Three on O: Davis, Woods, Cook

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:

Zay what?!?!

Isaiah Davis hasn't been getting many chances to contribute recently, but he did a solid job on Sunday, as his 10 touches generated 65 yards and a touchdown.

Although he had a monster game in Cincinnati, Davis hasn't really seen his role increased despite Braelon Allen having been unavailable for most of the season. However, giving Breece Hall's recent downturn in production, it might be smart to give him a bigger workload.

In the past four games, Hall is averaging less than three yards per carry and it's six weeks since he had a run of 15 yards or more. On Sunday, he had a 13 yard run to the outside - his longest in over a month - but then generated just 10 yards on his other 11 carries.

For whatever reason - be that Hall breaking down, giving less of an effort or just unable to overcome opposing teams stacking the box whenever he's in the backfield - a fresh Davis was a more effective weapon on Sunday and could be in these remaining games.

Of course, the Jets might, on some level, actually be reluctant to make any changes that make it more likely they win any more games. Either way, whether he's in your future plans or not, running Hall into the ground doesn't seem very wise, so it was positive to see Davis getting some garbage time reps with Hall rested.

Davis' big moment on Sunday was, of course, his 24-yard touchdown burst:

Another significant moment was in the first half, when they put him in the game for Hall and he ran three consecutive times to pick up a first down and set up the Jets' first touchdown. It's been rare that they've used him in this way, usually giving him nearly all of his reps on third down, so it was good to see them deviate from that and it shows that his extra workload wasn't just garbage time reps.

Aside from this play, Davis' production was still good with 41 yards on his other nine touches, and what stands out about that was his consistency. None of those plays went for more than seven yards and he was consistently getting positive yardage with at least a two-yard gain on all of them.

Davis' consistency when he gets touches has been solid throughout his career too. He's sustained a 5.8 yards per carry career average, with an average of 4 yards per carry or over in 14 of 19 games when he's carried the ball at least once.

Let's see if he can produce any more in the rest of the games this season.

Out of the Woods

When the Jets claimed Jelani Woods at the end of preseason, there was much rejoicing because many felt it signified the likely end of the disappointing Jeremy Ruckert's Jets tenure.

Heading into the Jacksonville game, however, Woods had played just one offensive snap. Ruckert, on the other hand, has been a mainstay, showing slight improvement and recently signing a two-year extension.

Woods finally got his chance to get on the field on Sunday, as he was out there for 24 snaps, mostly with Ruckert, following recent injuries to Mason Taylor and Stone Smartt (who did play but only on 11 snaps).

Woods caught 25 passes with three touchdowns in 2022 but a series of injuries has meant he doesn't have an NFL catch since then. On Sunday, he ran some routes but didn't get a chance to add to that total as he wasn't targeted.

We can, however, assess his blocking, which is an area where the 6'7" and 253-pound Woods can contribute with his size.

Woods gave a good account of himself on 13 run blocking plays. You've already seen on the Davis touchdown above how he aggressively sealed his man to the outside to set up the running lane for Davis but that wasn't his only positive moment.

Faced with a 3rd-and-1 in the red zone, the Jets motioned Woods to the left tackle's outside shoulder and he did an excellent job of getting ahead of Josh Hines-Allen on the reach block and sealing him off from being able to prevent Davis plowing ahead for the first down.

He also had a good block earlier on that drive to control the outside linebacker on the edge and enable Davis to pick up positive yardage.

Taylor has already been ruled out for the Saints game this Sunday, so Woods (and Smartt) should get more chances. Maybe he can get some targets this time too.

Cook what you made me do!

In his first career start, Brady Cook came out of the blocks pretty well as he completed his first six passes and led the Jets to a first quarter touchdown, throwing the first touchdown pass of his career to Adonai Mitchell.

The Jets smartly gave him some rhythm with a few easy dump-off passes and then he will have gained confidence from this third down conversion on the move.

Already that showed some growth from last week where Cook was rushing even the short throws and his ball placement was a bit off. In addition, he had no success throwing on the move last week, so it was good that he made this play early. It's likely he was that much more settled with a full week to prepare.

For the game as a whole, Cook was in more of a game manager role as he only completed one other pass of 15 yards or longer and used his legs more than last week. However, there are two major problems with this. The first is that Hall wasn't generating any yardage on the ground. The other is that if you're a game manager, you can't turn the ball over.

Cook threw three interceptions and, although maybe the last one is on Arian Smith for not competing more aggressively at the catch-point, that speaks to his inability to push the ball downfield.

Even the one other downfield throw he completed was under heavy pressure and he couldn't step into it, making it a difficult catch for the receiver as a result.

He needs to ideally be one step quicker to see that and get it out, but the turnovers are going to create natural hesitancy.

The Jets announced yesterday that Cook will get another shot but wouldn't commit to him being the starter the rest of the way.

Managing to get through a game without multiple turnovers would be a good step in the right direction that could gain Cook a third start, but he also needs to throw past the sticks successfully more often.

Right now, Cook is a long way off even being able to convince anyone he's a career backup, but he didn't completely disgrace himself on Sunday and has arguably earned this chance.

Previously: Three on D: D. Clark, Stephens, Tufele