The Jets’ kicking situation was already hanging by a thread before kickoff Sunday, and Jason Sanders did nothing to calm it down against Tennessee.
Aaron Glenn had just handed Sanders the Week 1 job after a shaky preseason and a roster battle that nearly went the other way. Sanders, who spent seven seasons in Miami and missed all of 2025 with a hip injury, beat out recently claimed veteran Blake Grupe for the opener. But the first real pressure point of the season arrived in the second quarter, and it was ugly.
Facing fourth-and-8, Sanders came on for a kick that would have stretched New York’s lead to 13-3. Instead, the ball hooked badly wide left in a miss so severe it barely looked like a normal field goal attempt.
One Jets writer put it bluntly online: “That’s about as bad a kick as you’ll ever see at the pro level,” one Jets writer shared online, sharing video of the miss. “I was sure it was blocked, but it was just a clean shank.”
The reaction online was immediate and brutal. “Some are saying this is the worst kick in #NFL history,” uSTADIUM posted.
The miss mattered, too. Tennessee got the ball back still down by only a touchdown, flipping field position in a way New York couldn’t afford.
One fan went even further in blasting the decision to stick with Sanders: “The Jets need to FIRE Aaron Glenn immediately after this game, win or lose. Kicker Jason Sanders was the WORST player in the NFL in the preseason, missing all his FG and extra points.
So Glenn tries a 54-yarder with him just now? Sanders misses so badly which every single Jets fan knew would happen.
Glenn is totally incompetent,” one fan wrote.
That frustration didn’t come out of nowhere. Sanders’ preseason ended with a rough showing against the Giants, where he missed both an extra point and a 54-yard attempt in the same game.
The Jets cut him briefly, claimed Grupe off waivers, then brought Sanders back on the practice squad a few days later. They even looked into free agent Justin Tucker during the search for stability before settling on Sanders for Week 1.
Glenn tried to downplay the kicking concerns before Sunday’s game, saying the Jets wouldn’t panic over the preseason results. But the miss will only crank up the pressure again, especially with Grupe still on the active roster as an available option.
And Sanders did eventually get something back on the board. By the fourth quarter, he had connected on kicks from 33 and 51 yards, along with an extra point, accounting for seven of the Jets’ 20 points. Still, the second-quarter shank is the one that will hang over this decision.
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