In April, David Bailey could only imagine one thing better than being taken with the No. 2 overall pick in the NFL Draft. In October, hundreds of other rookies are happy not to have every snap take place under a spotlight.
This is just the beginning. This is how it will be for as long as Bailey wears green and white.
“I’m not really too worried about expectations,” Bailey said following Friday’s practice. “I’m just more worried about how I can help the team identify my areas of strengths that I can use to help put the team in the best position possible.
“I’ve been having fun out there, just trying to work to improve each and every week on what I can control, trying to understand the defense a little bit better, understand what my coaches and my teammates want from me.”
The rookie has largely spent the first month of his pro career in a shade of gray — neither explosive nor invisible.
Bailey made two underwhelming sacks in his first two games — the result of a pair of quarterback scrambles in his direction — but he hasn’t produced one since the first play of the Week 2 loss to the Packers. The 23-year-old has 11 quarterback pressures — making him the co-leader among all rookies — but he is also coming off a quiet game in Chicago in which he had just one pressure.
“It’s definitely different because of the level of competition,” said Bailey, who was the FBS co-leader with 14.5 sacks at Texas Tech last year. “There’s a lot of factors to take into [account], the level of competition, new defense, I’m working with new [defensive] tackles, new [defensive backs], so obviously you’ve gotta take that into account. At the end of the day, it’s just football, so I think that this is what I’ve been doing so I still feel comfortable out there.”
Bailey — who has been chipped or double-teamed on roughly one-quarter of his pass rushes, according to defensive line coach Karl Dunbar — hasn’t received much help from a front that was projected to be one of the team’s strengths, following the signings of Joseph Ossai, Kingsley Enagbare and David Onyemata.
No Jets defensive lineman has recorded a sack in the past two weeks. And in the past three games, the Jets have recorded the third-lowest pressure rate (27.1) in the league. “It comes down to we don’t have the chemistry because obviously you acquired new pieces from all over,” Bailey said.
“We’ve been working on that in the film room, been working on how we can attack [offensive] lines, been working on it in practice, just working on things you can take advantage of.”
Bailey has been asked to drop in coverage far more than he did at Texas Tech, which defensive coordinator Brian Duker cited as freeing safety Andre Cisco to get a sack in Detroit. Bailey also has been better than advertised against the run, ranking third in the league among edge rushers in run-stop win rate, according to ESPN.
But so much more is expected of the No. 2 overall pick.
“He’s still learning and growing,” head coach Aaron Glenn said this week. “And he’s going to be a damn good player in this league.”
