Punters, some would say, are a necessary NFL evil. Because they produce no scoreboard points directly and a new crop of them arrives every draft and undrafted free agency signing period, they usually are quite replaceable. The annual churn at the position, from team to team, in and out of the league, can be turbulent.
Yet sometimes it's smart football not to churn and just let the cream rise. That could be what's happening with Jets punter Austin McNamara.
"I'm just coming to work every single day," McNamara told nyjets.com reporter Susanna Weir after Thursday's practice ahead of Sunday's return to MetLife Stadium against Carolina, ticking off the relationships he's been building with special teams coordinator Chris Banjo, ST assistant coach Kevin O'Dea, kicker Nick Folk, snapper Thomas Hennessy and his cover team.
"I've had a pretty good routine since Week 1, even going back to training camp," McNamara said. "I'm getting more and more comfortable here with the guys and with Thomas, Nick, Coach O'Dea, Coach Banjo, and AG [HC Aaron Glenn], obviously. They let me be me and just hit my ball."
"I think Austin's been a tremendous weapon in terms of some of the things we've been able to do with some of the returners that we played," Banjo said. "When you talk about pinning guys deeper in their territory, whatever the case may be, I think he's done a good job of being a weapon for us."
It initially was hard to see how McNamara would be able to do anything except give Thomas Morstead's leg an occasional rest. Morstead is the surgical professional who landed with the Jets in a fill-in role for the injured Braden Mann in 2021 and impressed the club so much that he re-signed with the Jets in 2023-24, setting franchise records in '23 for gross (48.8) and net (41.8) averages.
But Morstead, 39, entering his 17th season this year and now with the 49ers, was near the top of the punter payscale. McNamara, 24, signed as a UDFA by Cincinnati after the '24 draft, then released, then signed by the Jets in March, was not.
"Thomas was great, to kind of learn from him and talk with him," McNamara said. "He's obviously been a legend for a long time in the game. I aspire to be that one day."
There are no legend-status guarantees for a first-year punter who could find himself in the churn at some point down the road. But McNamara is stating a strong case for himself as a Jet in 5-second increments. That's as in his hang time. He is the type of stealth punter that Bill Parcells certainly appreciated with Dave Jennings, former Giants and Jets punter and the "inventor" of net average in the mid-Seventies. The kind that Parcells disciple Glenn and Banjo were seeking in their next punter.
"The reason I got signed here in the first place was because of my hang time," McNamara said. "That's always been a strength of mine, even going back to my college and high school days. It's something I work on every day in the offseason and in practice, just trying to give my guys the best chance to go down and cover and limit returns. That's kind of been the hidden yardage — not an awesome stat sheet, but at the end of the day we try to out-net everyone as far as competition goes."
True to his self-scout, McNamara is not a 70-yard rocket man. His long punt is 58 yards and his 47.8-yard average on 24 kicks is 17th among qualifying punters. But where Morstead had one punt hang longer than 5.0 seconds in '23-24 combined, McNamara unofficially has launched 10 of his 24 punts for 5.0-plus seconds. Appropriately enough, the net average on his 5-second punts is 5 yards better than the net on his sub-5-second kicks.
And one of those skyballs, unofficially 5.08 seconds, was corralled by Arian Smith and Kene Nwangwu at the Broncos 3 in London to set up, one play later, the defense's safety and the Jets' short-lived 11-10 lead.
"We talk every week about special teams having an impact on a game," McNamara said. "So for us in the punt game, whether limiting returns on a fair catch or downing the ball inside the 5 to put our defense in the best position possible to try and get some points, it's cool to help the defense out."
Some six-week bottom lines for A-Mac: His 45.3-yard net is fifth-best in the NFL. Opposing returners are averaging 4.4 yards/return, third-best by a punter and a team. And along with the Jets' blanket coverage, 75% of his punts (18 of 24) have either not been returned or have been run back for loss or no gain.
It's all a part of this new Jets punter's early career that's gotten off on the right foot.
"I take pride in what I do, focus on me and put the team in the best position possible to win," McNamara said. "I'm just trying to do my part."
