Tom Rock: Edge rusher David Bailey is low-key but his 3 sacks against Browns stand out
David Bailey of the Jets celebrates with his teammates after a defensive play during the second half against the Cleveland Browns at MetLife Stadium on Sunday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
There seems to be just one person in the Jets organization who still doesn’t seem very impressed by David Bailey, the rookie edge rusher who the team selected with the second overall pick in April.
That’d be Bailey himself.
Not even his three-sack performance in Sunday’s 17-12 win over the Browns could change his disposition. After each of the takedowns of quarterback Deshaun Watson he simply got to his feet and went back to work. He headed either back to the huddle or over to the sideline. There was no crazy dance to celebrate, no trademark viral gyrations to go through. No taunting or pointing. He didn’t say or do anything, really. He didn’t even have to adjust his gloves . . . because he doesn’t wear ‘em.
Don’t worry about him scrolling through his phone to see what the rest of the league is saying about him after the breakout performance either. He doesn’t do any of that stuff either. The criticism about his play in the first four weeks and the praise he produced on Sunday? None of that reaches him. It’s as if he is operating in a vacuum.
All he does is focus on the football.
How refreshing is that?
“It felt great,” he said of being the first Jets rookie since Hugh Douglas in 1995 to have three or more sacks in a single game.
If he hadn’t said it, you wouldn’t think it.
He acted as if this was just a routine day for him not a defining one. It was the kind of game that could catapult him into the conversation for Defensive Rookie of the Year, and a showing that may help establish him as one of the cornerstones of a Jets defense that already had been ranked among the best in the league without his dominance.
“That’s who David is,” Jets head coach Aaron Glenn said.
He was talking about the sacks and the team-high seven tackles and the one other quarterback hit and the general disruption he caused in the Browns’ backfield all game. But he might have been talking about Bailey’s response to all of that, too. Or his lack of one.
The kid wouldn’t even admit that something had clicked for him, or that he’d somehow found a secret recipe for success.
“Just honing in on what I had wanted to work on this week and relying on my coaching,” he said of the continuation of his development. “Me and Coach [Karl] Dunbar and Coach Cam [Davis] came together and drew a picture of what I could do better in my game and I was relying on that.”
It was apparently no mere doodle. It may even have been a masterpiece.
“It was beautiful,” defensive lineman Jowon Briggs said of Bailey’s game. “That’s all I can say. Beautiful. A three-sack hat trick for him is beautiful. And I really think this is going to act as a catalyst for him.”
Said safety Minkah Fitzpatrick: “It was great to see D.B. have the game that he had. I think he really showed the type of player he is and that he can be for us and we’re going to need that week in and week out.”
Bailey actually could have done more, at least statistically. There were a few plays when he was near Watson forcing him to get rid of the ball earlier than he wanted to. And he said there was one pass rush when he allowed himself to be blocked by a tight end that gnaws at him.
Glenn was quick to point out that there are areas where the rookie needs to continue to improve and get better. But he also seemed tickled by the overall dominance, especially since it came on the heels of outside observers wondering aloud regarding Bailey not living up to his draft hype.
“I’ve said it all along that his time was going to come,” Glenn said. “I have all the confidence in the world in him. He did a good job today. We expected that.”
While the last of his three sacks came early in the fourth quarter, Bailey also had the instincts of a closer on the final drive despite not putting a late dent in the stat sheet.
On third-and-6 with 1:07 left he flushed Watson out of the pocket and made him throw an incompletion. He nearly brought him down for what would have been a fourth sack that would have tied the franchise record for a single game.
On the next snap, fourth-and-11 from the 19 after a delay of game, Will McDonald IV got credit for a sack, forced fumble, and fumble recovery that sealed the win. Bailey, though, was right there with him and easily could have had either or all of those if the quarterback or the ball had bounced in a slightly different direction.
The win ended a three-game skid and gave the Jets a moment to exhale. Bailey’s display made them gasp with jubilation.
“I was damn happy for David,” defensive back Jarvis Brownlee Jr. said.
Someone has to be, darn it, because Bailey sure isn’t going to do that. It’s not in his nature.
“He’s very business-like,” Fitzpatrick said with a smile when asked about Bailey’s rare disposition and lack of showmanship. “He’s obviously enjoying the game, but he is a very even-keeled type of player.”
Oh, but every once in a while, there is a crack in that façade. You just have to be in the right place to catch it. You have to wait because he holds the joy in until it’s safe to let it out, when the cameras aren’t around and when he thinks he is alone.
“He’s such a goofball,” Briggs told Newsday. “He’ll sit there and try not to celebrate but then he’s cheesing on the sideline. That’s just the type of guy he is.”
It’s who the Jets thought they were getting when they drafted him.
Now they and the rest of the league are starting to see it.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
