The New NFL is all defense. Are the New York Giants and New York Jets prepared to thrive? Yes, but unintentionally so.
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In the NFL Playoffs wildcard round, defenses dominated. It wasn’t across the board, but for the most part, winning teams hung their hats on defense. They won out over shaky quarterback play, but also over supposed elite QBs. Defensive schemes outmaneuvered great offensive minds to boot.
Defense winning championships was always the phrase until this past decade or so, where elite offense surpassed defense. A team could win a title with league-average defense as long as the offense was top-tier, while the reverse was not true. A team with a great defense but average or poor offense simply failed. Now, has that switched again, and if so, what does that mean for the Jets’ and Giants’ chances in the coming seasons?
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In round one of the playoffs, the Packers defense shut down Ben Johnson, Caleb Williams, and the Bears in the first half before having their own offense stymied in the second half, particularly on the ground. The Bills closed the door on the Jaguars high-powered air attack. The 49ers and Eagles both led defensive battles against the other’s failing offense. The same went for New England and Los Angeles, where offense was nowhere to be found on either side of the ball. Houston’s defense was best of all, winning the game against Pittsburgh. In this new NFL, how will the Giants and Jets stack up?
Giants and Jets Face a New NFL
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We assumed the Giants and Jets would have to do most of their work this offseason on the offenses. Giants: needing to find a head coach and leader for the Jaxson Dart-led offense, as well as find receiving weapons to make the unit function. Jets: needing everything from quarterback on down, outside of perhaps outside receiver and tight end.
What if the path to stardom is, instead, on the defensive side? The Giants have the pass rush to build off of; the Jets have a pass rusher. But the key here is that it is often cheaper and simpler to build a competitive defense. The most expensive positions to acquire across the sport are quarterback, left tackle, wide receiver, and pass rusher. Three of those four are on offense, and the New York clubs already have a foot in the door on the latter.
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Is it plausible to think that the cheapest way to build a contender is to thus fill out the back seven of a great defense? Obviously, that is easier said than done; a team actually has to find great players to play those spots. But in terms of salary cap dollars and draft capital necessary, those are the cheapest positions to fill, and we are seeing superb players in those spots come out on top of superior players at the “premium” positions. Heck, three of the top four QBs in the sport (Mahomes, Jackson, Burrow) didn’t even make the playoffs this season!
I want to follow this trend through the rest of the postseason. We know the NFL moves quickly with what works and what doesn’t. For a number of years, passing offense took over the league, until things got overbalanced, and teams went hard into the run in 2024. That tapered off again in 2025, but if defenses currently have the edge in this new NFL, at least for the time being, I want my team ahead of that curve rather than behind it.
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I’ve been saying this for over a season, that the league is once again shifting towards a defense and run heavy approach to winning. For me, this comes down to fewer elite quarterbacks and even fewer elite wide receivers. Tom Brady and the Patriots won with defense until they nearly went undefeated, then things truly turned for their dynasty. After that we had a glut of great quarterbacks and elite wide receivers, as well as QBs who could make receivers great. Hence the passing explosion. But now that things have cooled and shifted back, the Jets and Giants are positioned perfectly to capitalize.
It’s obvious how the New York Giants can capitalize, assuming they have the right coaches in place. This is like the elephant in the room for every NFL discussion. A team must hire coaches who mesh with one another and who also run schemes suited to their players, or bring in players suited to their scheme. The Giants have a potentially great pass rush, so presumably all they need to do is build an adequate secondary and add at least one above average linebacker and they are golden.
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Getting elite pass rushers is supposed to be the hard part, so the Giants already did the hard thing. They also have a young and cheap QB with the ability to run, along with an elite wide receiver. Additionally, Big Blue has a solid set of productive running backs. Building depth will be key to real success, but the roster is already built to win with defense and the run game. The Giants biggest problem is that they’ve been building their defense for five years and keep failing with whomever is their current coordinator. Coaching matters, so that’s probably Big Blue’s biggest hurdle.
Across the hall sit the New York Jets, who also face a coaching hurdle of their own. The Jets tried to win with defense and the run game this season, but their QB of the hour couldn’t throw downfield and the defense managed to be worse than bad. Some offensive stability will be great for this team, because like the Giants, they are also searching for a defensive coordinator. The Jets have a longer shopping list, but more groceries (draft picks and cap space) than most teams, so their position feels solid.
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Gang Green seems to always have a defensive coach, so if the league has truly shifted, they have the archetype already in place. Aaron Glenn must perform, no duh, but the type of structural design is good. I always approach my team as if they make the right moves and those moves will work out, so I’m feeling good about the Jets prospects this offseason. They can get every piece they need and the team is already built to win in this new era of defense. Here’s hoping they put it all together! I love me some ground and pound.
Meet our Sports Writers:
Dan Salem is Lead Editor and Co-owner of BuzzChomp. He’s an award winning Actor, Director and Producer. Visit M Square Productions for his film work, or get lost in his old-school comedy on Pillow Talk TV. You can follow him on X, TikTok and Instagram. His latest film ‘Alone’ is now on Amazon.
Todd Salem is a Staff Writer and Contributing Editor at BuzzChomp. He’s also a champion of fantasy football and fantasy baseball, dominating leagues for over two decades. Comment below on his unfiltered opinions.
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Photo Credits: giantswire.usatoday.com via Getty Images
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