Three on O: Mitchell, Fashanu, Adams

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:

It Max no difference

The Jets found themselves in a rough situation when both starting guards - John Simpson and Jake Hanson - were knocked out of Thursday night's game. Hanson is already the fourth choice right guard with Alijah Vera-Tucker, Wes Schweitzer and Xavier Newman all already injured, so the Jets are being stretched to the limit.

New York could have turned to Alec Lindstrom, who was making his NFL debut, but he was likely active in case they needed a third option to snap the ball. Instead, the Jets put two backup tackles in at guard, with Olu Fashanu on the right and Max Mitchell on the left.

Let's assess Mitchell first. He replaced Simpson at the start of the second quarter and didn't get off to a very good start as he whiffed on a block that led to a screen pass being blown up for no gain. Simpson then returned for a few plays before tapping out permanently, after which Mitchell seemed to do a much better job.

Here's a good run blocking play he made, combining with Joe Tippmann to enable him to control his man and then peeling off to find a target at the second level.

Mitchell had a few more good combo blocks, held up well in pass protection and made up for his earlier whiff with a key block to spring another screen pass for a nice gain.

He did have a few negatives, though, including on this 3rd-and-1 run that was stuffed.

Mitchell is a player who has impressed the Jets' coaching staff with his smarts and they were on show here as he played a position which he's only made one start in during his career. On one play he showed good instincts as his man initially beat him into the backfield but he reacted to seal him off and enable Braelon Allen to cut back for a first down.

It's unfortunate that Mitchell wasn't slotting into an otherwise healthy line so that the Jets could scheme around his weaknesses, but ultimately it didn't make much difference and the offense was more or less able to function with him in there anyway.

We don't know yet whether he'll need to start a game or will be called on to fill in off the bench again at any point but the Jets will feel more confident in Mitchell after this performance.

Much Olu about nothing

Fashanu got into the game late in the second quarter when Jake Hanson hurt himself on the play where Denico Autry beat him for a sack. This is a position he's never practiced in with the Jets, so the fact he was able to hold up as well as he did was impressive.

As an athletic tackle, you'd hope Fashanu could hold up well in pass protection as he simply has to stay in front of his man and should have the athleticism to recover in the event of an initial loss of leverage, which the less-athletic Mitchell might not.

Sure enough, he mostly held up in pass protection, although he did have two particularly rough reps. One was when his hold negated Aaron Rodgers' scramble as his man drove him back to collapse the pocket and the other saw him dominated here.

While at tackle earlier in the year, Fashanu struggled in the run game but actually didn't do too badly as a guard, albeit that the Jets didn't run behind him much and on one play where they did his man shed his block for the run stuff.

Here was a good rep, though, as he pulled to the left and hit his target on the other edge.

(Mitchell also had one of his better reps on this play).

As with Mitchell, we don't know if Fashanu will get more chances to play inside but it's worth noting that Morgan Moses is playing through some injuries right now so he might have to fill in at tackle again too at some point.

Have a nice Tae

In the Vikings game, Aaron Rodgers and Garrett Wilson were trying desperately to get on the same page. This led to a first half where Wilson was targeted nine times but generated just 30 yards. However, he had a big second half and has been lights out ever since.

Is this game a sign that this is happening with Adams too? The pair weren't quite on the same page in the first half and Adams generated just 25 yards in eight targets. However - despite Adams missing a chunk of the second half - they connected three out of three times after halftime for 66 yards and a touchdown.

For the trade to pay off, the Jets need to start stacking wins and if both Wilson and Adams are producing, that becomes easier. Adams is already also making an impact with his leadership and contributed well as a run blocker on Thursday night too.

In the game, Rodgers and Adams had a number of timing routes where Rodgers trusted Adams to get a clean release off the line and threw it to a spot but they couldn't connect on these in the first half. However, after halftime, this was how Rodgers found Adams on fourth down to set up Wilson's second touchdown and on his 37-yard game clinching score, which came on 3rd-and-short.

Adams' other two catches saw him generate good yards after the catch, once on a throw that he turned upfield from the flat and also on this broken tackle:

Everything could unravel for the Jets with one more loss but if Adams can keep producing then perhaps the Jets will be able to get themselves back into the conversion by December.

Previously: Three on D: Clemons, Eguavoen, Sheffield