Three on D: Winfrey, Jefferson, Adams

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:

Perrion my wayward son

Perrion Winfrey's Sunday afternoon provided Jets fans with a microcosm of their season as a whole. Winfrey was making his Jets debut and the team was perhaps hoping that he could live up to his draft potential with them after some off-field troubles. So, he made his debut and recorded three tackles in 13 snaps - only to then suffer what appears likely to be a season-ending injury on a special teams play.

Winfrey's best play saw him do a good job pursuing a run to the outside that was ultimately stopped for a loss, although he didn't get credit for the tackle. Otherwise, though, he didn't generate any pressure and struggled against the run.

Of his three tackles, one was six yards downfield and another was 12 yards downfield. The other was only a one yard gain, but this was a negative play because he was driven off the line and to the ground on a quarterback sneak and only got credit for the tackle because the quarterback landed on him when he dived ahead.

On this play, the guard helps the center execute a reach block that brings Winfrey to his knees and sets up an easy first down run.

On the whole, Winfrey unfortunately didn't get enough time to show what he's capable of. The Jets options to go back into the rotation now are Tanzel Smart, Marquiss Spencer and Bruce Hector.

Winfrey is not under contract for next year - he'll remain on the practice squad injury list collecting practice squad checks for the rest of the year, probably - so they will have to sign him to a futures deal if they want to bring him into camp.

The 13 snaps are probably too small of a sample size to make their decision either way but the fact they gave him a roster shot after several weeks of getting to see what he can do in practice makes it likely that he'll be back - if healthy.

Thrill Quinton

With five games still remaining, Quinton Jefferson's 1.5 sacks mean that he has already surpassed his career high with six on the season. In fact, he's tied with Bryce Huff for second on the team, just half a sack behind Jermaine Johnson.

When Al Woods went down, and now with the injury to Winfrey, this puts more pressure on Jefferson to perhaps play more snaps and play against the run more too, though.

Jefferson has a poor run defense grade according to Pro Football Focus and didn't grade out well on Sunday. However, any negatives being counted against him obviously aren't having a major effect because the Falcons only had one run of eight yards or more all day and Jefferson wasn't even on the field for that one.

He was sealed off on one first down run but also had some positives as he was in on three run stops near the line of scrimmage. This was probably his best run defense play.

Turning back to his pass rushing, Jefferson's sacks on Sunday came about because he was able to clean up when pressure off the edge forced the quarterback to step up into him but he's not getting all of his pressure that way. He also had a quarterback hit on Desmond Ridder, who threw incomplete on a deep ball from his own goal line. Jefferson did well to get upfield and past the interior line on that one.

Despite the fact he'll be 31 when next season begins, Jefferson's career seems to be on an upwards trajectory, even if he is still obviously better as a pass rusher than against the run. The Jets - who signed him to a one-year deal - will be keen to retain him.

Adams right where he wanted 'em

The news that the Jets had opted to cut ties with Adrian Amos this week underlines how satisfied they are with their current safety rotation, which features Tony Adams as a starter and Ashtyn Davis in a utility role.

The Jets will probably be happy with Adams' contributions this year. While he perhaps doesn't make many impact plays, he's been productive with 60 tackles, three tackles for loss and a pick in 10 games this year. More importantly, though, he seems to make fewer mistakes than his fellow starter Jordan Whitehead.

Adams led the Jets with nine tackles on Sunday, although this play where he smartly ducked past a blocker to make the stuff was the only play he made a stop on that went for less than four yards.

While he didn't have any obvious negatives, Adams was admittedly overmatched when covering Kyle Pitts on two third down conversions. Pitts was able to box Adams out and go up to get the high throw each time.

Adams doesn't have a penalty all year, but one area he perhaps needs to improve at is his tackle efficiency. In his first five starts, he only missed three tackles, but he's missed eight in his last five starts including one on Sunday.

His instincts and attitude seem to be on point though, and he seems to have good range and versatility. If he can add some strength and play with more physicality next year, he'll hopefully take his game to another level, because it seems likely he'll be back as a starter.

Three-on-O will follow tomorrow.