Aaron Glenn singled out Dane Belton for praise after last week's 23-10 win over the Titans .
Belton was not an obvious star of the game for the Jets , but he did something that impressed the coaches.
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After Minkah Fitzpatrick injured his groin in the first quarter, Belton had to shift into Fitzpatrick's strong safety role and Andre Cisco came in as the free safety.
Later, Belton moved into the nickel spot when Jarvis Brownlee Jr. was injured.
"It was a spur of the moment understanding that my role or responsibilities are going to change just from different plays or different personnels," Belton said. "I wasn't sitting there, like worried or uncomfortable. It's something that I felt very comfortable doing, something I've done all my career in the league and also going back to college. I played mostly nickel in college. I played in the box a lot. It was a position I worked on in the spring and in training camp.
Dane Belton Getty Images
"But obviously for that week's preparation, that was Minkah's role. But for me, in the back of my mind, understanding the roles of the defense, understanding different coverages and how they work, knowing all these guys really just helps me that I can really go play anywhere and I feel like I can plug and play. So it's definitely a moment that we weren't expecting, obviously, but something that I felt comfortable in doing and I was going to do whatever takes."
The Jets will be without Fitzpatrick this week against the Packers and likely for a few weeks. It could be a challenge for a secondary that was counting on Fitzpatrick's experience back there.
"We have other experienced guys on our team, too," Glenn said. "That's the good thing about our team right now and those guys have to step up. I mean, Cisco's played a lot of football in this league and he's been a damn good player in this league. Dane, as we talked about, how impressed I was that he can come in and he can play basically the same role that Minkah had of being able to play the big nickel, playing safety. He's an impressive player. Intelligent, smart, and he can take up that slack."
