Chris Banjo’s grip on the Jets’ special teams job looks shakier by the week, and Sunday’s latest breakdown against the Raiders only turned up the heat.
What once looked like one of Aaron Glenn’s sharpest hires has gone sideways fast in 2026. Banjo entered Week 8 already dealing with a unit that had slipped in almost every area, with kick coverage standing out as the biggest problem. Then came the play that made the whole thing feel even uglier: after Geno Smith hit returner Isaiah Williams for a touchdown that gave the Jets a 13-7 lead, Las Vegas answered immediately.
Dylan Laube took the ensuing kickoff 95 yards to the house, giving the Raiders the lead with their first kickoff return touchdown since the 2011 season. For a Jets special teams group that was supposed to be a strength, it was another brutal flashpoint.
The contrast with last year is hard to ignore. Banjo’s 2025 unit was ranked at the top, and even with injuries to players like Marcelino McCrary-Ball and Kiko Mauigoa, it still held up despite the Jets cycling through replacements.
A step back was always possible. This kind of collapse was not.
The decision that backfired most on this play was Austin McNamara handling the kickoff instead of Jason Sanders. McNamara, who has not been as crisp as he was last year, booted his first kick out of bounds and then watched Laube bring another one back. Sanders was later inserted again as the kicker.
That kind of move can be explained as an attempt to tinker with a struggling unit, but it blew up right away.
Williams, meanwhile, has not been able to match the electric kick-return production he flashed last season, when he played at a fringe All-Pro level. His averages are down, and the Jets keep losing the field-position battle because of it.
The one part of the special teams operation that has held up best has been the kicking game. Sanders, who raised eyebrows in the preseason when he was kicking over Blake Grupe, came into Week 8 with only two missed field goals and kept rolling from there.
Still, after another faceplant following a start that had offered at least a little hope, nobody around this unit should feel secure. Banjo’s regression is making that impossible to ignore.
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