Maye, Adams have been fearsome pair
The Jets’ secondary has been surprisingly effective over their three-game winning streak, led by the strong play of safeties Jamal Adams and Marcus Maye. Adams has been a wrecking ball recently, collecting 5.5 sacks over the last three weeks, but on Friday Adam Gase and Gregg Williams showed Maye some love.
“He’s been consistent, he’s been consistent.” Gase said about Maye. “He’s reliable, he’s probably one of the smarter players that we have on defense. His knowledge of football is outstanding. He’s one of those guys where it’s kinda like having an extra quarterback on the field in the secondary.”
Maye has played 100% of the Jets’ snaps in seven of their 11 games and has yet to play fewer than 95% in a game. He’s developed into a key piece of the Jets’ defense, even if he isn’t putting up gaudy stats like Adams is.
Williams coached Maye at the Senior Bowl before he was drafted in 2017 and echoed Gase’s sentiments.
“He fought his way through it.” Williams said about Maye’s performance at the Senior Bowl. “Marcus is a very intelligent, instinctive player that has a skill set at the free safety position where he can also play in some coverage corner positions, too.”
Williams praised Maye’s toughness and said that his physicality allows him to do everything that’s needed from a safety.
Maye should be able to continue his streak of effective play against the 0-11 Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday. The Jets should be getting cornerback Darryl Roberts back. Gase seemed to welcome that, saying they need as many cornerbacks as possible considering the amount of change that position group has gone through.
Even though the Bengals have been the worst team in the league this year, Gase and Williams both claim to be not taking them lightly, especially since veteran quarterback Andy Dalton will be playing again for the first time in weeks.
“Andy’s been a good player in this league for awhile.” Gase said. “I mean, they went to the playoffs a lot of times with him.” Gase also called Dalton “a dangerous guy” even though Dalton ranks 29th in yards per attempt (6.7), 33rd in passer rating (79.2), and 29th in ESPN’s QBR (38.7).
BELL BOUNCE BACK
On Friday, Jets running back Le’Veon Bell made a proclamation that he was playing some of the best football of his career.
“This is some of the best football I’ve played.” said Bell. “In the last two games, for sure, I haven’t even played in the fourth quarter.”
Bell has struggled for the majority of this season behind an offensive line that’s relentlessly been shuffled around. He’s averaging just 3.2 yards per carry, which is by far a career low for him. However, he’s had a better stretch of play recently, especially as a receiving threat.
Over the last four games, Bell has caught 19 of his 20 targets for 181 yards. That mark of 9.05 yards per target would rank in the top 40 of all receivers if it counted for the whole season.
It seems like Bell has gotten into a bit of a groove with the Jets offense, even if his rushing numbers aren’t necessarily up to what he produced in Pittsburgh. Bell has been a key target for Sam Darnold during his recent explosion that has him looking like the Jets’ future franchise quarterback.
“As long as we’re winning games, I’m fine.” Bell said. The Jets are riding a threegame winning streak into their away game against the Cincinnati Bengals. Bell’s receiving skills can be a reason why they win their fourth game in a row.