Jets linebacker Calvin Pace says he’s part of the best defense in football.
“[Compared to] the rest of the defenses in the NFL? S---, man, we’re the best,” Pace told the New York Daily News. “You ask anybody around the league, we’re not the team you want to see coming in, even in a down year.”
A lot of people in Seattle (among several NFL locales) would disagree with that statement, but Pace believes opposing offenses fear coach Rex Ryan’s defense more than any other.
“There’s a certain type of aggression when we come . . . you know we’re going to come with a lot of stuff and teams don’t want to see that,” Pace said. “They want to see a vanilla defense, that just lines up and you know where they’re going to be. . . . I’ll take these guys and Rex and this system any day.”
If you’re keeping track of the Jets’ bold statements in training camp, Pace joins Dee Milliner proclaiming himself the best cornerback in the NFL, Ryan calling David Harris the most underrated linebacker in the NFL and Ryan describing himself as “a great coach.” (Ryan did modestly acknowledge that he may not be the best coach of all time.)
If the Jets are half as good as they think they are, they’ll be a playoff team.