The Isaiah Williams story keeps adding pages and plot twists. From his early mistakes as the Jets' free agent special teams signee to his release, his return to the practice squad and a second shot at the active roster, he's now getting seemingly weekly redemption as he has moved to the upper echelon among this season's NFL kick returners.

Take his 83-yard kickoff return Sunday against Atlanta. Williams said modestly it was no big thing on his part.

"They kicked it to me, then from there we know we can make plays every time we touch the field," Williams said. "And the guys blocked it up perfectly. All I had to do was just run straight. I didn't really have to do much. I should've scored on that, but yeah, I owe them one."

Williams did more on that return than just position his team for three more points off a special teams play. He formed a neat little NFL story that had a lot to say about the Jets pulling out their 27-24 win over the Falcons. Bear with us on our deep dive touching on names you may have forgotten and teams that keep reemerging in this roundabout tale.

Williams' return elevated him into franchise record book territory. Combined with his 74-yard punt-return TD against Cleveland three games earlier, he joined Andre Roberts as the only Jets returners to take a kickoff and a punt at least 70 yards each in the same season.

No Easy Return Assignment
Roberts performed his magical runbacks in the 2018 season. A journeyman wideout, he came to the Jets off a year with the Lions in 2016 and the next season with the Falcons in '17. In his first game in green and white, the '18 opener — at Detroit — Roberts sped for a 78-yard punt-return TD in the crazy 48-17 Jets win. Then in December he unfurled his 99-yard kickoff-return score in a game the Jets led most of the way but lost, 44-38 in OT, to the Packers and Aaron Rodgers.

Other Jets over the years have come close to this arbitrary 70/70 return achievement — Kirk Springs in 1983, JoJo Townsell in '87, Leon Johnson in '97— but none had cleared this bar as a Jet (Leon Washington did it the year after being traded to Seattle in 2010) until Roberts and, on Sunday, Williams.

Even though many NFL returners have turned double 70s in a season, it also has been relatively rare recently. Chimere Dike has already accomplished it this season as a Tennessee rookie speedster, but since 2019, besides Dike and Williams, only one other returner has turned the trick.

That dangerous returner was Jamal Agnew, who in 2020, a season before Jets had coach Aaron Glenn (a top college punt returner himself) arrived as Detroit's defensive coordinator, crowned perhaps his best season as a pro returner with a 74-yard PR TD and a 71-yard KO return.

See where we're going with this?

Former Lion, Current Falcon Lends a Hand
Agnew is still dangerous in NFL kick-return circles, not quite as dynamic at 30 years of age as he was at 25 with the Lions. (But who among us is?). He moved from Detroit to Jacksonville to, this season, Atlanta. He was on the damp MetLife Stadium turf Sunday.

And not to throw him too far under the visiting team bus, but before Williams' second-half return, Agnew contributed to the Jets' special-teams effort in the first half when he muffed Austin McNamara's knuckling short punt at the Atlanta 7. Qwan'tez Stiggers recovered the loose ball at the 2 and Breece Hall barged in on the next play for the game's first score.

So two of the three 70/70 returners of the past seven NFL seasons positioned the Jets for a much-needed 10 of their 27 points in the Sunday win.

You could even say 13 of their 27 points since Willliams may have used a coaching pointer from none other than Glenn for his 16-yard return on Brad Pinion's short punt to start the Jets' final drive to Nick Folk's game-winning kick.

And Punt-Return Pointers from the HC
"This week, AG is back there with me," Isaiah Williams said about last week's practices. "I started asking him questions and he started giving me pointers. .... He was like, 'What I want you to do today, I want you to push yourself. Those short kicks that maybe sometimes you don't get to, today I want you to try to go get those.'

"My coach is pushing me to push myself. I feel like you don't get that too often."

And as a result, you don't get stories mentioning Lions, Falcons and Jets, Jamal Agnew, Andre Roberts and Williams, and Jets kick-return excellence too often, either. But it feels as if another chapter of two about the Green & White special teams is in the process of being written, just in time for the Dolphins' visit to MetLife on Sunday.