Three on O: Smith, Wilson, Meredith

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:

InGeno-ious

Geno Smith obviously put up some terrific numbers in Sunday's game and the film backs up the fact that this was an excellent performance, and a very different Geno than the one Jets fans had become accustomed to a decade ago.

While it's fair to note that his receivers helped him out by making several spectacular catches, his numbers were still pretty good even if most of those hadn't been made. And you can't say he didn't do a good job of putting it into places where his receivers could go and make a play on the ball.

Even when the Jets were off to a relatively slow start in the first half, at the end of which they trailed 10-7, Smith had still been playing efficiently as he completed 14 of his first 16 passes. However, what set this performance apart was the success he had when airing it out.

On six passes of over 20 yards downfield, Smith completed five for almost 150 yards with four of them being tremendous throws and, while the other was to a wide open receiver, he still deserves credit for avoiding considerable pressure and hitting him in stride on that one.

The accuracy on this throw, for example, is terrific:

Smith had this success despite considerable pressure from the Lions. You need impressive arm strength to get a throw like this off when you can't step up because you're in the process of being Dragonscrew Legwhipped.

Had there not been a flag on this play, maybe the Lions could have challenged whether Garrett Wilson had established possession before the ball was knocked away but the flag made this a moot point. Once again, Breece Hall's contribution in pass protection didn't exactly cover him in glory, though.

Smith also had a decisive first down run, although that should have been two because he slid down a yard short of the marker in the first quarter. The other negative was that he lost the fumble at the end of the game, but overall the performance stands up to scrutiny.

Can he maintain this level of play even with the Jets down a few bodies? Furthermore can he raise it once the Jets have a full compliment of weapons again?

For now, it's just encouraging to see some good play from the quarterback position. Let's see if this starts to translate to wins.

Garrett Top

Wilson's performance was spectacular as he had 107 yards on 10 catches (on 13 targets). There wasn't much cheap yardage in there, either, as he only had 16 yards after the catch.

Although the aforementioned diving catch above could perhaps be called into question, his full-extension diving fingertip catch in the fourth quarter was sensational (although none of the all-22 footage does it justice).

However, that arguably still wasn't his best catch. The fourth quarter touchdown - again while being interfered with - was incredible. Also - an underrated part of this play - what a route!

Wilson's longest catch came as Smith uncorked this throw down the middle and Wilson went up to get it even though it was slightly behind him and well over his head. Smith displays elite pocket sense and footwork to get this throw off cleanly too.

This isn't the first performance Wilson has had like this, and won't be the last, but the Jets are 0-5 since 2023 when he goes over 100, so he must be yearning for a time when the rest of his team is good enough that an elite performance like this gets them a big win instead of just bravely falling heroically short.

Apparently, they're not quite there yet.

Meredith'rent Strokes

Dylan Parham's injury puts the spotlight on the recent trade for Jordan Meredith, who saw his first offensive action in his third game as a Jet.

The offense functioned pretty well with Meredith in there, driving for two touchdowns and getting down to the 23 on the final drive before Smith's fumble. However, he had some negatives including five pressures allowed in just 22 pass block snaps.

Three of those five came in stunt or blitz pickup situations rather than when blocking one-on-one, but he was bull rushed into Smith's lap once and got beaten fairly clean on this play, which gives us another excuse to admire Smith's elite pocket movement.

The results weren't much better on running plays with Meredith in. He made his block well a couple of times, including on a seven-yard run by Braelon Allen, and didn't make any other glaring mistakes. However, the other five running plays apart from that seven-yarder netted just one yard.

Perhaps his best highlight was something you like to see - a nice pancake on his second snap as he aggressively went looking for work.

It seems likely Meredith will be in the line-up for a while, pending an update on Parham's status. Hopefully he will play more like he did as a guard in 2024 than he did at center last season.

Previously: Three on D: Sherwood, Ossai, Cisco