EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Welcome to the Friday Five, gameday edition!

Each week during the NFL regular season, I will drop five Patriots-related thoughts on Friday, which today breaks down Thursday’s 24-3 road loss to the Jets.

Ready, set, football.

1. Talent deficit exposed

The Patriots’ rebuild was and remains no secret. This is a youth movement. Youth means growing pains.

But did the Pats’ depth chart have to be this thin? To the point their roster looked like it was pulled out of a preseason game?

Consider: on certain snaps Thursday night, the Patriots fielded undrafted rookie safety Dell Pettus, unknown defensive tackle Jeremiah Pharms Jr. and linebacker/core special teamer Christian Elliss. Not separately – all together.

Other plays featured Pettus teaming with free-agent addition and one time special teamer Jaylinn Hawkins at safety. In obvious passing situations, the Pats rolled out run-stoppers in Pharms Jr., nose tackle Davon Godchaux and outside linebacker Anfernee Jennings. Recent waiver claim Eric Johnson, a defensive tackle with zero career starts, also appeared.

And that was only on defense.

Offensively, third-round rookie offensive tackle Caedan Wallace made his first start on the left side since high school. He worked next to promoted practice-squad veteran Michael Jordan, a left guard whose counterpart on the right side is fourth-round rookie Layden Robinson. Of course, injuries have slammed both sides of the ball; Christian Barmore, Ja’Whaun Bentley and Vederian Lowe, to name a few. But that only underscores how fragile this roster is.

One injury to a starter and poof! Most any position becomes a weakness, or worse: an unsolvable problem.

After Week 1, many wondered how many games the Patriots could win like their season opener. If they simply play clean football, out-last and out-wit and out-tough their opponents, might that be enough to spur a surprise season? That question omitted two others: how healthy are they? And will it even matter?

2. A dose of their own medicine

Ball-control offense.

Sound defense.

A butt-whooping in time of possession.

The Jets beat the Patriots at their own game, wisely recognizing that until Jacoby Brissett and Co. prove otherwise, they have no plan B. The Pats must run the ball well. They must stay within a score. Otherwise, they’re cooked.

Meanwhile, New York produced five drives of eight-plus plays, including three that went for 11 or more. Aaron Rodgers killed the Pats with his mobility, something that looked like a weakness in previous games. He escaped rushers, extended plays and slung darts to convert third downs.

The Jets went 10-of-15 on third down. They finished with 27 first downs. The Pats had 48 total offensive plays. That says it all.

3. Stevenson’s butterfingers

The Patriots have built their entire offensive identity around Rhamondre Stevenson.

He touched the ball on more than half of his offensive snaps in Weeks 1 and 2, propelling them to an upset at Cincinnati. You remember the 118 yards after contact against the Bengals, and his touchdown run against Seattle, which made it easy to forget he fumbled in both games. But not Thursday night.

Stevenson coughed up the ball for a third time in as many weeks, and rode the bench for the rest of the game. It’s unacceptable. Untenable. Stevenson is carrying not only the offense, but the franchise on his touches.

He needs to tighten it up.

4. Keep Maye on the bench

With 4:24 remaining, the Patriots replaced Brissett with Drake Maye.

Maye conducted a 16-play drive that killed the rest of the clock and ended just shy of the end zone. He took two sacks, a separate quarterback hit and got de-cleated on a 1-yard scramble. The Patriots could hardly field an offensive line in front of him, deploying fourth-string left tackle Demontrey Jacobs and third-string left guard Zach Johnson, both waiver additions after cutdown day last month.

If that wasn’t evidence enough that Maye should not see the field any time soon, Brissett’s snaps should suffice. The Jets tallied two sacks and an additional QB hit on unblocked pressure in the first half alone. Brissett took five sacks.

The Patriots’ kicked off Thursday having allowed pressure on a preposterous 45% of their passing snaps. That figure might in fact be higher heading into Week 4.

5. Bentley missed

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The Jets game-planned to put the Patriots defense in heavy personnel, bulking up with a combined seven defensive linemen and linebackers for half of their first touchdown drive. It’s impossible to know how they might have schemed if Ja’Whaun Bentley were healthy, but the Pats were unquestionably worse off without their biggest, most experienced linebacker.

Bentley’s replacement, Raekwon McMillan, missed a tackle that led to a first-down run on the Jets’ initial touchdown drive. On the same series, Jahlani Tavai got flagged for unnecessary roughness. The Patriots whiffed on 14 tackle attempts, per Next Gen Stats; a number pulled straight out of a high school game.

The Jets piled up 133 rushing yards, the most the Pats have allowed all season by 63. Look for the 49ers to ground and pound Jerod Mayo’s mash unit next week. The run defense Mayo once proclaimed would always rank among the league’s best is no longer a sure thing.