The Jets’ kicking situation was already shaky before Sunday’s opener against Tennessee, and Jason Sanders did nothing to calm it down.
Aaron Glenn chose Sanders for Week 1 over recently claimed veteran Blake Grupe, even after Sanders’ rough preseason nearly knocked him off the roster. That call came after a summer in which Sanders, who spent seven seasons in Miami and missed all of 2025 with a hip injury, had to fight his way back into the conversation. Glenn stuck with him anyway.
Then came the second quarter.
On fourth-and-8, Sanders stepped in for a try that would have pushed New York ahead 13-3. Instead, the ball flew badly wide left in a miss so ugly it barely looked like a field-goal attempt.
“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.”
“Some are saying this is the worst kick in #NFL history,” uSTADIUM piled on.
The miss was costly in more ways than one. Tennessee got the ball back down just a touchdown, and New York gave away field position it could not afford to lose.
Reaction online was immediate and brutal. “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.
Sanders’ preseason problems were no secret. In the Giants game that closed the exhibition slate, he missed both an extra point and a 54-yard attempt.
The Jets released him briefly, claimed Grupe off waivers, then brought Sanders back on the practice squad just days later. They even worked out free agent Justin Tucker as they searched for answers before ultimately going with Sanders for the opener.
Glenn said before the game that the Jets wouldn’t overreact to the preseason mess. Sunday’s miss is likely to reopen that debate fast, especially with Grupe still on the active roster.
Still, Sanders has at least kept himself in the game. Heading into the fourth quarter, he had hit from 33 and 51 yards and made an extra point, accounting for seven of the Jets’ 20 points. Whether that’s enough to keep the job beyond Week 1 is now very much up in the air.
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