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NY Jets’ horrid defense calls dubious Wilks hiring into question
John Jones-Imagn Images

The New York Jets have the NFL’s worst defense.

Standard statistics won’t reveal that harsh truth, but it’s only because opponents have been taking their foot off the gas pedal against New York early in fourth quarters. If you adjust the Jets’ defensive performance to remove garbage time stat-padding, they stand out as the clear-cut worst defense.

How the mighty have fallen

According to the website RBSDM, the Jets have allowed 0.206 EPA (Expected Points Added) per play when they have a win probability of 2-98%. That is the worst mark in football.

  • 32. Jets: 0.206
  • 31. Ravens: 0.203
  • 30. Dolphins: 0.200
  • 29. Cowboys: 0.198
  • 28. Bengals: 0.104
  • 27. Titans: 0.100
  • 26. Panthers: 0.087
  • 25. Raiders: 0.071
  • 24. Giants: 0.070
  • 23. Patriots: 0.060

When you’re nearly twice as bad as an infamously poor defensive franchise like Cincinnati, you know things have reached catastrophic levels of awfulness.

If you’re more of a visual learner, this graphic should help you understand just how far behind league-average the Jets’ defense has been.

It is a shocking fall from grace for a unit that ranked fifth-best in this same category across the 2022 and 2023 seasons. Over that two-year span, the Jets ranked fifth-best with only -0.055 EPA per play allowed when adjusting for garbage time.

  • 1. Ravens (-0.077)
  • 2. Browns (-0.065)
  • 3. 49ers (-0.060)
  • 4. Cowboys (-0.057)
  • 5. Jets (-0.055)

In 2024, the Jets’ defense plummeted from elite status, but it still ranked 19th in this category (0.041).

With all of that unit’s main characters returning for the Aaron Glenn-led reboot in 2025, the expectation was that New York should at least match its No. 19 ranking from a year prior. The Jets’ defensive ceiling felt capped below its previous top-five heights due to various roster holes, but with the unit’s top-end talent, “mediocre” felt like a realistic floor.

Yet, here they sit, proud owners of the No. 32 slot after five weeks of football.

It seems unfathomable. How can a defense go from 19th-best to 32nd despite returning nearly all of its best players? Especially when those same players anchored a top-five defense only one year earlier?

Well, do the math. The biggest change between last year’s unit and this year’s? The coaching.

Defensive coordinator Steve Wilks has to draw the most blame for New York’s shocking defensive free-fall.

Wilks is not the only suspect, but he is No. 1

In fairness, Wilks should not shoulder all of the blame.

It isn’t Wilks’ fault that the Jets dropped two interceptions on Aaron Rodgers in Week 1, or that they have not recovered any of their opponents’ five fumbles this season. It probably isn’t his fault that Darren Mougey neglected the edge unit throughout the offseason, leaving Wilks to make do with barely NFL-caliber players at the most important defensive position.

Given these surrounding issues, nobody in their right mind expects Wilks to be leading a top-five defense right now, especially with injuries to players like Jermaine Johnson, Quincy Williams, and Michael Carter II.

But with pieces like Quinnen Williams, Sauce Gardner, and Will McDonald on the field for all five games, the Jets should not be close to the NFL’s worst defense. Being league-worst instead of mediocre falls on Wilks.

If you don’t think a defensive coordinator can have that type of effect, just take a 940-mile drive down Interstate 95 to see why Wilks doesn’t deserve excuses.

The Jacksonville Jaguars had the 31st-ranked defense based on garbage time-adjusted EPA per play in 2024. So far in 2025, they’re fifth-best. Yet, their roster did not change drastically.

Of the 12 players on Jacksonville’s defense with an overall Pro Football Focus grade better than the baseline mark of 60.0, eight were on the team last year, including their three highest-graded players, Devin Lloyd, Josh Hines-Allen, and Travon Walker. Jacksonville’s team leaders in pressures (Hines-Allen), sacks (Arik Armstead), tackles (Foyesade Oluokun), and interceptions (Lloyd) are all returning players from 2024.

The primary difference? Jacksonville has a new defensive coordinator, Anthony Campanile.

Formerly Green Bay’s linebackers coach and defensive run game coordinator, Campanile is making magic happen with almost the same lineup that looked abysmal under Ryan Nielsen, who was canned after one year.

To showcase the difference between a net-positive coordinator like Campanile and a liability like Wilks, we only have to compare the results at one position.

Fourth-year linebacker Devin Lloyd has been the face of the Jaguars’ defense this season. With four interceptions and 10 pressures as a pass rusher, Lloyd is putting together a career season under Campanile, who has found creative ways to unlock Lloyd’s first-round skill set. Lloyd is playing a career-high 12.9% of his snaps on the edge, more than double his 6.1% from last year, and it’s paying dividends.

Out in New Jersey, the Jets are seeing the opposite effect with their prized young linebacker. After being voted by his teammates as the 2024 team MVP, earning him a $45 million contract, Jamien Sherwood has turned into a colossal liability under Wilks.

To be fair, many of Sherwood’s issues on film are fundamental blunders that do not appear scheme-related. However, Sherwood is far from the only Jets defender who has declined from last season. Sauce Gardner, Quincy Williams, and Michael Carter II have all performed well below their usual standards.

Wilks stands out as the common denominator.

Why was Wilks the hire?

Hindsight is 20/20, but looking back, it’s fair to wonder how Wilks’ resume earned him consideration for the Jets’ defensive coordinator job in the first place.

Here is a breakdown of Wilks’ resume over the last 13 years before coming to New York.

  • 2012-17: Carolina Panthers
    • Defensive backs (2012-14)
    • Assistant head coach/defensive backs (2015-16)
    • Assistant head coach/defensive coordinator (2017)
  • 2018: Arizona Cardinals, head coach
  • 2019: Cleveland Browns, defensive coordinator
  • 2020: Not employed
  • 2021: Missouri, defensive coordinator
  • 2022: Carolina Panthers, secondary/defensive pass game coordinator
    • Promoted to interim head coach in Week 6
  • 2023: San Francisco 49ers, defensive coordinator
  • 2024: UNC Charlotte, volunteer advisor

This resume contains numerous red flags.

First and foremost, Wilks had been dropped after one year at five consecutive coaching stops: Arizona, Cleveland, Missouri, Carolina, and San Francisco. Wilks never lasted more than one year as a defensive coordinator with Carolina, Cleveland, Missouri, and San Francisco.

If someone is consistently deemed expendable by their employers after a single year, it is probably a warning worth heeding.

It is also notable that Wilks did not hold an NFL job in either the 2020 or 2024 seasons. And it didn’t happen by coincidence: Those years followed seasons in which Wilks saw his defenses drop more than a dozen spots compared to his predecessors.

Nobody picked up Wilks in 2020 after he led the 2019 Browns to 23rd in garbage time-adjusted EPA per play, a 13-spot drop from their 2018 ranking under Gregg Williams (10th).

In 2023, Wilks inherited a proud 49ers defense that finished first in garbage time-adjusted EPA per play under DeMeco Ryans the previous season.

The result: a 14-spot drop to 15th, followed by an ugly playoff run that cost San Francisco a championship despite solid offensive play. Kyle Shanahan decided he had seen enough of Wilks after one season, and no NFL team wanted him in 2024.

This is who Aaron Glenn handpicked as his defensive coordinator.

Given Wilks’ track record, the Jets’ 13-spot defensive drop shouldn’t be surprising one bit. It is exactly what they should have expected after hiring Wilks. He led a 13-spot drop in Cleveland and a 14-spot drop in San Francisco.

If consistency is what the Jets were after, they’ve certainly gotten it.

This article first appeared on Jets X-Factor and was syndicated with permission.

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