Jets vs. Dolphins: Week 9 special teams grades

The New York Jets lost a disinteresting, ugly game against their division foes, the Miami Dolphins, on Sunday by a final score of 13-6. How does the special teams unit grade out?

The New York Jets special teams received plenty of attention during the team’s 13-6 loss to the Miami Dolphins as the team trotted out their punt unit three times as many times as the team converted on third down.

Yikes.

In all seriousness, punter Lachlan Edwards was a busy man on Sunday as he was a part of a Jets special teams unit that did most things pretty well with the exception of a couple mishaps.

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Starting with the good Edwards put together a pretty solid day punting the ball finishing with six punts for 277 yards for an average of 46.2 yards per punt. This included a booming 60-yard punt as the Aussie punter did his best to flip the field whenever he was given the chance to do so.

Edwards 60-yard punt was subsequently returned by talented return man Jakeem Grant for 19 yards in what proved to be his biggest return of the night. The returning Rontez Miles was there to make the stop on Grant before he could advance the ball any further.

Having Miles back will undoubtedly be a major plus for the Jets special teams unit as the six-year veteran special teamer has been one of the most valuable players for the team in kick/punt coverage during his tenure with the Jets.

While the Jets did a good job keeping Grant in check for most of the game, they failed to get their own return game going as Andre Roberts returned two punts for just 17 yards and was unable to return a single kick against the touchback aficionado Jason Sanders.

Roberts has been a welcome change of pace for the Jets this season as he provides a stable presence returning kicks giving the team a player who can pick up consistent chunks of yardage on many of his returns. Unfortunately, in this game, there just wasn’t much Roberts could have done.

On another negative note, kicker Jason Myers ended his successful kicking streak missing a potential game-tying field goal from 50-yards out early in the fourth quarter. Myers did manage to connect on field goals from 48 and 56 yards softening the blow a good amount.

Despite his miss, Myers remains one of the hottest kickers in the league and one of the most surprising players on the entire Jets roster this year. It would be nice to see the team get in more favorable positions to score and give Myers some more kicking opportunities.

At the very least, I’m sure Myers wouldn’t mind lining up for an extra point or two every now and again.

Overall, the Jets special teams did some good things and some bad things. Lachlan Edwards had a very nice day punting, the team did a good job of containing Jakeem Grant, and Jason Myers made two long field goals accounting for the only scoring the team did in the game.

At the same time, the team failed to get any kind of a spark in the return game and Myers missed game-tying field goal certainly didn’t help the team’s efforts to win the game. A somewhat neutral grade is deserving, as a result.

Final Grade: C+