Three on D: James, Davis, Adams

After each game, we'll be highlighting three defensive and three offensive players and looking in detail at their performance. We'll start today with the defense:

King James

With almost their entire cornerback rotation unavailable, the Jets mixed and matched personnel all day with Deuce Carter sometimes employed on the outside, Bryce Hall in a full time role and newcomers Craig James and Tae Hayes rotating in.

Hayes gave up three catches for 54 yards to AJ Brown, two as he was in good position but Brown was just too strong for him and the other on a deep pass where Brown just about survived the ground - and the replay process. James, on the other hand, didn't really give anything up all day.

He was targeted just twice - once on an incompletion to Brown and also on this spectacular pass breakup in the end zone.

He also contributed to stopping Brown by coming off his assignment to tackle Brown on a short catch and force a third down that led to an eventual punt.

In preseason, James saw plenty of action - mostly in the slot - and had some struggles. However, in a situation where he was given a role within a system which was put in place to mitigate personnel weaknesses, James was ready. Credit for this goes to both the coaching staff and James himself.

Ashtyn Packed Performance

Another personnel change on Sunday saw Ashtyn Davis moved up in the rotation so that he was on the field for three-safety packages. Adrian Amos, who previously was used in this role, played just one defensive snap.

He was only deep on a couple of plays as he effectively operated either as a third linebacker in the box or nickel back matched up in the slot most of the time.

Davis gave up a couple of first downs in coverage to Dallas Goedert and missed one tackle, while also allowing extra yardage due to an over-aggressive angle on another play. However, for the most part he was in position and he broke down well for this stop on the first play of the game.

Davis had only played 27 snaps all season, mostly when Tony Adams was out, but played 28 snaps in Sunday's game. He had only played 13 snaps all last season. Amos and Jordan Whitehead are both out of contract at the end of the year. Could Davis, who is in the final year of his rookie deal, actually have a future with the Jets beyond this season after all?

Setting the Tone

Adams earned a lot of headlines with his clutch interception to set up the winning touchdown but even before that it was an excellent all-round performance by the second-year player.

On the day, Adams racked up seven tackles and had two pressures as a pass rusher in addition to his interception, as well as this impressive tackle for loss:

One of Adams' other tackles was a touchdown saving tackle on Brown's big 49-yard catch and another was a third down red zone stop on a Jalen Hurts scramble. Unfortunately, the Eagles still scored a touchdown anyway on both occasions.

Adams also was in on a run stop near the line of scrimmage and made a tackle on a Hurts scramble for a four-yard gain on 2nd-and-10. He didn't miss a tackle all day, either.

Considering he's such a versatile player with experience in the slot, box and out wide, it speaks volumes about how confident they are in his abilities as the free safety that they opted to leave him there while making so many other adjustments.

Adams has settled really nicely into his starter role and has a bright future playing for Robert Saleh in Jeff Ulbrich's defense.

Three-on-O will follow tomorrow.