New York Jets 2013 Pass Defense: More By the Numbers

Dec. 30, 2012; Orchard Park, NY, USA; Buffalo Bills running back C.J. Spiller (28) runs the ball while being defended by New York Jets free safety LaRon Landry (30) during the first half at Ralph Wilson Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Timothy T. Ludwig-USA TODAY Sports

Nov. 22, 2012; East Rutherford, NJ, USA; New York Jets cornerback Antonio Cromartie (31) reads a playbook against the New England Patriots during the second half on Thanksgiving at Metlife Stadium. Patriots won 49-19. Mandatory Credit: Debby Wong-USA TODAY Sports

In an otherwise forgettable season of 2012, the Jets had a big bright spot on the field, the pass defense. We all know the story, Revis goes down, Cromartie steps up and has a huge season as the number one corner on the team. Overall, the Jets finished second in the league in pass defense, a solid achievement in a 6-10 season.

But how good were they? Our friends at Pro Football Focus, are always coming up with unique statistics that go beyond the obvious to show us how good a player really is. And this week, they have not failed in that mission.

PFF does a great job at figuring out how players perform based on the amount of snaps they are involved in. In this case, they have come up with a percentage of TDs and first downs allowed based on snaps in coverage. In this, we are going to focus on our two Pro Bowlers, Antonio Cromartie and LaRon Landry.

Both of our Pro Bowlers were in the top 10 in this unique category. First look at Cromartie:

RANK: 8TH, SNAPS: 527, 1ST DOWN AND TD%: 4.36% He finished not even a full percentage behind the top player in this category, Chris Culliver (3.45%), and he played in more snaps than Culliver (493).

What about LaRon Landry? How did be fare in 2012? He was right in the middle of the pack:

SNAPS: 488, 1ST DOWN AND TD%: 4.1% This was near the middle of the pack, as far as safeties go, but it actually was better than Cromartie’s mark of 4.36%. He also saw more snaps than safeties such as Danny McCray and Atari Bigby, who both had percentages over 6%. Not a bad job by our two Pro Bowl players, huh?

One more thing, believe it or not, we had a linebacker that made the list in this category.  You know how slow our LB corp was, right?  Well one of our linebackers was number 10 in this stat with a percentage of 3.61 in 415 snaps.  Who was it?  Look below:

Dec 30, 2012; Orchard Park, NY, USA; New York Jets inside linebacker David Harris (52) during the game against the Buffalo Bills at Ralph Wilson Stadium. Bills beat the Jets 28-9. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Hoffman-USA TODAY Sports

David Harris was the one….interesting…at least one wasn’t so slow, huh?