Three on O: Schweitzer, Siemian, Gipson

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:

Go Wes, young man

Wes Schweitzer returned to the right guard position this week and unsurprisingly provided better right guard play than we'd been seeing from the likes of Max Mitchell, Chris Glaser and Xavier Newman over the course of the four losses.

Schweitzer didn't give up a pressure all day and, despite only averaging 2.3 yards per carry by running backs, the Jets looked more solid up front with him in the lineup.

The veteran's best moment saw him drive his man back and off the line to create room for Dalvin Cook's best run of the day.

It was interesting that the Jets opted to go with Carter Warren at right tackle even though Duane Brown could have returned to the lineup. Presumably this was a test to see how these five - all of whom will be in the plans for next year - would play together and if Warren could elevate his performance playing alongside four more experienced players. The rookie struggled though.

Schweitzer will hopefully bring some stability to the line over the rest of the season and the Jets would like to see him develop some chemistry with center Joe Tippmann. Whether they'll stick with Warren remains to be seen but it seems likely since they've had to change so often they would probably like to see the same group work a few games in a row.

This was an underrated move in the offseason, predictably ruined by injury issues until now. However, Schweitzer is under contract again next year and the team will be confident in him as someone who can provide depth and step into the starting lineup if he needs to.

As light as a Trevor

Trevor Siemian had an inauspicious first appearance in his second stint with the Jets. Having replaced Tim Boyle with just over 13 minutes to go, Siemian failed to get the Jets on the board as he completed just 5 of 13 passes and fumbled three times.

Although two of his completions were dump-offs, three went for a first down and he also picked up a first down on a pass interference call. Siemiam hit Jeremy Ruckert over the middle and Xavier Gipson over the top having earlier confidently zipped a play-action pass to Tyler Conklin on his first snap.

Those plays, along with an 8-yard scramble, constituted Siemian's positives from the game but he had way more negatives.

He threw behind Garrett Wilson, missed Breece Hall in the flat, threw to Dalvin Cook with a man draped all over him and fired a downfield throw into traffic. He also overthrew Conklin twice.

More concerning than this was his complete lack of pocket awareness. There were a couple of protection screw-ups with him at the helm and he lost fumbles because he didn't anticipate the pressure.

Siemian showed a few flashes of his arm talent and, if not for the sacks and fumbles, could perhaps have got the Jets into range to score. The Jets are running out of options now, with Zach Wilson's return reportedly being weighed up, but was Siemian so poor that they'll forego giving him a chance to start with a full week of preparation time that most backups get? We'll see.

Gipping a switch

One major positive from Sunday was Xavier Gipson's performance. The undrafted rookie could definitely be said to have had his best all-round game as a pro.

Gipson had five catches for 77 yards, one rush for a short gain, a 25-yard free kick return and 45 punt return yards, including 17 and 16-yarders. The only incompletion thrown to him was a throw into traffic that Gipson was probably smart to just knock down.

While three of Gipson's catches were just dump-offs that were short of the marker, it's interesting that they're starting to give him some of these to give him a chance to make a play.

The bulk of his yardage came on two downfield throws though. 36 came on an underthrown fleaflicker which he awkwardly came down with as he jumped over a defender who didn't have a chance to get his head turned and 25 came on this nice Siemian throw which saw him get separation and hang on nicely despite a hit.

As a return man, Gipson is 3rd in the NFL in total return yards this year, but he's had more return attempts than anyone. He's seventh in punt return yardage but hasn't had a 20-yarder since his opening day touchdown. He doesn't qualify for the kick return average category but his 22 yards per return average is underwhelming.

If he's not going to be a playmaker on returns and will sometimes display poor instincts or hands in the return game, then perhaps they should just get him to focus on his offensive role. Gipson has 17 touches for 194 yards on offense despite playing less than 300 snaps on a bad offense.

If he stays healthy they should use him in a full time role for the rest of this year and see if he can build on that production with another 300 or so snaps in the last five games.

Previously: Three on D: Winfrey, Jefferson, Adams