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After the Jets loss over New England, Aaron Glenn was talking about some of the things that need to improve and that included special teams.
“Special teams, we weren’t our normal selves when it comes to special teams, and that comes to covering kicks and returning all kicks,” Glenn said. “That’s something I’ll have to make sure I look at, make sure we get on the same page when it comes to that and get better at that because that’s one thing that we really pride ourselves on.”
This was the third game back for kick returner Kene Nwangwu (pictured above), who missed the first three games with a back injury.
On 11 returns, he’s averaged 22.8 yards per return, the lowest of his career.
Usually an electrifying returner, who has five kick returns for touchdowns in his NFL career, including two for the Jets, one each in 2024 and 2025, something seems a little off this season.
Perhaps the back injury is lingering a tad, because in the last three games he doesn’t seem to be displaying the same burst as he did in his first two seasons with the Jets.
Granted, the blocking on some of these returns has not been ideal, but this player, who ran a sub-4.4 forty when he entered the league with Minnesota in 2021, doesn’t seem as explosive in this three-game sample as in the past.
Perhaps he’s still getting his sea legs back after three weeks rehabbing a back ailment . . .
At times, it seems the Jets’ passing game needs to take a few more risks.
On Monday, we mentioned a six-yard pass at the end of the half in New England on a third-and-10, which was somewhat perplexing.
CBS game analyst Adam Archuleta feels the Patriots were more than happy to give the Jets passes like this.
“They are trying to get (QB Geno) Smith to check the ball down and tackle,” Archuleta said.
Teams will give you that stuff all day.
They will let you dump the ball underneath and rally to the ball to keep it to a minimal gain.
NFL defensive coordinators are focused like a laser on limiting “explosive” as they like to say. In other words, explosive passing plays downfield.
The Jets really only had one of those in their loss to New England: a 48-yard TD strike from Smith to WR Omar Cooper.
This was a little bit of a blown coverage, perhaps due to the extra attention Garrett Wilson garnered on a crossing route.
But the Jets have too many weapons in the passing game to not have more “explosives.”
Rookies Cooper and Kenyon Sadiq look like keepers. Mason Taylor has earned more looks in the passing game, as has the underrated Isaiah Williams.
So the concept of getting more “explosives” in the passing game is not code for getting Wilson the ball more, which some are banging the drum about, but spreading the ball around to all the weapons, and taking advantage of all the double teams that the Jets #1 receiver is drawing.
Smith and Reich can’t let people lobbying for Wilson to get the ball more live in their heads.
And it doesn’t sound like Smith will.
“I just read the defense,” Smith said a week ago. “I trust in Coach Reich and making the right decisions in terms of play calls, and he trusts me to make the right decision in terms of where the ball goes. I like to say the ball goes where it goes, you can’t force it
to anybody.”
You got that right.
This narrative that the Jets need to force the ball to Wilson is pablum and counterproductive.
Lazy narrative. Easy story to write.
And it’s stunad to force the ball to anybody to make a point based on where they were picked, or how much they make, or for legacy stats.
In fact, the best offenses take advantage of the favorable matchups other targets get because the #1 receiver is getting bracket coverage.
This is a huge week for the Jets’ passing offense. If they don’t have a breakout game this week, against a Miami defense rife with rookie starters, when is it going to happen? . . .
As we wrote after the game on Sunday, Patriots radio analyst Scott Zolak was hard on Jets rookie defensive end David Bailey.
Bailey had a roughing the passer early in the game, and then after a neutral zone infraction in the second half, Zolak said, “Sad thing is he plays for the Jets – he’s doing Jets things.”
I like Zolak, but not sure exactly what that means, and not sure that has anything to do with what Bailey did.
Bailey is a young player who recently turned 23, who has a lot of natural ability, but has a lot to work on in his game. He might have been rushed into the starting lineup. Perhaps a situational pass rusher role would have been ideal out of the gate.
Bailey’s mistakes in Foxboro have a lot more to do with him being a raw rookie than the history of the team he’s playing for.
October 21, 2026
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