Three on D: Davis, Belton, McGregor

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

Super Demario

The returning Demario Davis was the key to the Jets' strong defensive start as they held Tennessee to under 200 yards with zero 15-yard plays.

Davis set the tone immediately as he was in on the tackle on each of the Titans' first three plays, including an impressive run stop on their first snap. He ended the day with a team-high eight tackles and a pass defensed.

Five of those tackles came within five yards of the line of scrimmage, including this run stop, which is a good example of Davis patiently making his read and then decisively taking on the pulling blocker and making the stop.

Had the Titans run the exact same play against last season's defense, we can't say for sure that Quincy Williams would have reacted to the initial flow to the right and then been out of position to prevent the counter action from getting to the second level, but we saw that kind of thing so often that there's a good chance that would have happened.

In coverage, Davis did a solid job as he gave up just one catch for eight yards on three targets. On one play he stayed with Tony Pollard on a wheel route that ended up as a deep incompletion. He also broke up this pass underneath after passing off his initial assignment in zone coverage.

The prospect of adding Davis to a flawed defense was an exciting one because his film from last year clearly indicated he is still really good. One year on, that still seems to be the case. Long may it continue.

Belt and Suspenders

Safety Dane Belton won a starting safety job over Andre Cisco, although any disappointment Cisco may have felt was rendered moot by Minkah Fitzpatrick's early injury which propelled him back into a full-time role.

Belton deserves extra credit because he filled in at nickel back too when Jarvis Brownlee got injured. However, that only lasted seven snaps and then Brownlee was back. Malachi Moore filled in at safety while Brownlee was off the field.

Officially, Belton was only credited with two tackles, although he was in on a couple of others. One of these was an important stop on third down to force the Titans to settle for a field goal in the first quarter as he did a good job of getting adequate depth and outside leverage.

Again, this may have been a routine play, but we can all recall several plays from last year where a receiver would have broken a tackle to get to the chains.

Belton's only other tackle actually came on a completion that went for a first down. However, it sure was a nice hit:

In addition to his defensive duties, Belton was on the field for nine special teams plays, which is less than he has played in the past. His main contribution was a missed tackle on kickoff coverage.

On the whole, though, Belton looks good and is settling in nicely. He'll be tested more over the next few weeks with no Fitzpatrick.

Braiden Voyage

We noted in preseason that Braiden McGregor was playing well, although that was largely based on his pass rushing. In this game, he didn't do anything as a pass rusher on 11 attempts, but he showed that he could be a useful defender against the run, at least while Joseph Ossai is sidelined.

McGregor was on the field for 17 snaps in total and he was in on the stop close to the line of scrimmage on three of his six run snaps.

This particular play is really a T'Vondre Sweat highlight - watching in real time you could tell immediately that this run was going nowhere. However, McGregor did a solid job of setting the edge and, had he been driven back and sealed inside, perhaps the run could have been bounced outside for positive yardage.

The Davis highlight earlier on was similar, as he held his ground against a JC Latham block so that run had nowhere else to go other than into the lane that Davis had filled. McGregor's other tackle saw him crash down off the edge.

One concern about the Jets' defense was that both David Bailey and Will McDonald may struggle to set the edge in certain situations. Bailey had one negative play of this nature, although it only went for a five-yard gain, while McDonald got sealed inside on a 13-yard Pollard run to the edge.

The fact that the Jets have other players who can handle this task mitigates any potential weakness in that area. On this evidence, it looks like McGregor himself is one such player.

Three-on-O will follow tomorrow.