Jets bracing for Giants’ variety of blitzes: ‘Like the Cheesecake Factory’

Jets offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett had an interesting comparison for the Giants’ defensive playbook.

“There are a lot of things you have to prepare for because you don’t know what he’s going to select out of his large menu. It’s like the Cheesecake Factory,” Hackett said. “You’ve got a little bit of everything.”

Wink Martindale’s array of blitzes and pressure are enough to give Hackett indigestion, just like too much Cheesecake Factory.

That is the challenge facing the Jets this week.

The Giants’ defense has found its footing after some early struggles.

The unit sacked Commanders quarterback Sam Howell six times and held Washington to 46 yards in the first half on the way to a 14-7 victory Sunday.

This came after early-season poor performance against the 49ers and Dolphins.

Sunday’s Jets-Giants matchup might hinge on whether the Jets’ offense and quarterback Zach Wilson can handle the pressure Martindale throws at them.

“They do a good job of causing chaos,” Wilson said. “We’ve got to be able to handle it.”

Martindale is known for blitzing as soon as he gets off the bus, blitzing on 41.6 percent of pass plays this season.

The Jets got a taste of it in the preseason when Martindale repeatedly threw cover-zero blitzes at them.

“They’re playing really well the last couple of weeks,” Jets center Connor McGovern said. “They’re still bringing a ton of pressure, but a little bit more condensed. You never know. He blitzed us, he went all out 20-some times in the preseason. I get it’s preseason and the game doesn’t technically matter, but that’s still a lot of zero-pressures. With him, you just never know.”

Jets coach Robert Saleh has spoken glowingly of Martindale’s system even though it is the opposite of his philosophy.

Saleh and the Jets rarely blitz, relying on their front four to get to the quarterback.

“Chaos and pressure,” Saleh said were the hallmarks of Martindale’s defenses. “What fascinates me about Wink’s defense is that usually when you run all the different types of coverages and pressures that he runs, usually you have free runners once and a while. Someone’s going to miss something, but they’re doing a really nice job keeping body on the body, making sure that there’s no free runners, there’s not a lot of space in their back end. Again, they’re doing a really nice job.”

The Giants’ defensive line had a field day against the Commanders, with more than half of their season-total off 11 sacks coming in that one game.

The Jets will likely have two backup offensive linemen starting on Sunday.

Max Mitchell is the expected starter at right tackle and Wes Schweitzer will likely be the right guard if Joe Tippmann is unable to play, which appears likely.

The Jets are going to have to find a way to slow down Leonard Williams and Dexter Lawrence inside and Kayvon Thibodeaux outside.

“All those guys on the inside are so dynamic,” Hackett said. “They’re huge. They’re powerful. They’re strong. They’re great pass rushers. I think that’s the thing for any quarterback you always want to protect the depth of the pocket. When some of your best players are those guys on the interior, it can cause a lot of havoc in there. It’s going to be a great challenge for the interior three for us this week.”

Martindale surely will have something special cooked up for the Jets.

He can fool teams by making them think he’s going to pressure and then dropping people into coverage.

“They come from everywhere, anywhere, anytime,” Saleh said, “and they present you with looks that are similar throughout the game, and they run a variety of stuff off of it, so communication’s going to be [key], getting in and out of the huddle is going to be key to the best of our ability, and you’re going to be presented with one-on-one matchups. I know Wink has got the reputation of pressure, pressure, pressure, but he does a good job of mixing in his zones and spot dropping. He does a good job of mixing it all up, so you can’t just book him for one thing constantly, but it’s going to be a challenge for everybody, not just the quarterback.”