Chris Banjo needs to answer the bell as Jets' biggest 2025 strength has become a weakness

One silver lining from last season's 3-14 misery was the play of the New York Jets' special teams unit. For a while, the team was on a historic pace, and while they didn't go down as the best single-season performers in history, they did rank first in the NFL in DVOA by a wide margin.

The players didn't get their due after such an impressive showing, but Jets special teams coordinator Chris Banjo was seen as a rising star in the coaching ranks. Special teams means something to New York. This is the club that employed the legendary Mike Westoff. Banjo's predecessor, Brant Boyer, was one of the few coordinators able to survive three different head coaching regimes due to his prowess.

Of course, special teams haven't always been a winner for the Jets (Kaare Vedvik, anyone?), but more often than not, they've been good. Banjo set a high bar last year, and now excellence is expected.

Unfortunately, after two weeks, New York's -7.5% special teams DVOA ranks 26th in the league. After Week 1, they had come in at No. 11, so while they weren't off to such a hot start, they were still at least good. That underscores what a disaster the performance was against the Packers.

Chris Banjo needs to right the New York Jets special teams ship before it's too late

Some will say that the weather impacted the unit, and while conditions weren't ideal, it's still inexcusable that Isaiah Williams muffed two punts. The Jets were fortunate that neither resulted in a turnover.

On top of that, there were the penalties. Williams, who had a really rough day all around, was flagged for an invalid fair catch signal. Qwan'Tez Stiggers got called for an illegal block in the back. This is the kind of sloppiness that can have major implications.

At the same time, the Packers didn't have quite the same issues in this matchup. In fact, Green Bay head coach Matt LaFleur gave his return man, Skyy Moore, the game ball for his efforts in the contest.

Moore tore up the Jets' coverage unit with long returns in both punt return and kick return duties. His 63-yard punt return in the fourth quarter set up the Packers' game-tying field goal to send the game to overtime and featured multiple Jets' whiffs. Moore also ran back a kick for 43 yards.

The Jets have shown sizable improvements on both the offensive and defensive sides of the ball. Still, if they're going to consistently win games, they'll find that a bottom-of-the-barrel special teams unit will torpedo those dreams.

Banjo has a lot of work to do, from holding his unit accountable for the silly penalties to cleaning up the coverage issues, all while hoping that Jason Sanders can continue to hold up in the kicking game. If he's truly as good at his job as it seemed last year, this should be easy. If not, it will mean last year's success was mostly on the players.

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