Robert Saleh doesn’t sound satisfied with his pass rush.
Why would he be after the Jets totaled just 33 sacks in 2021? Injuries contributed to that lack of production — the Jets most notably lost Carl Lawson for the season in training camp — but more was expected of the unit with Saleh and Jeff Ulbrich at the helm.
Now it appears that Saleh, who always had fearsome pass rushers in San Francisco, wants to improve the group this offseason.
“You guys know how I am with the pass rush. It’s the one group that makes everyone better on defense and it’s the one group that can take away everyone on offense,” Saleh said Wednesday at the Senior Bowl. “We’re always gonna want to improve that group. That’s something that we will always look at no matter how good we get it.”
In addition to the 33 sacks, the Jets finished the 2021 season with 88 QB hits, 55 QB hurries, 50 QB knockdowns and 140 pressures. New York blitzed 200 times.
The hope is that Lawson returns from his Achilles injury at full strength and helps improve those numbers in 2022. He was a frequent disruptor with the Bengals in 2020, tallying 5.5 sacks, 32 QB hits and 44 pressures. Either way, it sounds like the Jets will add to their pass rush.
Free agency should provide Gang Green with a handful of options. The draft, meanwhile, is headlined by Michigan’s Aidan Hutchinson and Oregon’s Kayvon Thibodeaux, though there’s no guarantee they fall to the Jets.
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