Special Special Teams

Edition #558

Good morning! ☕

Welcome to another week of TJW. We’ve seen some outstanding NFL action this weekend, but for the Jets, it’s off-season activities as standard. It’s going to be pretty quiet for a couple of weeks, so bare with me as I get into the college tape.

🏆 A huge congratulations to linebacker Quincy Williams and cornerback Sauce Gardner who were both named First-Team AP All-Pro this season. Quincy may have missed out on the popularity contest that is the Pro Bowl, but I’m glad he was recognised by what matters. I love both stories, Quincy went from being cut to being an All-Pro. Sauce becomes the first Jet since the merger to make first-team AP All-Pro in each of his first two seasons. He also became only the 7th Jet since the Merger to have multiple selections and just the 11th all-time. That’s pretty special for a player so young.

🔴🔵 Everyone thought that the Patriots would be hiring Mike Vrabel, who won 3 Super Bowls with the Patriots and was inducted into the New England Patriots Hall of Fame, but according to reports Robert Kraft always intended to hire Jared Mayo, and didn’t even contact any other candidate before making it official. A lot of people are saying that’s a mistake, when it comes to the Patriots I’m always inclined to wait and see.

🐬⛔ We had to hear how dangerous the Dolphins were all season from the beat in Florida. We heard how they were Super Bowl contenders. Then they lost the division on the last day to the Bills, then they lost in the first round of the playoffs to the Chiefs. Why did they lose? Because all season they showed they couldn't compete with the best teams in the league. Just look at the below.

🔴⚪ Houston absolutely trounced the Cleveland Browns and it's important to remember they were 3-13 last season. This is what happens when you get a lot of decisions right…especially the drafting of a top-tier QB.

🔵 There was also a first playoff win for the Lions in over 30 years, that was pretty awesome. The Cowboys fell at the first hurdle again, and the Bills/Steelers will play their matchup tonight due to weather concerns in Buffalo.

📢 OBJ gave an interview to the Punch Line Podcast, in it when explained that he was very close to coming back to New York . But he also had a few pieces in there where he said that the Jets “felt that they were the best team” and that it “would be a privilege for me to be over there.”. I think the acquisition of Rodgers gave the Jets a false sense of arrogance, a team that hasn't been to the playoffs since 2010 should have zero arrogance.

🚀 Rich Cimini explained on his podcast that he’d be very surprised if the Jets tagged Bryce Huff. “Let me clear this up to all the Jets fans out there who think the Jets are going to tag Bryce Huff. I would be very surprised if that happens because the projected franchise tag for a defensive end is going to be $23 million dollars,” The Jets have had 18 months to sign Huff, we saw his talent throughout 2022 and that was the time to lock him up. We let it roll through 2023 and his value continued to rise. Now it’s unlikely that he’ll be back with the Jets, as I just don’t think we’ll be able to offer him two things. The playing time he craves and the most guaranteed money.

If you’ve read TJW for any length of time, you’ll know that I’m a big special teams guy. So each year I eagerly anticipate Rick Gosselin’s final unit rankings for the regular season.

Gosselin has been doing his rankings for 38 years now and it’s the most thorough ranking on the market, looking at 22 different data points and then ranking the units. The lower your overall score, the better you are.

The Jets finished this year as the 3rd best special teams unit in football. When you combine that with the fact that the Jets had the #1 defence according to Pro Football Focus, you can see just how much the offence held us back.

Frank Ross, the special teams coordinator in Houston became just the third coach to guide a unit to the #1 ranking in consecutive years. As Saleh did with Brant Boyer, DeMeco Ryans decided to keep Ross after he took over the 3-13-1 Houston Texans.

Interestingly one of the best special teams players in the league and a guy who made 13 tackles for Houston on specials this year, is our old friend Neville Hewitt.

The Jets ranked as the best kickoff coverage team in the NFL, the best unit in terms of generating the lowest yardage on opposition punts and the joint-best in terms of the number of field goals kicked (not always a good thing if you’re the offence, but a good number if you’re Special teams).

The Jets had an outstanding unit this year led by Greg Zuerlein who hit 92.1% of his field goals including 5-6 from 50+ yards, both are top-10 numbers. Thomas Morestead was one of the most consistent punters and had 40 punts downed inside the twenty, which was good for 2nd in the league. Ashtyn Davis then led the coverage unit with 10 tackles, 2 ahead of Jamien Sherwood and Irv Charles.

Brant Boyer guided the Jets to 9th last year, and has followed that up by climbing 6 spaces all the way to 3rd. For as much heat as Hackett gets, I don’t think Boyer gets enough credit.