Three on O: Vera-Tucker, Conklin, Williams

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:

Whoa there, Vera-Tucker!

Three games into his comeback, Alijah Vera-Tucker is looking like he hasn't missed a beat and that he is unaffected by the injuries that kept him out over the past two seasons.

Starting off with pass protection, Vera-Tucker's only issue has been that he's been a bit slow to pick up a couple of stunts, one of which led to a week one sack. He otherwise hasn't given up any pressure. And it's not like he is incapable of picking up a stunt because he has done so consistently well apart from on a couple of occasions.

In the running game, his progress is just as exciting, though. The pattern on Thursday night was basically that if he had any plays where he might be negatively graded, they had positive outcomes anyway because, for example, he let his man get off his block but only after he had driven him back so the runner had momentum coming into contact and could fall forward for extra yards or he allowed his man to penetrate but sealed him off so he couldn't make a stop. Similarly, where there were plays with negative outcomes, these tended not to be his fault.

He had a series of positive contributions to the running game, with successful blocks at the second level and point of attack, and on reach blocks and while pulling.

Here's a play where New England were anticipating a pass so they put Keion White inside and Vera-Tucker predictably dominated him.

This is a textbook nudge on Joe Tippmann's man to make it easy for him to control his block, followed by a climb to the linebacker who he seals off to create a big lane.

It's great to see Vera-Tucker back, and living up to the potential everyone says he has. Even more exciting is the fact that the line probably hasn't fully gelled yet, so there may be even more to come from him individually and the unit collectively.

All-Conkerin' Hero

Tyler Conklin's 93 yards on five catches were actually his career high and included three 22-yard catches and one 18-yarder.

After a quiet start to the season, a feature of Conklin's performance was how he found open areas when Aaron Rodgers was extending plays. He could be open on those kinds of plays all year. One of his catches was a key 3rd-and-3 which Rodgers fed to him with a safe throw which he made comfortably as he went to ground.

Perhaps his most impressive play, though, was this play where he ran a great route to get away from Jahlani Tavai.

As a blocker, Conklin was typically inconsistent, although the holding penalty called on him was bogus.

While this was a great game from Conklin, it's also worth mentioned that he has now gone 28 games since he last scored a touchdown. He almost had one here, off his hands on a diving attempt before the Jets scored anyway a few plays later. It would be nice to see him reestablish himself as a red zone threat though.

Like Mike

In his third game as a Jet, Mike Williams' role continued to increase and the Jets have been saying all week he'll be featured even more than this going forwards.

He's already making the kind of plays that is going to make him a favorite target of Rodgers. On his first catch, Williams laid out for a diving reception on a wide throw. It was only a five yard gain but plays like these keep the offense in rhythm and keep them out of must-pass situations. Williams would later make this terrific contested catch on a bit of an underthrow from Rodgers.

Clearly Williams is going to be a threat on those back shoulder throws, but if defensive players try and play for that, he can just continue downfield and is always going to have a chance on a jump ball. He almost had a touchdown on one of those in this game, although it wouldn't have counted anyway due to a penalty.

Williams - whose other catch saw him convert a third down over the middle as he got a clean step of separation on the slant route - almost had a touchdown in the second half. Although the Jets officially had no drops, he was reportedly frustrated with himself for not bringing in a diving catch that he got his hands to in heavy coverage.

Hopefully he'll get a chance to score some touchdowns for the Jets in the weeks ahead. It seems likely that Rodgers will be keen to get him one soon.

Previously: Three on D: McKinley, Quinnen Williams, Reed