Three on D: Wilkerson, Adams, M. Williams
After each game, we're going to highlight three defensive and three offensive players and look in detail at their performance. We'll wrap up today with the defense:
On the back of a Wilk carton
Much has been made of Muhammad Wilkerson's lack of production so far. He's yet to record a quarterback hit, let alone a sack, this season and had just two tackles in yesterday's game.
Clearly he's never been the same player since he suffered a season-ending injury at the end of the 2015 season - a year that saw him rack up 12 sacks and 80 total pressures together with elite play against the run. However, are there any signs at all that he can overcome whatever issues are holding him back from playing at that level over the past few years?
Wilkerson's issues are two-fold. First of all, he's not making impact plays, especially as a pass rusher. To some extent it seems like they might be deliberately using him in a role where he occupies blockers or maintains pocket integrity rather than actively going after the quarterback. Is that the case? And if so, is it because they know he physically can't contribute as much when attacking? I wish I could answer this.
The second issue is that he's being manhandled at times in the running game. We're seeing a lot of situations like this one, where he's faced with a double team and is driven off the line before he can reanchor:
There's nothing wrong with that because it happens to most linemen in the same situation. Also, this might only happen to Wilkerson a few times per game. The issue is that the Jets are paying Wilkerson a ton of money based on the fact that he used to be able to hold up to double teams of this nature and was rarely manhandled in his way. Factor in his lack of impact plays and it's understandable that fans and perhaps even the team would start to get impatient with the return on that investment.
So, is there anything positive to say about Wilkerson right now? Actually, yes. Each game he seems to show a few flickers of his former self and almost always does better in the second half for some reason. As noted, he has no quarterback hits but actually he spent some time in the backfield yesterday and hit the quarterback twice. They just didn't register on the stat sheet because there was a defensive penalty each time (including a roughing call on Wilkerson himself).
He also made a crucial contribution to the pivotal fourth down stop in the final quarter, the second time he's helped make a huge short yardage stop in two weeks. He also was in on two other run stuffs and got upfield and into the quarterback's face forcing him to dump the ball off short of a first down in the red zone.
This isn't enough, though, and as much as we anticipate those flickers evolving into the lightbulb suddenly coming on, it doesn't seem likely to happen, especially as he deals with a shoulder issue that is likely to hamper him all year. If he doesn't step it up as the season progresses, there's going to have to be some discussions about how to address his contract going forwards.
The biggest question might be why Leonard Williams is similarly struggling to make an impact. Perhaps we'll address that in the coming weeks.
Permanent Marcus
With Juston Burris and Darryl Roberts both out, Marcus Williams made his return to the rotation and it was like he'd never been away.
Williams was thrown at seven times, giving up five catches, including this early 3rd-and-14 conversion where he was obviously playing too far off:
He actually only gave up one other first down, on a play where he slipped over on the outside. However, he gave up two catches just shy of the marker that led to short yardage conversions.
Of his two unsuccessful targets, one saw him initially giving up a big catch as the receiver brought down a jump ball over him near the sideline. However, that was overturned by the replay booth because the receiver's arm came down out of bounds. However, that play still generated a first down on a defensive penalty anyway. Williams had good coverage on a deep ball on the other unsuccessful target.
Late in the game, the Jets were sitting back in a prevent style defense and Williams came up fast to make a good open field tackle on a short pass. Williams has been an inconsistent tackler in the past, though, and sure enough those problems resurfaced three plays later when he missed a diving tackle attempt on Duke Johnson which led to Johnson's long touchdown.
It's unclear as to how long Burris (who had been struggling anyway) and Roberts will be out, but Williams at least provides the Jets with competence at the position despite his deficiencies.
Not many teams can boast a 4th or 5th cornerback with plenty of starting experience and nine career interceptions. However, when elevated into a bigger role, Williams has tended to be a below replacement level player who can be exploited.
'Malfunction
After some great performances that seemed to suggest that Jamal Adams was progressing well along the road to becoming an impact player and key contributor, the rookie crashed back down to earth yesterday with a rough game.
However, he was a little unlucky to some extent. It was obvious that he was held as he struggled to get off a block downfield on the Johnson touchdown, as you can see:
Also, David Njoku beat him for an impressive touchdown but this should probably have been called as offensive pass interference because that's a clear push-off:
Even if he'd benefited from these calls, it was still a difficult game for Adams. He was tested a few other times in coverage and also gave up a first down in zone coverage and two other catches just short of the marker.
There was also a third down play in the flat where he had Isaiah Crowell squared up a few yards short of the marker, but didn't get hold of him cleanly and allowed him to fall forwards past the marker.
In addition, Adams also had a defensive penalty for illegal use of the hands and badly missed an open field tackle leading to a big gain on a screen pass, although that one was negated by a penalty.
He still made some good contributions though. While about half of his nine tackles were on completions that he gave up in coverage, he did come up to make a good tackle on a third down dump off pass in the red zone. He also was in a good position on an overthrown deep ball.
We need to remember that Adams is still just a rookie and will have days like this. Hopefully the game will have been a learning experience for him and he won't make the same mistakes over the next few weeks.
PREVIOUSLY: Jets perfect the art of bend-but-not-break