For a stretch last season, the New York Jets’ special teams looked like the part of the roster most likely to swing a game. The offense could not do much, but the return game kept delivering. Now that edge has vanished.
In 2025, the Jets put up four special teams touchdowns, with three coming on returns - two punt returns and one kick return. They also had a third punt return touchdown wiped out by what the source described as a dubious penalty.
Even when the ball did not go all the way to the end zone, the return units kept tilting the field. The kick return group produced three returns into opponent territory, and the punt return team added three returns that left the opposition with a net punt of 30 yards or fewer.
By the numbers, New York finished first in yards per kick return at 29.9 and sixth in yards per punt return at 13.4.
That explosiveness changed the way opponents handled kickoffs. By the end of the year, teams were choosing touchbacks rather than risk giving the Jets a shot to bring one back - a rare move in the modern 35-yard line era. The offense may have been part of that calculation, but the bigger point was obvious: opponents wanted no part of New York’s return game.
One year later, none of that spark has carried over.
Through seven games, the Jets have not scored a return touchdown, and they have not even produced a kick return into opponent territory or a punt return that ended with a net punt of 30 yards or fewer. Last season, they had nine total returns that fit one of those game-changing categories. This season, they have none.
That matters in a season where the Jets have already dropped four one-score games. Return units are supposed to create the occasional sudden lift, the kind that can flip a tight matchup without warning. Instead, New York has watched the big return plays go the other direction - including the huge punt return they allowed to Green Bay in the Week 2 overtime loss.
The strange part is that the names at the top have not changed much. Isaiah Williams and Kene Nwangwu, both of whom drew All-Pro votes for the Jets last year, are still the main return men.
Williams has handled all of the punt returns and 11 of the team’s 24 kick returns, while Nwangwu has taken 11 kick returns. The problem is production.
Both players have been far less effective than they were a year ago.
Nwangwu has missed four games because of injury, but even when he has been available, he has not looked like the same player. His kick return average has fallen to a career-low 22.8 yards, almost seven yards under his previous career mark of 29.7.
Williams has taken a step back as well. His punt return average has dropped from 14.1 to 10.5, and his kick return average has gone from 29.9 to 25.2.
Chris Banjo is still running the special teams, so the answer does not lie in a coaching change. The bigger clue is probably the group working around the returners. Special teams success is built by 10 other players on the field, and the Jets’ blocking units look very different from the ones that helped fuel last year’s explosion.
Of the Jets’ top 10 players in kick return snaps last season, excluding Isaiah Williams, five are no longer on the team, and Kiko Mauigoa has spent most of this season injured. The list included Andrew Beck, Isaiah Davis, Mykal Walker, Jeremy Ruckert, Stone Smartt, Isaiah Oliver, Cam Jones, Qwan’tez Stiggers, Kiko Mauigoa and Kobe King.
The punt return group has turned over too. Only three of last year’s top 10 players in punt return snaps remain among this year’s top 10: Andrew Beck, Isaiah Oliver and Mykal Walker. The rest of the old core has been replaced by a different mix.
That kind of churn can wreck the timing and cohesion a return game needs. Beck and Stiggers are still in the mix on the blocking side, but two players out of 10 cannot carry the whole job.
A return that breaks open usually needs the entire operation to line up just right, and that was happening often enough for the Jets in 2025. It is not happening now.
That is the reality of special teams in the NFL. The coach, the kicker, the punter and the returners may stay recognizable, but the under-the-radar blockers rarely do. Those are the players who often make the difference between an ordinary return and a field-flipping one.
Last year, the Jets caught lightning in a bottle. This year, the bottle looks empty, and the missing piece appears to be the collection of unsung blockers who quietly made the magic possible.
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