Tom Rock: Why David Bailey's quiet preseason debut shouldn't worry Jets fans

It’s been a few months since the Jets used the second overall pick in the draft to select David Bailey, and most of that time has been spent listening to stories about what he will be able to immediately bring to this defense.

The scouts, the coaches, his teammates, even the reporters who have been at practices have raved about the kid.

All of those flashes and descriptions of dominance have taken place away from public view, however. So of course there was tremendous anticipation on Friday night when Jets fans finally got their first chance to actually see this edge-rushing monster about whom they have heard so much.

Bailey took the field for his eagerly awaited NFL preseason unveiling against the Buccaneers at MetLife Stadium. The result?

Yawns.

He started, assisted on a tackle on a 4-yard run up the middle on his second snap, played a total of eight reps, then left with the other first-teamers. The most exciting thing he did all night was jump up to celebrate a sack . . . by teammate Will McDonald IV, who came around from the side opposite Bailey’s.

For those who have been able to watch those cloaked practice performances, the player on the field Friday night was boringly unrecognizable.

Even Bailey wasn’t very impressed by Bailey.

“Definitely a lot of stuff that I can work on,” he said of his minimal impact in his minimal playing time. “I think we can do better. I know I can do better.”

Great. Another Jets disappointment who doesn’t live up to expectations. Just add him to the pile.

No! No! Please don’t discount him based on this sliver of a specimen.

Jets fans, you have been disappointed over and over again, and it’s natural to think that this is another dupe.

But this time, it’s OK to believe the hype.

Bailey is for real, even if he did not provide any evidence of that on Friday night. There are reasons to buy in on what he can accomplish not only throughout his career but as a rookie pass rusher and edge defender this season, just as there are reasons why that wasn’t made abundantly clear in this contest.

We all know coaches don’t show their playbooks in preseason games, and in the same vein, Bailey wasn’t about to put his best moves on film for the world to see just to satisfy the curiosity of Jets fans in a meaningless August game.

Most of his attempts to get into the pocket were straightforward power pushes, and that’s not his game at all.

The Bucs clearly learned their lessons from having Bailey dominate them through a pair of joint practices earlier in the week. They actually learned that quickly; midway through the first workout, they started throwing screen passes in his direction just to try to slow him down, a rare in-practice strategy tweak.

That carried over to Friday. Just about every down had an extra blocker on his side of the field to prevent him from gobbling up the right tackle (in this case backup Ben Chukwuma; Tampa Bay sat its starters, including Luke Goedeke, who had battled Bailey in more ways than one throughout the week).

Finally, to put your mind at ease, this was such a small sample that Bailey had no opportunity to play one style of move off another to set up his strategies.

Even Aaron Glenn warned not to judge Bailey on this abbreviated one-night performance.

“I’m just going back to what he’s done since he’s been in camp,” Glenn said. “He’s been pretty disruptive. I think those guys had six to eight reps, for the most part. A lot of times that’s not a really good picture in a game to see. I know what he’s done throughout camp and I’m pretty happy about what he’s done.”

It hasn’t been perfect. No one is claiming that. But it certainly has been impressive. Veteran teammates have raved about his professionalism and athleticism, those spin moves in which he dusts off blockers and those outside routes in which he gets so low to the ground, it’s as if he is running parallel to the turf.

“I’ve been around a ton of rookies,” 37-year-old linebacker Demario Davis said this past week. “Seven to 10 every year for 15 years. I’ve seen some who were projected high not play up to that level. I’ve seen some who were projected low and played above that level.”

Bailey?

“He looks like a number 2 pick,” Davis said. “He looks like everything that’s been advertised and more.”

That Don Draper campaign will continue.

“David will tell you, he’s not looking at where he’s at right now, he’s looking at where’s he’s going to be two years from now,” Glenn said. “He wants to get there right now. I mean, that’s how competitive he is. But that’s what we’re working on. How do we get him to get to that next level? It’s going to take practice after practice after practice to be able to do that.”

It certainly wasn’t going to happen in a first preseason game.

Friday night wasn’t about unleashing Bailey or proving a point to Jets fans who have earned their skepticism and are impatient for a hero.

Bailey was on the field to get his first taste of the NFL, and he accomplished that. The NFL will just have to wait a little longer to get its first real taste of him.

Don’t worry. That’s coming soon.

By Tom Rock

tom.rock@newsday.com@TomRock_Newsday

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.