The once-elite Jets defense is being dragged down by its secondary

The New York Jets bullied their way to 10 wins in 2015 with a strong defense that allowed 16.9 first downs per game, the fewest in the NFL.

Yes, it was the team’s rushing defense that allowed just four touchdowns all year that led the way, but the pass defense was able to hold its own. The 235.2 passing yards per game allowed was No. 13 in the NFL and enough to balance a defense that was No. 4 in the NFL in total yardage allowed.

The rushing defense of the Jets has still been strong and ranks No. 1 in 2016, but the drop off for the pass defense has been so stark that New York has plummeted to the bottom of the NFL’s defensive ranks in several categories.

How bad are the Jets against the pass?

The best performance of the season so far was holding Alex Smith of the Kansas City Chiefs to a passer rating of 105.2.

That’s every quarterback’s performance in the first five weeks with a minimum of 15 pass attempts. Most fall close to the middle, but the really strong passing performances are on the right side of the chart and that’s where five quarterbacks landed after games against the New York secondary.

In addition to Smith’s 105.2 passer rating, the Jets allowed ratings of 112.8 for Tyrod Taylor, 114.0 for Andy Dalton, 124.4 for Ben Roethlisberger, and 133.5 for Russell Wilson.

The only win so far for the Jets was a 37-31 shootout victory over the Buffalo Bills in Week 2. The team has allowed at least 23 points in each week and that’s not the direction you’d expect in the second year for the franchise under Todd Bowles.

As a defensive coordinator he led a top-10 Arizona Cardinals defense, then looked like the missing piece for a Jets team that already had talent in place and jumped from No. 24 in scoring defense in 2014 under Rex Ryan to the top 10 in 2015.

So where did all go wrong?

Darrelle Revis has been the poster child of elite talent falling off a cliff in 2016. The 31-year-old cornerback has clearly lost a step and he’s having trouble running with top receivers.

That made for a nightmare day in Week 1 against A.J. Green, but even speedy deep threats like Marquise Goodwin have managed to run right past Revis. But it’s not all his fault in the secondary.

The Jets are actually No. 17 in the NFL at stopping opposing No. 1 receivers, according to Football Outsiders, but No. 30 against No. 2 receivers and No. 31 against slot receivers.

When Revis was out of the lineup in Week 5 with a hamstring injury, Marcus Williams stepped in as a starter. Unsurprisingly, the Pittsburgh Steelers had no problem shredding the Jets secondary with Roethlisberger throwing for 380 yards and four touchdowns.

It’s really tough to even find a bright spot in the secondary.

“It’s been a rough few weeks and we definitely have to pick it up,” safety Calvin Pryor told USA Today’s Andy Vasquez. “There’s a target on our backs in the secondary. We’re definitely a part of the problem that’s going on right now.”

Pryor is a strong safety who plays close to the line of scrimmage, so coverage was never really something he was expected to excel at. But free safety Marcus Gilchrist has been among the NFL’s worst in coverage, according to Pro Football Focus.

In the four games where the Jets allowed more than 300 passing yards in 2015, the New York offense only turned the ball over twice.

Ryan Fitzpatrick wasn’t stellar at avoiding interceptions, but he was good enough and finished the year with 31 touchdowns to go with his 15 interceptions. But nearly a third of the way into the 2016 season, he already has an NFL-high 10 interceptions and just five touchdowns.

Only the 1-5 Carolina Panthers have more turnovers.

When a defense struggles to get off the field, the last thing that it should be paired with is an offense that puts the defense back on the field far too often.

If it wasn’t for the turnovers, the Jets offense might not be such a bad unit. It’s No. 18 in the NFL in yards per game and No. 6 in yards per drive, but it turns the ball over on a league-leading 22.6 percent of its drives.

That’s affording too many opportunities to opposing offenses that really don’t need much help eating up the Jets defense on their own.

But for as bad as the Jets defense has been, things could get better soon.

After a Monday Night Football matchup with the Arizona Cardinals, the Jets will host the Baltimore Ravens. Neither Carson Palmer nor Joe Flacco have played particularly well so far in 2016, and Palmer is returning from a concussion that kept him out in Week 5.

Then the Jets get the Cleveland Browns, Miami Dolphins, and Los Angeles Rams before a Week 11 bye. A pair of matchups against the New England Patriots are still on the horizon, but so are games against the hapless Indianapolis Colts and San Francisco 49ers.

If the New York secondary is going to figure things out, it would appear that poor passing teams will afford them the chance to do so.

The Palmer-led Cardinals seem like an unlikely candidate to be one of those teams on Monday, though. Yes, Palmer hasn’t been great in 2016, but the Cardinals still posted four 250-yard passing performances to open the year before he got injured. It’s still a team that went 13-3 a year ago.

And if Arizona even slightly resembles the team it was in 2015 — or the one that dropped 40 points on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 2 — it could be another long game for a Jets defense that was once one of the best.