In-depth analysis: Jets-Panthers (Part Two

Over the course of today, we'll be breaking down the performance of every player that took the field in the Jets' preseason game against the Panthers. We'll now move on to look at offense and will cover the special teams later on.

Quarterbacks - Mart too broad

Both quarterbacks struggled this week, as they combined to generate just 100 passing yards on 28 attempts.

Undrafted rookie Andrew Peasley kept dropping back and not being able to find anyone open so he ran four times instead for 28 yards, with two first downs. He also took a big sack.

That may be because the receivers simply weren't getting open, but it's more likely Peasley is too afraid of making a mistake to trust himself to make a tight window throw.

Even when he did complete passes, they were often slightly behind the receiver or otherwise off the mark.

So far in preseason, Peasley is completing 68 percent of his passes but averaging less than five yards per attempt, which is telling.

Adrian Martinez, who Robert Saleh has confirmed will move ahead of Peasley in the rotation for next week's game, was at least prepared to take more risks but the outcome was he only completed seven of 17 passes and had a bad interception.

While there were a few drops included there, there was generally poor ball placement on these.

Martinez seemed intent on not running in situations where he likely would have usually ran the ball, and probably had an easy first down or touchdown in a few such situations. Presumably the Jets wanted him to work on that in this week's game.

He did have a couple of nice completions, including a downfield throw on the rollout and one zipped over the middle for a first down.

Running Backs - Izzy gonna make it?

Rookies Braelon Allen and Isaiah Davis split the workload again in the first half. Davis was pretty effective, but had one first down run negated by a penalty and ended up with just 14 yards on four carries. He also picked up the blitz once.

Allen ended up with 39 yards on 10 touches but they were mostly tough yards as he often was contacted at the line of scrimmage but fell forward for 3-4 yards. He also showed soft hands on a low throw, but when Peasley threw it to him on fourth down in the first quarter, it was too low and off his fingertips.

Israel Abanikanda led the team in rushing with 29 yards on six carries showing good burst on an off tackle run and power on another first down carry.

Xazavian Valladay didn't make much of an impact with just 10 yards on four touches but Deon Jackson showed good burst to gain eight on one of his two carries.

Offensive Line - Dedicated follower of Fashanu

Expect to see a lot of excuse making for Olu Fashanu this week after a lot of people went overboard about how good he was in the first preseason game following a good, but far from perfect, display.

In this game, he once again held up well in pass protection. He didn't really give up any clean pressure and on the few times where he was half-beaten, he managed to recover or the quarterback got rid of the ball. His worst rep in pass protection was probably this one which saw him moved off his spot and the pass rusher disengaging with an inside spin move, but he was fortunate that Peasley had already decided to vacate the pocket.

In the running game, Fashanu had a series of negative plays, including a holding penalty which negated a first down run as he lost leverage at the point of attack. None of these were necessarily major errors, but his man made the play multiple times and he didn't really have a positive impact.

Fashanu is still getting used to the right tackle position, which he had practiced for the first time this week, and it's very early in his career. We should therefore in no way be alarmed at this performance, especially since he's not going to need to start unless there's an injury. However, we do perhaps need to temper expectations to an extent and not hype him up too much. If Mekhi Becton had this exact same performance last year, he'd have been destroyed over it.

All five starters were different this week with Wes Schweitzer and Joe Tippmann inactive, Carter Warren in at the other tackle position for Max Mitchell and Fashanu and Xavier Newman having moved from left tackle to right tackle and left guard to center respectively.

Warren struggled, as he had a holding penalty, whiffed on a block in space and gave up a couple of pressures. Newman missed a screen block but got a good surge on one short yardage conversion.

Chris Glaser came in at right guard and Kohl Levao started (and actually played every offensive snap) at left guard. Glaser also played some center in the second half.

Levao had a couple of good run blocks but, on the whole, he struggled too with a series of negative plays against the run and two pressures allowed including a bad whiff that led to a quarterback hit.

Glaser fared a little better, sealing off his man a couple of times and limiting his negative play count.

Mitchell came in at left tackle with the second unit but didn't play much. He held up well in pass protection with a couple of good run blocks.

Someone else who really struggled was undrafted rookie Willie Tyler. He had a holding penalty and let his man get off his block to make a play three times while also missing a second level block. There was one play where the Panthers generated pressure because an interior lineman was able to split a Glaser/Tyler double-team.

Austin Deculus seemed to fare a lot better, showing some power driving off the line and staying in front of his man well in pass protection other than on one play where his man almost had a coverage sack but got flagged for grabbing the quarterback's face mask and a late pressure around the outside. He drove his man to the ground to set the edge on one run and also impressed by combining with Tyler to pick up a stunt on one play.

Obinna Eze saw late action at left tackle and was beaten once in pass protection.

As was the case last week, undrafted rookie Brady Latham finished the game at center again. His man shoved him to the ground and batted down a Martinez pass on one play. Later on, Latham showed some nastiness by driving his man to the ground at the end of a play, although that perhaps could have been a penalty in a real game.

One final observation on the running game this week was that the Jets were mostly working on zone blocking, which seems to confirm that they will still use such packages extensively in the 2024 season.

Wide Receivers - Lance McClutcheon

With the offensive line and quarterback play so poor in this game, the receivers didn't get much done, although arguably if they were doing a better job of getting open, that might have made things easier for everyone else. It's difficult to see where the blame lies.

Having not caught a pass last week, Lance McCutcheon led the Jets in receiving, albeit with just 25 yards on two catches. 24 of those came on a nice sliding catch by the sideline, in fact. McCutcheon also contributed by drawing a pass interference flag down the field and with a nice block.

Recent signing Brandon Smith couldn't repeat last week's success but he caught two passes including a first down grab over the middle in traffic. He also made a couple of good blocks.

The best moment from Malachi Corley was this catch where he easily got open on fourth down and made a tough grab on a less than perfect pass. He had one other short catch.

Jason Brownlee had a rough game as he was only able to catch one short pass in five targets. A couple of the incompletions were catchable, albeit not easy. He got both hands on a throw that was behind him, for example. He did have a good block on one play, though.

Undrafted rookie Tyler Harrell didn't have a great day either. He almost had a touchdown as a tipped pass ended in his lap but he bobbled and dropped it. Also, when Martinez threw his interception, Harrell was open and calling for the ball but they didn't seem to be on the same page and he didn't appear to expect it.

Recent signing Isaiah Winstead also almost had a touchdown on the same series as Harrell. He did well to leak to an open area but couldn't make a low diving catch near the pylon.

Finally, Irv Charles wasn't targeted but did have a false start.

Tight Ends - Who gives a Firk?

The Jets still haven't been getting much production from their tight ends although Anthony Firkser broke a tackle in the flat and turned it upfield for a 21-yard gain. He had a good cut block on one run but let his man get off his block to make a play on another.

Undrafted rookie Lincoln Sefcik got the most reps out of the tight end group but was unsuccessfully targeted three times and had mixed results as a run blocker. He gave up a sack that was negated by a penalty and missed a block on a screen but had a couple of good run blocks.

Zack Kuntz failed to impress once again as his blocking was inconsistent as usual and two throws to him were incomplete. The first of these should perhaps have been a touchdown but Peasley threw it too late and Kuntz came down out of bounds. However, even though the pass was overthrown it looked like the athletic Kuntz could have had it if he judged it better. The other target to Kuntz clunked off his hands as though he wasn't expecting it.

Kenny Yeboah had a short catch and one nice block at the second level on a play that was negated by a penalty anyway. He failed to sustain his block on a receiver screen.

Finally, the newest Jets offensive player Neal Johnson saw brief action and had a catch near the first down marker underneath.

We'll be back with more on the special teams later...