Three on O: Fashanu, Ruckert, Lazard

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:

Is Fash Trash?

The Jets' running game woes could easily be attributed to the downgrade produced by rookie Olu Fashanu coming into the line-up in place of Morgan Moses to make his first career start. That's likely an over-simplification but Fashanu did struggle with his run blocking in preseason and this game was no different.

To be fair to Fashanu, he had a few plays where he successfully sealed his man off, but it was clear there wasn't much running room. One play where he initially drove his man off the line but then allowed him to shed the block and get in on the stop was telling.

He was, however, excellent in pass protection in preseason. He struggled on Sunday, though, as he gave up a team-high five pressures. This could be easily attributed to the fact most of his preseason reps were against backups.

Again, though, he had plenty of reps where he looked really good staying in front of his man and repelling pass rush moves. He had his hands full with Jonathon Cooper both in terms of his speed and ability to go speed-to-power and move Fashanu off his spot.

Ultimately, though, his worst rep was on a stunt. While this sack will be counted as allowed by Smith, it's obvious that Fashanu was completely fooled and reacted badly here, ultimately blocking nobody.

You could also say that he potentially cost the Jets a touchdown on 3rd-and-goal as he allowed John Franklin-Myers to blow by him on an arm-over move for immediate pressure which took the option of potentially bootlegging it into the end zone or opening up an angle to find Tyler Conklin away from Aaron Rodgers.

Although he was called for one penalty for being an illegal man downfield, Fashanu can be given a pass for that one because he likely isn't used to the RPO-style plays where Rodgers will get rid of the ball quickly, so he fired out to the second level prematurely. He does need to be careful about getting into his stance too quickly on the snap though, as he was right on the edge a few times. Credit where credit is due though, he demonstrated a good sense of when to let go of his man so he didn't get called for holding.

Fashanu showed enough positives in this game to show that he is probably going to be a very solid offensive lineman in short order, and these few starts in place of Moses will be valuable to his progression. However, the confidence the Jets and their fanbase had in him to fill in for Moses without some teething troubles was probably misplaced.

The Jets should try to take a few things off his plate by playing to his strengths where possible and hopefully he will soon adapt to the rise in level of competition, and to playing on the right, which - let's not forget - he is also quite inexperienced at.

The Ruck Stops Here

It may seem like Jeremy Ruckert's role is expanding, but he's averaged 24 offensive snaps per game so far and that's the same as he averaged over the last 12 games of last season.

He's not really seeing more action in the passing game either, as he has just four catches for 25 yards on seven targets so far, having caught 16 passes for 151 yards in 2023. On Sunday, he caught his only two targets for 10 yards.

Disappointingly, Ruckert was also inconsistent in the running game on Sunday. This crucial run stuff, on which Breece Hall should perhaps just have bounced it outside, saw both Ruckert and John Simpson blocking PJ Locke and leaving Kristian Welch completely unblocked to make the stop in the hole.

There was also this play where Ruckert allowed Franklin-Myers to throw his block off to get in on the run stuff.

If Ruckert is going to contribute primarily as a run blocker, he might need to watch over his shoulder because recent signing Brenden Bates is a very promising run blocker who could ultimately start to take reps away from Ruckert if he doesn't become more consistent. Bates only played one snap on Sunday but he pulled left and pancaked his man impressively, showing that he perhaps warrants a longer look.

As for Ruckert, the third rounder has failed to live up to expectations as he is now into his third season but has just 20 catches. When they do target him, he looks athletic and hard to cover, but that hasn't translated into any kind of production yet.

Let's see if the Jets start to make more of an effort to get him involved.

Lazard to figure

Four games into the season, Allen Lazard unexpectedly leads the Jets with 206 receiving yards, putting him on pace for just under 900 on the season, which would be a career-high. He was targeted a team-high tying eight times on Sunday, leading the team with 58 yards on five catches.

Considering this was a player some experts felt the Jets could release in the offseason despite the fact they owe him over $10 million in guaranteed salary, his turnaround has been impressive. Of course, having a player like Rodgers, with whom he has mutual trust and chemistry, makes a huge difference.

Even so, it was a far from flawless performance from Lazard who had a drop, wasn't on the same page with Rodgers on one play and was called for three penalties; one for illegal motion, one for offensive holding and one for taunting after a second half catch.

The plays he did make included three first downs on a back shoulder throw, a quick slant hot read and this play where he shook the defender in space to find an open area down the middle.

The Jets are planning to increase Mike Williams' role, want to get Garrett Wilson to make more of an impact, could be keen to involve players like Ruckert, Xavier Gipson and Malachi Corley more in the offense and might even be in line to trade for a certain all-pro receiver. Any and all of these things would lead to a reduction in playing time and targets for Lazard, but for now the Jets are leaning on him to make contributions and you can't deny that he is producing better than anyone else.

It will be interesting to see how his career progresses from here.

Previously: Three on D: Carter, Surratt, Quincy Williams