Over the course of today, we’ll be breaking down the performance of every player that took the field in the Jets’ preseason game against the Commanders. We’ll wrap up now with a look at the special teams units.
Kicking – Scream to a Seibert
Austin Seibert got the glory of being able to kick the winning field goal. He also added an extra point and kicked off twice with one touchback.
There’s no danger of him taking the job from Greg Zuerlein any time soon, though. Zuerlein looked like he was in midseason form with his 57-yard field goal just before halftime. He added a touchback and an extra point.
Punter Thomas Morstead got plenty of work in and was getting good hang time on his punts. Four of the six went for at least 48 yards, although there were 37 yards of returns, including a 19-yarder.
Washington’s missed field goal proved crucial. Leki Fotu penetrated well on the kick.
Kick Coverage – Let the Sheff cook
The Jets opened up with Irv Charles and Qwan’tez Stiggers as their primary gunners, although Stiggers was getting held up by double-teams and Charles was flagged for holding once. Stiggers did record a tackle on a kickoff later on though.
Kendall Sheffield and Tre Swilling got a change to audition for gunner roles too and they fared a bit better as Sheffield forced a fair catch by beating a double-team and Swilling drew an illegal block in the back. Sheffield also appeared to draw an illegal block in the back penalty that wasn’t called.
Undrafted linebacker Jimmy Ciarlo got downfield impressively on one punt but he missed his tackle and was injured on the play.
The Jets had eight players who were credited with a special teams tackle but nobody was credited with two. Lance McCutcheon, Chazz Surratt, Braelon Allen, Marcelino McCrary-Ball, Al Blades and Zaire Barnes all also missed tackles.
Finally, Jason Brownlee was offside on one kick-off, adding five yards to the return.
Return Game – By the grace of Cod
The Jets experimented with a few different guys on the kickoff return unit, but kept things pretty vanilla after all the anticipation for the new rules.
Malachi Corley, Isaiah Davis and Xazavian Valladay each returned one kick-off. Corley’s was the best as he almost got to the 40 behind blocks by Kenny Yeboah and McCrary-Ball. Davis got to the 30 behind Valladay, while Valladay himself was stuffed at the 25 after Jackson Sirmon whiffed on a block.
With Xavier Gipson not playing, the Jets also tried Corley and Davis as punt returners and neither looked very comfortable in that role. Each made a bad decision to field one and got blown up immediately with Stiggers and Sheffield beaten by the opposing gunner on those. Davis had some room on one but he slipped over.
Undrafted rookie Brandon Codrington eventually stole the show with this amazing return.
Codrington did also handle one kickoff but he slipped and was tackled by Eric Watts‘ man short of the 20 after a missed block. He’s earned himself a longer look though.
We’ll be back with more on the offense and special teams later…