henderson, the Jets’ first-year defensive coordinator, spent last night’s preseason opener against the Saints at the Superdome in the coaches’ box, but that was only an “experimental” move, according to Herman Edwards, who wanted Henderson to get a feel for observing the game from above.
Truth is, Henderson is too energetic to be confined to the box, where offensive coordinator Paul Hackett resides during games. Henderson will be bouncing off the ceiling. And the first time Hackett calls three off-tackle runs into the line after the Jets’ defense just got off the field after defending an opponent’s long drive, Henderson might jump him.
When the real season begins, Henderson will be on the sideline ranting, raving and urging on his players. He promises to be aggressive in going after the opposing offense’s jugular.
“What you can expect is a defense that will try to either take advantage of the pass protection by the linemen or take advantage of the running backs trying to block people,” Henderson said before last night’s game. “We want to be aggressive and bring one more guy than they have at the point of attack with the idea that we can play man-to-man coverage on the outside and still be solid with the linebacking corps.
“I believe you have to put your guys in situations where they can tackle and, in my opinion, that means coming from the numbers [hash marks] in. You don’t want a lot of runs happening outside the numbers. We want to condense the formation and attack from the numbers in. If we do that, we should be OK.”
Henderson will utilize 3-4 and 4-3 defensive fronts. It’s still unclear with which one he plans to start games. Likely, he’ll mix that up, too, depending on the opponent and the situation.
Last night was going to provide a first look at defensive end John Abraham in a standup role as well as being down in a three-point stance.
Henderson has said all training camp that teams are going to have to find Abraham whenever he’s on the field.
“It’s a great idea,” linebacker Jason Glenn said of Henderson’s changing schemes. “Offenses don’t know what we’re going to be in. We can be in a blitz package and you don’t know where we’re coming from. We can bring a linebacker. We can bring a safety and drop a linebacker. It’s going to cause a lot of confusion. Donnie is so creative.”
Said Henderson, “We’re going to make some mistakes, but the bottom line is how you correct them and how fast you can correct them. You only have 35 seconds between plays and what I preach to my staff is to make sure we know where the breakdown is and help that guy.”
That, of course, is what last night and the three remaining preseason games are for: honing the defense and fitting the players into their respective roles.
“It’s going to be important for us and our development to see how fast those guys can play against other people in a real live situation,” Henderson said.