FLORHAM PARK, N.J. (AP) — The New York Jets are strapping on the pads at practice to get a grasp on their tackling woes.
Interim coach Jeff Ulbrich said players will be in pads for individual drills Wednesday and then again Thursday for the entire practice after the Jets missed 20 tackles, according to Next Gen Stats, in their 31-6 loss at Arizona last Sunday.
“Like, if there’s 15 minutes in (individual drills), it’s going to be 14 1/2 minutes of tackling,” he said. “We’re going to get back to fundamentals and basics.”
Ulbrich, who said Monday the Jets had “an egregious, criminal amount of missed tackles," gave a tackling presentation for the entire team Wednesday morning — not just the defense — as it prepares to play Indianapolis at home on Sunday.
“So everybody knows exactly what we're doing, how we're attacking it, how we're going to get it fixed,” he said.
Missed tackles have been a major problem for the defense this season, regularly allowing opponents to gain extra yards and extend drives. That has contributed to New York's woeful 3-7 start.
“We know how to tackle,” said cornerback Sauce Gardner, who had a key miss against Arizona. “We've got to make the tackles. That's really it. We've been doing it. It's simple. We really don't need any presentation. I know where he was coming from when he did it, but us as professional athletes, we've got to be able to make tackles, me included, for sure.”
The Cardinals had three straight 70-yard touchdown drives to open the game against the Jets and there were some missed opportunities to stop them during each.
"I mean, tackling's one of the basic fundamentals of this game," defensive lineman Solomon Thomas said. “No matter your position or your technique, especially on defense, you have to know how to tackle and how to tackle well, and correctly. There's a science to it, just like anything else in football.”
Ulbrich, a former NFL linebacker and special teamer, said Monday that many players come out of college now without a true grasp of what's needed to be an effective tackler. He said there's a lack of understanding of leverage, players leave their feet too soon and they don't commit to wrapping up ball carriers.
He added that each player also has a specific style, often based on their physical attributes, so there are individualized plans. But the NFL's collective bargaining agreement limits teams to 14 padded practices during the regular season, with 11 in the first 11 weeks and just three in the final six weeks of game preparations.
“It may be a little bit more challenging from the standpoint that you're just not able to have pads on as often and really simulate the physicality of tackling,” Ulbrich said Wednesday. "But you can still work on trapping, you can work on wrapping, you can work on targeting and the strike zone, where we tackle. All the fundamentals that we speak on on a daily basis, we can still work on all of that.
“That is something we can improve and we will improve.”
But there's also the aspect of protecting players on the practice field from injuries.
“It's hard and we try our best where we give our guys opportunities to simulate as close as we can to full-speed tackling, but at the same time, there's a safety element that's real," Ulbrich said. "When you start going to the ground, especially at practice, that could become a problem because you could lose a lot of people — both the people getting tackled and the people doing the tackling.
“It is finding a balance and we've got to continue to try to find the best balance of that.”
WR Davante Adams didn't practice Wednesday because of what Ulbrich said mostly was an illness, but also because of a sore wrist. ... LT Tyron Smith (neck) also was out and still being evaluated. Ulbrich said the team hopes to have more clarity on Smith's situation later in the week. ... LB C.J. Mosley (neck), DL Solomon Thomas (knee), CB Brandin Echols (concussion) and OL Jake Hanson (hamstring) were also out. ... The Jets opened the practice window for S Chuck Clark, who's on injured reserve with an ankle injury. He practiced fully.
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