Fantasy Football Start or Sit Week 12: NYJ defense

When it comes to fantasy football, the NY Jets defense was projected to be one of the top defenses in the league, however, despite their solid start to the season, they find themselves ranked as fantasy’s 18th best defense.

It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to see the Jets defense is not performing as solid as they were in the beginning of the season. The Jets started the season off with an eye-opening 4-1 record proving that owner Woody Johnson made the right call hiring Todd Bowles and Mike Maccagnan as the Jets new head coach and general manager respectively. Since their 4-1 start, the team has dropped the last four of their five games sitting in the AFC East with a 5-5 record.

Now, I’m not saying at all that Johnson made a bad decision hiring Bowles and Maccagnan, I think their both the right men for the job and will have great success with the Jets for a long period of time, but something went wrong whether it was defensive performance, individual performance, or overall team injuries. The Jets have entered a serious slump during the worst possible time of the season, the last half of the year. The portion of the year that ultimately decides who goes home and who moves on to the playoffs.

With that being said, it all comes down to overall team performance, just like their defense, the Jets offense has struggled as well. With Bowles making a serious statement by releasing former 2012 1st-round pick Quinton Coples this past Monday, it becomes very clear that Bowles will hold whoever performs poorly accountable for their actions.

Despite Bowles recent attempts to rally up his team’s defense for their matchup with the Miami Dolphins this Sunday, I’m benching the Jets defense this week. This unit has earned fantasy owners anywhere from 8-17 points this season four times, other than that, a mere six or fewer points a game. The Jets defense is ranked fantasy’s 18th best, a once projected top five defense has now dropped to 18th.

Now, I do believe the Jets will beat the Dolphins this Sunday simply because they have to in order to remain as contenders for the playoffs, however, I don’t see this being a solid win. It’s hard to predict a clean, defensively polished victory when the Jets defense has not performed as well as they have during the beginning of the year.

Injuries are a key factor in my decision to sit them this week, cornerback Darrelle Revis suffered a concussion during the Jets loss to the Texans this past Sunday. Also, Calvin Pryor, Sheldon Richardson and Antonio Cromartie are not 100% either leaving Gang Green with Rontez Miles serving as Pryor’s back-up if needed, rookie Leonard Williams in for Richardson, and Marcus Williams filling in at the corner position.

Next: NFL Power Rankings Week 12: AFC East

Don’t get me wrong, there all very talented and have performed very well this season but teams have been finding ways to pick apart this Jets once stout defense. Like I said earlier, I do believe the Jets will win this Sunday but I don’t see it being a pretty victory. The playoff chances for the Jets are far from over, with six games left in the regular season, they truly control their fate.

Will the Jets make the playoffs let alone having their defense return to elite form? We shall see this Sunday and during the remainder of the 2015 regular season. For fantasy football purposes though, it’s best to sit the defense of the Jets in their Week 12 game against the Dolphins.