Position at a Glance '26
The Jets will be hard pressed to match and surpass the performance of last season's special teams -- KO/punt returns, punting, placekicking and coverage.
ST coordinator Chris Banjo is entering his second season overseeing the unit that excelled in all aspects last season, from punter Austin McNamara's strong rookie season, to speedy return specialists Isaiah Williams and Kene Nwangwu and now settling on a new placekicker.
Williams was second in the league with his 29.9 yards/return. Nwangwu's 18 KO returns didn't qualify him for the NFL lead, but his 33.6 average led the league for players with at least 18 returns, and the tandem led the Jets to the No. 1 spot in the team rankings with 29.9 per return. Williams' 14.1 yards/punt return came in fourth among qualifiers, and the Jets were sixth as a team.
Against Cleveland, Nwangwu returned a KO 99 yards for a TD, and Williams took a punt return to paydirt from 74 yards -- both in the first quarter.
The Jets' special teams were ranked No. 4 by Pro Football Focus with the highest DVOA (defense-adjusted value over average) in the league at 12.4%.
"Banjo is a former player, so those guys can relate to him really, really well," HC Aaron Glenn said late last season. "And he was one of those guys that was a true special teams demon, so he understands how that part of our team has to operate in and out."
And finally, there are the coverage teams, fluid groups of players (weighted heavily with rookies and reserves) who are often overlooked, but seldom underappreciated.
Storyline to Watch
In a word: Placekicker.
Nick Folk signed in free agency with Atlanta, which means the competition has begun between two hopefuls -- Jason Sanders and Cade York.
"They're both consistently competitive, just in their approach, their process," Banjo said. "They're very, very resilient in regards of some things that may go good or may not go good, and one snap and clear and they're onto the next thing, and they've been doing a good job of that so far."
Sanders, who missed the 2025 season with a hip injury, was released by Miami in March then signed by the Giants and was released on June 2. He was Miami's seventh-round pick (No. 229 overall) in the 2018 NFL Draft and the New Mexico product ranks No. 3 in Dolphins franchise history with 826 points. His 84.6% field-goal percentage is the highest (minimum 50 attempts) in franchise history, and his 221 field goals are second only to Olindo Mare. In 2024, Sanders established a new team mark with 27 consecutive made field-goal attempts and he has connected on an NFL-high 9 consecutive field goals from 50-plus yards. Named a first-team All-Pro in 2020, Sanders set a Dolphins season record with a 92.3% field-goal percentage (36 of 39).
"I wouldn't necessarily say I was surprised, more so because I wasn't necessarily paying attention to what's going on in the rest of the league, more so to what we had going on to the building," Banjo said. "But when he [Sanders] became free, obviously, we made the move to bring him into the building. But I wouldn't necessarily say I was surprised or I wasn't surprised."
York has lived the life of a well-traveled NFL kicker -- when he signed with the Jets in March he joined his seventh team (he was on the books at Cleveland two separate times). In actuality, York has kicked for only three clubs (Cleveland, 2022; Washington and Cincinnati, 2024). York's most productive season was in 2022 when he appeared in 17 games for the Browns and converted 24-of-32 field-goal attempts (75%) with a long boot of 58 yards. The LSU product also converted 35-of-37 extra-point attempts (94.6%).
"The big thing now that we're excited about is who we have in the building now and look forward to those guys putting their best foot forward and just competing like we talk about with everybody else," Banjo said.
HC Aaron Glenn also said he likes what he's seen over Sanders' career, but made no promises.
"Obviously he did a really good job in Miami and I said this the last time we spoke, is anytime we can get a good player that can create competition, we want to bring the player in to be in to be able to create that," Glenn said. "Those guys will battle it out, I'm sure we'll see exactly how far this goes. But it's just creating competition."
What They're Saying
For an undrafted free agent punter, Austin McNamara had himself a pretty good rookie season with the Jets in 2025.
The Texas Tech product landed 32 punts inside the opposition's 20-yard line (No. 2 in the league according to Pro-FootballReference.com), 13 inside the 10, 6 touchbacks (in the top 10 among the fewest) over his 71 total punts, had 43.2 net returns yards (a franchise record and No. 6 in the league) and yielded 133 return yards (6.3 per return and No. 8 leaguewide).
"I thought he did a great job for us," Banjo said. "I thought he did everything we were trying to ask him to do. Obviously, there's always room for improvement. I mean, that's what our jobs are as coaches to try to help those guys get to that ceiling aspect of it, and I think he still has a good ways to go, but he definitely put a lot out there and put us in a lot of great positions throughout the season, so we look forward to him doing the same thing."
What does McNamara need to do for an encore?
"Just consistency, consistency in his approach, his process," Banjo said. "We talk about some different things situationally like between me and him and I think his bandwidth has kind of grown, his capacity has grown to be able to download some of the things we're trying to ask him to do, but it's really been good to see him download it again just like everyone else we've mentioned from a mental aspect and go about that process every day."
| Jets Player | Exper in '26 | '25 GP-GS-DNP-IA | '25 Scrim-ST--Total Snaps |
|---|---|---|---|
| Austin McNamara (P) | 2nd | 17 - 0 - 0 - 0 | 0 - 170 - 170 |
| Thomas Hennessy (LS) | 10th | 17 - 0 - 0 - 0 | 0 - 126 - 126 |
| Jason Sanders (K) | 8th | .................... (MIA) | .................... (MIA) |
| Cade York (K) | 3rd | .................... (NO) | .................... (NO) |
| Garrison Grimes (LS) | R | .................... | .................... |
Finished '25 Season on Injured Reserve: Sanders (MIA)
Undrafted Rookie Free Agent in '26: Grimes
ST Trivia
Nick Folk, after a top-notch season of placekicking in '25, departed for Atlanta. But the other kicker remains after a breakout first season as the Jets' punter. Austin McNamara, aided by his cover team, was 2nd in the NFL with 32 inside-the-20 kicks, 2nd in forcing 25 fair catches, and unofficially 2nd with an average hang time of 4.76 seconds. As a result, A-Mac was 3rd in the league and set the franchise record with his 43.2-yard net average.
