We don't know yet if it'll produce any results, but Jets' defensive coordinator Donnie Henderson should be commended for a great coaching move this past Monday when he eschewed the film session on the loss to the Chargers in his weekly defensive meeting and opened the session up to a forum to discuss issues with the defense.Henderson, put chairs in a circle and encouraged anyone and all to speak out if they wanted to.Henderson did this as an effort as much to hear what his players thought, but to analyze what he can do better.By all accounts, it was a highly-positive and much-needed meeting.The crux of what came out of the meeting was players asking for Henderson to go back to the swashbuckling aggressive play calling style he brought with him last season.Henderson, while not having gone passive, realized that he has, indeed, gone away from dialing up some of his aggressive blitzes for fear that the Jets were going to get burned for big plays. He based that on seeing too many players out of position on assignments and not enough guys swarming to the ball.As an example, Henderson called a "cover zero'' in Atlanta, which is an all-out blitz, and Falcons' running back Warrick Dunn broke loose for a 65-yard run.Henderson thought to himself, "If that's going to happen when I call that defense I'm not going to call it again.He conceded to tweaking his calls away from the aggressive side for fear that those things would happen.During what Henderson called the "pow wow'' session, the players urged him to stay aggressive and promised not to let him down.He agreed.It takes a coach secure in his own skin to do what Henderson did in conducting that meeting. Too many coaches everywhere have a "my-way-or-the-highway'' mentality and their players own no stock in the program."You have to give him credit for that,'' Jets' linebacker Mark Brown said. "Most people might not let their pride allow them to do that. But he took a step back and was thinking maybe he was doing something wrong."It showed that he really wants to get it corrected and is not going to be bull-headed or stubborn about it,'' Brown went on. "In the end, he is the coordinator, but he wanted to get feedback to see what we thought and what we could do to get this thing turned around.''Among the most vocal voices in the room amongst the players were linebacker Jonathan Vilma, defensive ends John Abraham and Shaun Ellis and cornerback David Barrett.Said Vilma: "We got our opinions aired out. (Henderson) opened it up to see if we can get this thing fixed. He always lets us speak, but this time he actually set it up where everyone was in a big circle and if you wanted to speak you spoke and if not, forever hold your peace."We want to get after it. Donnie wants us to get after it. So let it eat. Let it go. If doesn't work it doesn't work, but most of time it's going to work.''Barrett: "Defensively, we've strayed away from our game plans. We want to get back to what we used to be, how we used play defense last year. Let's get after them and get things going.''Linebacker Victor Hobson: "We want to get after people. We want (Henderson) to be comfortable enough for us to call it and put us in position to make those plays.''Henderson sounded open to his players' wishes _ as long as they do a better job of staying in position."They want me to be the same aggressive guy I was when I came here,'' Henderson said. "We haven't played great defense to this point. I've found myself tweaking our base packages because I'm uncomfortable sometimes with how we get things done. The trust factor you must have with your defense and each guy being where they're supposed to be is not there.''Henderson's players urged him to count them in his circle of trust and to the aggressive calls fly. http://www.jetsinsider.net/ji/news.php?storyid=1605___________________________This is exactly what I was hoping for. Now we gotta get that fired up agressive defense against the Panthers.
Well, our defense wasnt the problem in that beating. They actually looked good, but the offense didnt help by allowing 23 points off of 6 turnovers.
