Quantcast
Jets plan to replace Darrelle Revis with team effort – Metro US

Jets plan to replace Darrelle Revis with team effort

When Jets head coach Rex Ryan addressed his team yesterday morning about the season-ending ACL injury to cornerback Darrelle Revis, he didn’t single out any one player to step up and be dominant. Instead, his message was the whole team needs to fill in for Revis.

The speech from Ryan wasn’t just about the need for his team to step-up after losing its star player, instead the master motivator made it, according to one player, “about everyone being ready no matter who is hurt, no matter the need.”

But clearly, the team will be leaning more heavily on corners Antonio Cromartie and Kyle Wilson for the rest of the season.

“Well, we’re fortunate because most teams only have one No. 1 corner or some don’t even have any. We’re fortunate [that] we have the best in the league in Darrelle and we also have a No. 1 corner in Cromartie,” head coach Rex Ryan said. “So we’re fortunate there. We drafted Kyle Wilson to basically be a No. 2 corner and that’s the way he’s going to play that role. I’m confident in Kyle, then we have two young players in Isaiah Trufant and Ellis Lankster that are going to have to step it up.”

Jets players admit it won’t be just one person who can do the job.

“Everybody is going to be asked to do a little bit more. Obviously me, asked to do a little bit more,” Wilson said. “We’re just going to do this together as a team.”

In a 3-4 defense, it is necessary to have a shutdown corner who can take one side of the field out of play. This frees up a safety or linebacker to blitz and create pressure. Without Revis, the Jets won’t be as effective in attacking the quarterback.

“There’s certain times — you kind of don’t think about what’s going on with the guy that Darrelle is covering because [you] expect he’s going to have him blanketed,” Aaron Maybin said.

“That does mean that the margin of error is just a little bit smaller because there are some quarterbacks that won’t even look [Revis’s] way that obviously will peak over there and see if that guy is open. It’s up to us to see that the window is closed.”

Follow Jets beat writer Kristian Dyer on Twitter @KristianRDyer.