Quick Hits: Reviewing the rotations

Todd Bowles has been clear throughout the offseason that his gameplans will vary from week-to-week. We therefore shouldn't assume that the approach the Jets took today will be one they'll use all season long.

However, there were a few interesting features to their rotations and we'll be paying close attention to whether these will be patterns that continue throughout the season.

Let's start with an interesting wrinkle on the defense:

Three Safety Sets

Despite only having three healthy safeties, the Jets used plenty of three-safety sets. In fact, this was how they opened the game. Newcomer Terrence Brooks started as the deep safety as the Jets opened up in a modified "Bear" front with both Jamal Adams and Marcus Maye up in the box - one on a tight end and one on a receiver.

The three-safety sets had been something Bowles talked about a lot during preseason but didn't experiment with in games. With five experienced cornerbacks and only three healthy safeties active, you'd probably have expected them to use more cornerbacks, perhaps even with a four cornerback dime package.

However, the Jets used this personnel package regularly, with Brooks almost exclusively playing as the deep guy. It will be interesting to see if Rontez Miles is integrated into these packages once he makes his return.

Six man lines

We've written a couple of times about the likelihood of the Jets using an extra offensive lineman in some packages and that was something they did today with Brent Qvale seeing plenty of reps as an extra tight end. Most, but not all, of these were on the right side alongside Brandon Shell.

Interestingly, they didn't just do this to run the ball. In fact, they passed half of the time when Qvale was in the game.

Obviously the Jets are short-handed at the tight end position right now, especially since Eric Tomlinson went down with an elbow injury. However, this was not necessarily a reaction to that because Qvale didn't have significantly more reps after Tomlinson went down.

This is something we're expecting them to do against certain teams but they have tight end reinforcements coming over the next couple of weeks, so it will be interesting to see if they stick with it in the short-to-mid term.

Kony Ealy's role

Much was made of the fact that Todd Bowles wouldn't confirm or deny who was going to start at certain positions for what he called "strategic reasons".

The team went a step further with Ealy though, implying that he'd only be used in a situational pass rushing role a few days ago, only to have him in the starting line-up and getting plenty of reps on running downs in the base defense. He ultimately would rush the passer on less than half of his reps.

Ealy was in the game on nine 3rd-and-long plays though. The Bills ended up converting eight of their 17 third down plays, including four of the nine where Ealy was on the field.

Emptying the bench

On defense in particular, the Jets rotated in some of their reserves that might not have expected to get much playing time. Mike Pennel, Claude Pelon and Julian Stanford played over 50 snaps between them, for example.

Josh Martin, Juston Burris and ArDarius Stewart were among the non-starters who had big roles. Will Tye obviously did too, especially once Tomlinson's injury left him as the only healthy tight end available.

Notable players that did not get any reps included Darryl Roberts and Bruce Carter, although Carter injured his ankle on special teams early on. Charone Peake and Marcus Williams played just one snap each while rookies Chad Hansen and Dylan Donahue played sparingly.

PREVIOUSLY: Communication issues sink Jets defensive effort