After each game, we’ll be highlighting three defensive and three offensive players and looking in detail at their performance. We’ll wrap up today with the offense:
Fash ‘n’ Burn
Armand Membou has rightly been receiving huge plaudits for his debut performance, but it wouldn’t have been possible without Olu Fashanu, at just 22 years old and starting his EIGHTH career game, holding his own on the blind side.
However, Fashanu gave up a sack and five pressures, so should we be concerned that this is too much?
The first thing to note is that, while he’s no TJ Watt, Alex Highsmith is a tough matchup for any tackle. He had 14.5 sacks and a league-high five forced fumbles in 2022. Highsmith got to Justin Fields for a sack on a red zone play where Fashanu overset to the outside hoping to prevent outside pressure and Highsmith went inside instead and was basically untouched so that was a clear error.
The pressure count was mostly acceptable though, as it wasn’t really clean pressure and when you have a quarterback like Justin Fields, those pressures which only really constitute moving him off his spot are not really the end of the world.
Take this play as an example. Highsmith penetrates the pocket and Fields has to move around a bit to avoid being sacked, but this is a great rep by Fashanu who repels the initial move and the counter by moving his feet and keeping his hands active:
If John Simpson and Josh Myers had controlled their double-team block better, Fields would have had an escape route and a lot of green grass ahead. As it was, he found Garrett Wilson for positive yardage.
Highsmith did also get credited with two quarterback knockdowns, but again neither of these reflect too badly on Fashanu. The first one wasn’t even on Fashanu. It was Mason Taylor who was blocking him, then leaked to the flat, but the Steelers were all over that so it was incomplete. The other saw Fields end up on the ground but Fashanu kept himself between Highsmith and Fields on the bull rush the whole time and enabled Fields to complete a pass underneath to Tyler Johnson. It’s not even clear that Highsmith laid a finger on Fields.
Moving on to the running game, the success of the Jets running to Fashanu’s side was immediately apparent. Here’s one of Fashanu’s best blocks of the day, again on Highsmith:
Encouraging progress was made this week by both of the Jets’ tackles. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come.
Rucking a trend
This was supposed to be the year when Jeremy Ruckert ascended to starter level, but his disappointing 2024 season continued into this offseason and some analysts even thought he might be a potential cap casualty.
That seems unlikely, but it was heartening to see that Ruckert made some positive contributions on Sunday. With Mason Taylor firmly ingrained in the starter role, Ruckert seems more comfortable as the number two and made a couple of key plays.
Ruckert had two third down conversions, one of which was a tough contested catch on a tight window throw he helped make possible with a chip on Watt at the line.
Ironically, his other third down catch didn’t even come as a tight end. He’d lined up as a wide receiver on that play; a quick slant.
Ruckert’s run blocking continues to be inconsistent but it’s fair to note that he had some positive contributions and, of course, the overall outcome was good.
One serious area of concern, however, is his special teams blocking. We already outlined Ruckert’s poor special teams contributions here and this just seems to be an area he either isn’t equipped for or has no interest in making an effort in.
Xavier Gipson’s much discussed fourth quarter fumble would have been a non-event if the Jets had recovered it and they probably would have had a better than 50:50 chance of doing so had Ruckert not COMPLETELY whiffed on the guy who ran down and recovered it.
With Taylor having apparently re-injured the ankle that bothered him in preseason, Ruckert might be forced into a bigger role on Sunday. Let’s hope we don’t see diminishing returns if that’s the case.
Myers’d in mediocrity?
After fate intervened and decided the senseless center competition on behalf of everyone, Josh Myers is now the Jets’ starting center. In his debut on Sunday, he had one of his better games.
While Membou’s block is arguably the key to this play, Myers introduced himself superbly on the first snap of the game as he pancaked Keeanu Benton to help spring Breece Hall’s 18-yard run.
He’s always a mixed bag in the running game though. On this play he gets caught up on his way to the second level and fails to get to Patrick Queen who stuffs the run in the hole.
Myers’ strength at the point of attack is a worry at times. He failed to sustain his block on the two-point conversion that was stuffed and ultimately proved costly at the end of the game.
On the whole, though, Myers’ performance was solid and the unit played well as a group. The challenge of facing an in-form Ed Oliver on Sunday looms large, though, so the Jets must ensure their interior line communication is on point.
Previously: Three on D: Phillips, Johnson, Stephens