Madison — With the Badgers on an early bye week, BadgerBlitz.com will examine Wisconsin unit by unit and analyze who's overachieved and who's underachieved to this point in the season.

We'll get things started with the offense.

Overachiever: No one. This exercise is difficult when only one player has logged meaningful snaps.

Underachiever: It's hard to put Tanner Mordecai here, as he's rarely been detrimental to the team. He's played mostly solid football through four games, but not compared to the numbers he's used to putting up. So far as a Badger, Mordecai has tossed for 877 yards, two touchdowns and three picks. He's also collected four rushing touchdowns. Contrast that to four games into last season with SMU where he threw for 1,385 yards, 12 touchdowns and five interceptions. Now, it's worth noting that he's completing his passes at a much more efficient percentage this season — 66.4 to 58.4 a year ago — but it's still not the production we expected from a quarterback with his career numbers.

Overachiever: Chez Mellusi. Yes, we've likely seen the last of Mellusi in 2023. Still, the tailback was having a phenomenal season that's worthy of a mention as an overachiever at the bye week.

Mellusi was easily on pace for a career year in every category. With four rushing touchdowns, he almost matched his career high of five through a third of the season. His 6.0 yards-per-carry would easily be his highest ever. He looked like he added another gear this season and had truly evolved as a running back, which makes his season-ending fractured fibula even more heartbreaking.

Underachievers: Backup tailbacks. This offseason, Jackson Acker and Cade Yacamelli go their chance to compete for the RB3 spot and impress in practice. And at times, impress they did. Four weeks into the season, however, neither has done much to write home about.

Yacamelli hasn't even seen the field. Acker has been uninspiring when he has — eight carries for 31 yards at 3.9 yards a pop. It's understandable that Phil Longo has given the majority of his carries to Braelon Allen and Mellusi at this point, but now, these two backs will be thrust into the limelight as they try to replace the production of Mellusi.

Overachiever: Aside from quarterback, wide receiver was likely the most talked-about position on Wisconsin's offense this season. With four transfers and what appeared to be a loaded room, that's understandable. One wide out, however, has surpassed what were tepid expectations this offseason.

That would be Skyler Bell. During spring and fall practices, the narrative was that Bell was competing with Will Pauling for the starting slot position, and the transfer Pauling got most of the shine. Now, Bell is tied for first amongst wide receivers in catches with 14, tied with — you guessed it — Pauling.

Bell has dropped the football on a couple of catchable passes that would've been big plays or perhaps even touchdowns. Besides those two blemishes, though, the wide out has looked as shifty and reliable as he has in his career thus far. He's twitchy after the catch, and has made some highlight grabs despite the aforementioned drops. He also has one of two Wisconsin receiving touchdowns this season.

Underachievers: It's fair to say that two wide receivers have underachieved, both of whom transferred to the program this offseason.

Bryson Green and CJ Williams are both playing below their potential. Some of that has to do with with usage, as Williams simply hasn't been thrown at a whole lot. He's caught nine of his 14 targets for 81 yards. While he's coming off a career game against Purdue, the pure talent Williams displayed in offseason practices simply isn't coming through on the field right now.

Green, on the other hand, just hasn't been making plays at the clip expected of him. Unlike Willams, he's seen his fare share of targets with 19. He's only managed to reel in eight of them for 83 yards. He's tied with Chimere Dike for the longest play by a Badgers' wide out this season with 41 yards, but he hasn't been the consistent threat that he's capable of being.

Williams and Green both have too much talent for neither of them to have reached 10 catches or 100 yards this season.

Overachiever: Tucker Ashcraft. Ashcraft started making waves late in fall camp. Now, he leads all tight ends in production with four catches for 68 yards.

Ashcraft, like the rest of the tight ends, have been a minor part of this offense through four games. Still, what the true freshman has done is impressive. Whenever he catches a pass, it seems to always be for a healthy chunk of yards. The 6-foot-5, 245 pound target is one of the most promising young tight ends in recent memory for Wisconsin.

Underachiever: The entire position group. Last season in Chapel Hill, Longo's tight ends combined for 79 catches for 1,087 yards and eight touchdowns. That's almost laughable when you look at the numbers Badgers' tight ends have posted this season: seven catches for 124 yards and no scores.

Yes, tight end is objectively one of the weaker position groups on the roster. But Wisconsin's tight ends right now just don't pose any major threat to opposing defenses. The biggest play a tight end has made all season was a 45-yard catch-and-run from Hayden Rucci against Georgia Southern...with the game essentially out of reach. As more onus falls on the passing game to move the football in the absence of Mellusi, look for tight ends to become more involved in the coming weeks.

Overachiever: Trey Wedig. He's considered a starting-caliber player by the staff, and has been rotating in at right guard with Michael Furtney, who managed to hang onto his starting spot despite getting supplanted by Wedig last season. Wedig, though, has been the much more impressive player, and the two are essentially co-starters at this point in the season.

Wedig has been nearly flawless from a pass-blocking perspective. He has less pass-blocking reps than the other starters along the offensive front, but he's still allowed zero pressures in 68 opportunities, according to Pro Football Focus. That's very impressive.

Underachiever: Jack Nelson. Over the past two games, Nelson has been absolutely light out Mordecai's blindside protector. He's allowed zero pressures over the course of 67 pass-blocking snaps. Still, Nelson struggled early this season, especially against Washington State.

On the road in Pullman, the tackle allowed six pressures, four hurries and two sacks. Those are staggering numbers for a tackle that has NFL Draft aspirations, and has played like it for much of his career. Give Nelson credit for turning it around in recent weeks, but his mistakes in pass protection against Washington State were back-breaking.

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