This was the version of David Bailey the Jets have waited for. This was the performance that — if it stacks together week after week — will validate their decision to draft him at No. 2 overall and pass on others.
It took until Week 5, until the Jets’ 17-12 win over the Browns at MetLife Stadium, but Bailey delivered the best performance of his career after a week where pressure had started to mount.
He finished with three sacks and tied for the team lead with seven tackles, while generating the most pressures in a game by a rookie (nine) since Jared Verse in 2024.
Given his geographic proximity to Giants rookie Arvell Reese, whom the Jets passed on and whom Big Blue selected three picks later, Bailey’s slow start was magnified, but he started to quiet any early concerns Sunday.
“I’m not really on social media,” Bailey said, “so I can’t really speak on what was said. But … all that I feel like matters is what my coaches are telling me and what my teammates are telling me.”
Bailey’s most impressive sack occurred on a third-and-30 in the fourth quarter, on the defensive possession after a field goal extended the Jets lead to 10-6, when he blew past Cleveland’s Spencer Fano and dropped Deshaun Watson.
He then stuffed running back Quinshon Judkins for no gain on a second-and-3 with under 10 minutes remaining. His pressure on third down set up a fourth-and-6 with 57 seconds left, too.
But Bailey started to reverse the trajectory of his first Jets season early in Sunday’s game.
He tackled running back Raheim Sanders after a 1-yard gain on a screen during Cleveland’s first drive.
Then, he picked up a sack on the first play of the next Browns possession, winning his matchup and getting an extra second to work with when Watson fumbled the snap.
The whistle blew before Watson ended up on the turf, but Bailey was still credited for the sack and cracked a smile as teammates surrounded him
His second sack, for all intents and purposes, will likely go down as one of the easier tackles he makes.
Bailey had a free lane to rush at Watson after not being blocked — or even bumped — at the line of scrimmage.
But given his slow start, and given the lofty expectations attached to being the No. 2 pick, it was still significant at this juncture.
“That’s who David is,” head coach Aaron Glenn said of the edge rusher who’d recorded just two sacks and 18 tackles through his first four games, “and we expected that.”
Bailey recorded the most sacks by a Jets player in a game since Will McDonald IV’s four against the Browns last year.
He now leads all rookies in pressures with 26, according to Next Gen Stats, and all rookies in sacks with five, while improving his chances of matching the 14 ½ sacks from last year at Texas Tech.
And, edge rusher Kingsley Enagbare said, it was “nothing new” — validating the Jets’ belief that it was only “a matter of time before he exploded on the scene.”
“It felt good, man,” Bailey said. “It felt good to know that I’m able to do this, to compete at the highest level.”
— Additional reporting by Mark Cannizzaro
