After each game, we typically highlight three defensive and three offensive players and looking in detail at their performance. We’ll start today with the defense:
What can Brownlee do for you?
After a seven-snap cameo last week, Jarvis Brownlee was elevated into a starting role this week with Deuce Carter out. Based on this performance, they should leave him there, a point that is magnified by the fact that Carter has struggled this year and the other option at this position, Isaiah Oliver, had a poor game in a dime role on Sunday and may now drop out of the rotation.
Brownlee got a lot of attention for his forced fumble, but this was a performance filled with solid contributions and, while an opportunistic play, the turnover actually came on a play where he had initially given up a third down conversion.
While it didn’t create a turnover, his most impressive play was arguably this one, where he took on two blockers to blow up a receiver screen. What a play.
Brownlee had efficient numbers in coverage as he gave up just 22 yards on six targets with no first downs. He was also in position to blow up two more screen passes but didn’t get statistical credit on either, as they were each dropped, in part due to his presence.
In looking for negatives, you might point to his two missed tackles, but actually one saw him force a run out wide and while he didn’t make the play at the line of scrimmage, that was stopped for about a four yard gain. The other saw him blow up a run behind the line and although the back slipped out of his tackle, he was immediately swallowed up by about four other Jets for a loss.
His physicality around the line of scrimmage also showed up as he beat a block on this run stop.
Other than giving up the third down, which he immediately rectified with the punch-out, a holding penalty on a punt return and one play where he got pancaked by a lineman on a screen pass, Brownlee limited the negatives and made some true impact plays.
Hopefully, he can build on this performance and his presence will mean that Sunday’s defensive performance from the team as a whole is the kind of thing we should keep seeing from now on.
Power Walker
Mykal Walker entered Sunday’s game having played six snaps since being called into action following the injuries to Quincy Williams and Marcelino McCrary-Ball three weeks ago.
However, he seems to be working his way into a role. He was in the starting line-up on Sunday and was on the field whenever the Jets were in base, albeit that this translated to just 14 snaps.
He was very productive in those 14 snaps, though. On just eight run snaps, he was credited with three tackles and could easily have received credit on two others. That included the very first snap of the game which was a good example of gap discipline from the linebacker position.
Note how Walker, who starts off on the left side of the screen, ensures his angle of pursuit means he gets upfield and maintains outside leverage. That way, the runner is forced to cut upfield where the pursuing defenders can take him down. A bad linebacker play here would be to take a more direct path to the ball, which could lead to the linebacker getting sealed inside or the back beating him to the edge. By trusting that everyone else is doing their job, Walker ensures that the system holds up here rather than going into business for himself and trying to make the play.
There was another play that was similar to this, as he again came up and forced the run to go inside. On this one, he did get credit for an assist as the play was stopped for a gain of four. He also took on a blocker on the edge well on another stop.
This might have been his best run stop, as he decisively plugged a hole to stop a run for no gain on 2nd-and-1. Any hesitation there and it’s an easy first down.
Walker isn’t renowned as a pass rusher but we can’t ignore his contribution on the play where the Jets were awarded a safety. The holding penalty was correctly called on Quinn Meinerz’s takedown of Micheal Clemons, but Walker was also clearly held by Garrett Bolles, having stepped up to the edge right before the snap to create an extra man in the defensive front, which was a wrinkle the Jets employed regularly with both Walker and Kiko Mauigoa at times, to good effect.
He also contributed on special teams, with a couple of decent blocks in the return game.
Based on this game, Walker’s physicality and discipline seems to make him a solid rotational option, although whether his playing time will increase probably depends on if there are any other injuries because Mauigoa looked the part this week and Williams should be back soon. Still, this performance can give the Jets some comfort about their overall depth at this position as Mauigoa gains valuable experience.
Get rough with the Tuf’
It seems a long time ago that Jay Tufele was the breakout star of the Jets’ preseason opener. He looked like Aaron Donald that day with a bunch of impact plays. However, he was quiet for most of the preseason after that and his role in 2025 so far has been disrupted by injuries.
This was Tufele’s fourth appearance of the season and he was out there for 16 snaps. It might have been more but he left the game with another injury in the second quarter before returning a few drives later.
Tufele didn’t make much of an impact, as 11 of those 16 snaps were pass rush attempts and he didn’t get anywhere near the quarterback on any of them. He was also blocked to the ground once on a pass rush. For the season as a whole, he has three pressures in 44 pass rush attempts.
In the running game, he was sealed off on one play and blocked to the ground on another but neither play went for significant yardage as the defense held up reasonably well with him in there.
He only had one tackle, but it was an excellent play that saw him beat the center into the backfield despite an initial double-team from the right guard before he climbed to the second level. As you can see, there’s a cutback lane opening up behind Tufele if he didn’t make the play, so it’s a good job he wasn’t sealed off.
The Jets don’t need to ask too much of Tufele because the Quinnen Williams-Harrison Phillips-Jowon Briggs trio is holding down the interior pretty well. However, after New York released Leonard Taylor yesterday, the next man up would be rookie Payton Page, who is currently on the practice squad, so it will be interesting to see how soon the Jets feel he is ready.
Tufele needs to stay healthy because it’s a good opportunity for him to make more of an impact alongside some solid linemen as the season progresses.
Three-on-O will not follow tomorrow. Instead, we’ll be taking an extra in-depth look at the special teams in our new and original feature Three-on-ST.