(French narrator voice) Ah, the preseason. So fascinating. So wonderful.

Whether it’s Temple UDFA Robbie Anderson leading the NFL in receiving yards or 29-year-old Takk McKinley suddenly looking like prime Von Miller, the preseason can always be trusted to yield inspirational stories of unwavering hope.

This is a beautiful time of year, teeming with boundless optimism. Any player from any background can convince his team’s fans to believe that maybe, just maybe, they can translate their dazzling production to the regular season.

It rarely happens.

It would be naive, though, to say that it never happens.

Just one year after leading the preseason in receiving yards, an undrafted UMass wideout named Victor Cruz was the leading receiver for the Super Bowl champions.

In 2016, an unheralded fourth-round quarterback from Mississippi State threaded needles with the precision of a world-class surgeon throughout his three preseason performances. The rookie completed 39 of 50 passes (78%) for 454 yards and totaled seven touchdowns with no interceptions.

He is now on track to close the 2025 season as the leading passer in Dallas Cowboys history.

Those players were rookies, but we have seen veteran players foreshadow an incoming breakout, too.

Three years ago, a 31-year-old quarterback was Pro Football Focus’ top-graded passer of the preseason, outshining 80 other quarterbacks who threw at least 15 pass attempts. At the time, it was easy to write off his performance, as he was known as a former Jets bust who had become a journeyman backup.

He went on to win Comeback Player of the Year and earn his first of two consecutive Pro Bowl trips.

It’s possible to translate preseason stardom to the regular season. But how do we separate the fluky flashes from legitimate signs of potential?

Consistency.

When Cruz lit up the 2010 preseason, he maintained his success each and every week. After breaking out with a 145-yard opener against the Jets, he still picked up nine first downs through the air over the next three contests.

When Dak Prescott staked his claim as the Cowboys’ starting quarterback in 2016, he looked just as impressive each week he took the field. Prescott had an adjusted completion percentage (which accounts for drops) north of 85% in all three of his preseason outings.

Keeping with the theme, Geno Smith had an adjusted completion percentage (which accounts for drops) above 80% in each of his three exhibition appearances.

If a player repeatedly shows the same positive signs, there is a much higher chance that his success will be sustained. The key is to identify players who log positive reps over and over again, as opposed to the ones who inflate their stats with one outlier of a game or a couple of massive plays.

That brings us to the 2025 New York Jets – specifically, their top stars from last weekend’s preseason opener.

In a 30-10 blowout win, many Jets players performed well. Some made a nice play or two. Others took it to a whole different level, stringing together marvelous performances that suggest they might be capable of making a surprising impact in the regular season.

For those players, the goal is to do what Cruz, Prescott, and Smith did: Keep it going.

The following Jets players aim to turn their flashes into trends at the Snoopy Bowl.

DT Jay Tufele

Jay Tufele is a 26-year-old former fourth-round pick with 0.5 sacks in 34 NFL games. His Relative Athletic Score (RAS) coming out of USC was a mediocre 6.46.

With that type of resume, it was easy to write Tufele off as nothing more than a camp body when the Jets signed him.

Now, he is surging toward a starting spot next to one of the best defensive tackles in the NFL.

Tufele’s performance in Saturday’s opener has the chance to go down as something more than just a great preseason game. He displayed athleticism that nobody could have anticipated from him based on his career resume. Most importantly, he did it consistently.

The fifth-year man registered 1.5 sacks, a fumble recovery touchdown, and multiple high-quality pressures on top of the flashy plays. Some of his wins came against the Packers’ big-money left guard, Aaron Banks. PFF rated Tufele with a 90.5 pass-rush grade, fourth-best in the preseason among defensive tackles (among 228 qualifiers).

It remains nothing more than a single preseason game at the moment, but the process with which Tufele arrived at that performance feels like it could have been a sign of legitimate development as an athlete and football player. Aside from the fumble recovery, he didn’t luck into his production. He looked like a new player compared to his career resume.

If Tufele looks just as athletic and dominant across the next two preseason games, he will enter the season as a legitimate breakout candidate. For now, he’s only had one random explosion in the preseason.

RB Donovan Edwards

Tufele was the Jets’ most intriguing veteran of the opener. Donovan Edwards stole the show among the rookie class.

The Michigan product went undrafted after a four-year run with the Wolverines that peaked in Year 2. After leading the Big Ten in yards per carry as a sophomore, Edwards’ role and efficiency shrank over the following two seasons.

Edwards helped his draft stock with an incredible combine. He registered a 9.78 RAS, highlighted by a 4.44 forty time.

With his early breakout at a powerhouse school and a top-tier athletic profile, Edwards was viewed as a draftable prospect by the consensus of draft analysts around the internet. The NFL disagreed. New York scooped him up as an undrafted free agent.

Edwards received most of the Jets’ second-half carries in the preseason opener, and he looked excellent. While the highlight was a 73-yard touchdown run wiped out by a holding penalty, the most important aspect of Edwards’ performance was his consistency.

The 22-year-old gained at least four yards on all but one of his nine carries. He pulled it off despite gaining 36 of his 42 rushing yards (86%) after contact. Behind a bottom-of-the-roster offensive line, Edwards consistently displayed excellent vision, contact balance, and elusiveness.

Edwards was passed over in the draft 257 times. After being thoroughly evaluated by 32 NFL teams, none thought he was worthy of a draft pick.

Going from that to a 53-man roster spot will take more than one great preseason game. But it was one heck of a performance, elevating Edwards from a near-certain cut to a player who could force the Jets to make a difficult decision. It was the type of showing that could be sustained.

With two more games like that, Edwards can affirm his status as a player who should have been drafted. At that point, the Jets might view him as too talented to risk losing.

For Tufele and Edwards, tonight is all about turning flashes into trends.

Countless players look like stars in the preseason each week. However, only a few of them maintain that production throughout the entire preseason. Of those, even fewer do it in a fashion that suggests the player has achieved legitimate, sustainable progress.

Tufele looked like a reinvented athlete in Green Bay. Edwards looked like the kid who led the Big Ten in yards per carry at 19 years old.

Will they continue to embody those forms? Or will they allow Week 1 to go down as nothing more than a flash in the pan?

We’ll find out soon.