Three on D: Mills, Echols, Watts

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:

Got Mills?

When Jalen Mills was added to the practice squad early in the season, it seemed like a low significance move designed to give them an emergency safety with plenty of experience in case of injuries.

Well, those injuries and that emergency have arrived with Chuck Clark, Ashtyn Davis and Tony Adams all out injured at the same time, which means Mills is suddenly the number one safety. The fact the Jets had to move their number four safety, Isaiah Oliver, to cornerback due to injuries there has compounded matters.

With the cornerback group getting healthy again, this should mean Oliver and Mills start at safety on Sunday. Fortunately for the Jets, Mills has stepped in and done a solid job.

On Sunday night, Mills had eight tackles and a good pass breakup down the field. He had three run stops near the line and this tackle for loss:

Mills did give up a 21-yard catch to Pat Friermuth in coverage and was also involved in a coverage mix-up with Brandin Echols that left the backup tight end open for 15 in the flat. However, he was in position on four incompletions.

The one area where Mills let himself down a little was in terms of his tackling. He missed three, including this tackle in space and another tackle in the hole on the next play.

The Jets really need Mills to step up against one of his former teams on Sunday and, with the status of the guys ahead of him up in the air, who knows how much longer he'll need to have a role?

Echols Chamber

Echols had done pretty well in relief during the season so far, as he'd given up just 42 yards on nine targets, along with two interceptions.

On Sunday night, he was exposed for the first time. Echols gave up a catch on all five of his targets for 81 yards and two scores. He gave up 44 on a deep contested catch to George Pickens, failed to get his head turned around on Pickens' touchdown catch and got caught up in traffic on this score.

Echols' coverage skills have always been solid but his instincts tend to let him down as they did in the play above. He also let himself down with three missed tackles.

While he did make one good play against the run, assisting on a stop near the line, this was the kind of performance that makes it a relief that DJ Reed and Deuce Carter will return this week. Echols' return to a fourth corner and special teamer role should benefit everyone, including himself.

Watts going on

It was surprising to see that Eric Watts had replaced Braiden McGregor in the rotation a few weeks ago, after McGregor had flashed a few times and certainly outplayed him in preseason. However, Watts held onto that role and, while he hasn't made much of an impact, perhaps he hasn't held up that badly.

Taking all four of his appearances together, Watts had five tackles in 44 defensive snaps and graded out reasonably well against the run.

Sunday night was interesting because the Jets went to a five down linemen look down the stretch with the Steelers running some clock. Watts was involved with this group and they were unable to prevent the Steelers from scoring on their last drive. The touchdown, on fourth and two with SIX down linemen, was a 10-yard run which went away from Watts' side.

To review Watts' contributions specifically, he wasn't badly at fault on any running plays, although he initially got caught inside due to trying to shoot a gap a couple of times. On each occasion he worked hard to get back in on the play.

Perhaps the most impressive thing he did was to hustle across the field and chase down the runner from the backside to make the tackle on a 7-yard run:

As a pass rusher, Watts really hasn't shown anything yet. He has no pressures in his four regular season appearances so far. However, the Jets needed to be better against the run and he is presumably considered to be an improvement over McGregor in that area.

With Haason Reddick returning, Watts should go back to being a healthy scratch but the Jets will hope that this experience will help his overall development towards being a solid contributor down the road.

Three-on-O will follow later today.