QB Brady Cook and WR/KR Isaiah Williams have more than a few things in common. They each entered the NFL as undrafted free agents, Cook with the Jets this year and Williams with the Lions in 2024. They both are from St. Louis and they both are 24 years old.

And in addition to Williams' stellar season returning punts and kickoffs (more about that later), Cook and Williams have begun to forge a promising partnership as QB and WR. In Cook's two appearances so far this season, first spelling Tyrod Taylor who left the Week 14 game against Miami with a groin injury and then as the starter last week against Jacksonville, they have hooked on for 8 completions for 57 yards. Not gaudy numbers, but they are both works in progress.

"Isaiah Williams is the best kick returner in this league, and he's a heck of a receiver," Cook said. "I think you saw it on multiple plays last week, that second drive on a huge third down [a 25-yard reception to the Jaguars' 35-yard line], being where he's supposed to be, feeling the soft spot, making a great catch. Late in the game, he had a couple good plays, a couple chemistry routes where he had options and we were on the same page. I think he's continuing to grow. He's a heck of a player. Definitely love having him as one of my receivers."

Williams, of course, has garnered most of his notice on special teams. But after being signed off the Bengals' practice squad -- he fumbled a KO return in a Monday night game at Miami and then called for a fair catch and fielded the punt at the 3-yard line. Those miscues have faded into background as Williams returned a pair of punts for TDs (and had one nullified last week at Jacksonville). He is averaging 14.1 yards per return, sixth in the league among qualifying returners through 15 weeks. His 29.7-yard average on KO returns lands him at No. 2 among qualifying players.

He's seeing more playing time among the Jets' reconfigured receiving corps, along with Adonai Mitchell and John Metchie III, each acquired via in-season trades.

"Isaiah, he just continues to do the little things right," OC Tanner Engstrand said. "He has [a] really, really good feel in the slot. He can change direction, he has a good feel for zones, what defenders are doing. I think that goes to film study and just what we're asking him to do and where those soft spots are. I think he's done a phenomenal job with those types of things. It's been really good to see."

Jets DC Chris Harris: 'A Phenomenal Moment'

One of the highlights of the 8-year NFL playing career of the Jets' new defensive coordinator Chris Harris happened on the game's biggest stage -- the Super Bowl.

It was Feb. 2, 2007 at Dolphin Stadium in Miami Gardens, Fla., when Harris' Bears faced QB Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts in Super Bowl XLI. It was a cloudy, rainy and an unseasonably cool 67-degree day in South Florida when Chicago got off the quickest start possible -- Devin Hester returned the opening kickoff 92 yards for a TD to give the Bears the early lead.

On the seventh play of the Colts' first drive, a Manning pass intended for Marvin Harrison was picked off by Harris, a free safety, at Chicago's 30-yard line and returned 6 yards.

"It was a phenomenal moment," Harris said on Thursday. "Probably one of the best moments of my NFL career is to be able to get in the Super Bowl and get an interception in the biggest game of my career against a Hall of Fame quarterback, Peyton Manning. So it's pretty [was a] sweet moment."

Manning would go on to complete 25-of-38 passes for 247 yards and a TD (to Reggie Wayne) in the Colts' 29-17 victory.

1 Stop on Brady Cook's 'Tour'

QB Brady Cook made only one "30 visit" before the 2025 NFL Draft, stopping in to meet and greet at 1 Jets Drive. The Missouri product then sat back at the end of April and watched as 257 players were selected by 32 teams through seven rounds of the draft. He was not among them.

"It was my only '30 visit,' and I definitely felt alignment when I took a visit here," Cook said. "I met with AG, I met with [OC] Tanner [Engstrand], I met with the whole staff, and I felt alignment. And it's been exactly what I expected since I showed up, exactly what they said they were going to do, they did. And this is why I chose the Jets opportunity, and because I believed in AG.

"That's how the pre-draft process went for me. Obviously I went undrafted. I didn't have as much hype in that process. And I think it worked out."

Cook signed with the Jets as an UDFA on May 9, was waived on Aug. 26 as part of the team's final roster cuts, then signed to the practice squad. He was elevated to the active roster in early December when Justin Fields was inactive ahead of the Week 14 game against Miami and was thrust into the game, with the Jets trailing, 21-0, when Tyrod Taylor sustained a groin injury. He will be making his second start of his NFL career Sunday at New Orleans.

"I had a couple [of opportunities] and was deciding between a few teams," he said. "And obviously the Jets were the only team I took a visit to. So I had a relationship with the staff, I kind of knew what their vision was and where they saw me in the picture, and it was a pretty easy decision."