EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — In the aftermath of the New York Jets’ Sunday win over the Cleveland Browns, head coach Aaron Glenn was asked about his rookie pass rusher.
What did Glenn think of the 2026 second overall pick’s performance?
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“You guys tell me,” Glenn said, knowing there was little up for debate.
Bailey at rushed from the left and from the right, bull-rushing his way to quarterback Deshaun Watson on some plays and spinning out of attempted blockers on others.
The result: nine pressures, five quick pressures and a 32.1% pressure rate, per Next Gen Stats. Bailey’s three sacks tied a 1995 record for the most in a game by a Jets rookie since sacks were tracked in 1982. His five sacks this season are tied for fourth in the NFL and first among rookies.
“Just relentless,” Glenn told reporters on Monday. “The same things you really saw from him coming out of college. His ability to bend the edge, his ability to dip, lean, use power in that lean and be able to rip up and be able to go make plays on the quarterback. His ability to make a move and then rush with power also. The other things that really showed up in the game was his ability to play the run, and I think that’s one thing that he’s not getting enough credit for…
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“He just had an all-around game as far as affecting the quarterback and playing the run.”
The Jets and Bailey now turn their attention to a road division game against a quarterback who narrowly lost the MVP race last year to Matthew Stafford. The Jets face New England Patriots QB Drake Maye right after he torched the Las Vegas Raiders for 374 yards and four touchdowns passing in addition to 25 yards and a touchdown rushing. Maye completed a season-high 76.5% of his passes vs. the Raiders.
Can Bailey and Co. stem that tide, or even force some of the turnovers that characterized Maye’s first three games this season?
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Glenn’s advice to the Jets about defending a flight-risk Watson apply to the also extremely mobile Maye.
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“Listen, I’ll sit there and be lying to our guys [if I] say that he wasn’t going to make a play,” Glenn said. “At some point, he’s going to get out. That’s what just good players do. But I think the guys respect that I don’t BS them and tell them, listen, he’s going to get out every now and then, but the thing is we got to make sure that we trap him inside. And if we can trap him inside, there’s a chance that we’re going to be able to make some plays. …
“If we could just limit his chance of getting out, I think we’ll create some success for ourselves on defense.”
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Bailey was disruptive from both sides vs. Browns
In four prior career games against the Jets, Maye has completed 73.9% of his pass attempts for 582 yards and six touchdowns, rushing also for 82 yards and a score.
The Jets drafted Bailey to help turn the tides in just such games.
A one-year edge rusher at Texas Tech after three seasons at Stanford, Bailey’s first-step quickness and explosiveness flashed during his lone year in Lubbock. Rushing every down, rather than the hybrid rush and coverage role he filled at Stanford, produced an FBS-best 14.5 sacks last year. He also added 52 tackles, 19.5 tackles for loss, three pass deflections, three forced fumbles and a fumble recovery.
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The Jets are leaning into his first-step quickness while also looking to maximize his versatility.
Bailey lined up at right outside linebacker on his first of nine quarterback pressures against Watson, bull-rushing right tackle Spencer Fano, drafted seven picks after Bailey, before he swallowed Watson as the quarterback tried to pick up a snap that had slipped from his hands on a rainy day.
Bailey then settled back in from the left side throughout the game, overpowering opponents ranging from right tackle Dawand Jones to tight ends Harold Fannin Jr. and Blake Whiteheart on different snaps to flush Watson from the pocket on a missed end-zone strike in the second quarter, speed up a 30-yard completion to Isaiah Bond on an early fourth-quarter attempt, and trip Watson as he threw it away late in the fourth.
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In concert with fellow Jets rushers and Glenn’s blitz-heavy game plan, New York pressured Watson on 59.1% of his passes, 14.3% more than his previous season high vs. the Jacksonville Jaguars and nearly triple the 21.6% rate he’d faced a week earlier from the Steelers.
Bailey credited his study and his teammates.
“Just working together with my D line, also the linebackers, understanding what pressures are being called, where the pressures are coming from and how that affects my approach to my rush,” Bailey said. “So I think just understanding the defense as a whole and rushing together with our rush-lane integrity.”
What’s next for Bailey, Maye?
Bailey could face a depleted Patriots offensive line.
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Starting left tackle Will Campbell sustained a knee injury that limited him to 28 snaps vs. the Raiders, rookie first-rounder Caleb Lomu playing 49 snaps in relief. Starting right tackle Morgan Moses is also battling a foot injury that limited him in Wednesday practice but he did not miss time.
Maye and Co. will keep an eye out for Bailey.
“He’s fast, explosive, instinctive,” Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel said. “He can bend, got a really good get-off and is able to win at the top and corner. He uses his get-off, so just like every week, we’ll have to be very conscious of the front. They do a nice job interior-wise. They’re big, they’re physical. Then on the edges, they can create some havoc. I think when they blitz, they have a really good blitz demeanor, whether it’s [Jamien] Sherwood, Demario Davis or [Jarvis] Brownlee.
“They’ve been able to just create disruption when they blitz.”
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The decision to prioritize edge rusher at the second overall pick reflected the Jets’ team life cycle as well as the divisional reality of the AFC East.
A team that can’t stop Maye will be hard-pressed to beat the Patriots. A team that can’t stop Josh Allen best beware the Buffalo Bills. (The Miami Dolphins are earlier in their rebuild than the Jets.)
Bailey showed flashes in his first four games, averaging half a sack and 2.75 pressures per game in that stretch. In his 54 snaps against the Browns, his three tackles for loss tied his four-game prior mark.
Will competing against a quarterback with a deeper track record of recent success prove the chance for Bailey to show what he’s capable of this week, or a reminder that facing the Browns in poor weather conditions complicates a quarterback’s execution?
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Will Maye’s next outing reflect the top-tier quarterback play of his last two weeks or the rhythmic lapses and turnovers of his first three?
“We really don’t focus on what happened in the past when it comes to us, we just focus on what’s happening right now,” Glenn said. “But yes, division games are definitely crucial. Sometimes people say they count as two games, but the only thing that we’re focused on is this is the one game that we have to play, this is the one game we want to win, this is the one game that we’re prepared for and look to win.
“So, good team, a team that was in the Super Bowl last year, and we’re going to look forward to playing them.”
