The New York Jets Kicking Room is Becoming a Problem
Ross Johnston discusses the repetitive competition in the New York Jets Kicking room and how it could be a big issue for the team in 2026.
Video Transcript
Look, man, I think the New York Jets have been having a really good off-season.
I truly do.
But this stuff right here, this makes no sense to me.
I think they are ruining some of the momentum they've built by this whole debacle at the kicker position.
And before you get onto me and say, "Eh, it's just a kicker," it's important.
They account for a lot of points every year, and the Jets are screwing themselves over by making these moves.
So the Jets today, or this week, they brought in veterans Justin Tucker, Michael Badgley, and Josh Karty in for workouts.
Now, they've already made moves.
Jason Sanders won a pre-season competition with Kate York to become the Jets kicker.
Then he went two for four in the pre-season finale against the Giants and went one for two on extra points, which thus has him ending up on the practice squad, and the Jets claimed Colts kicker Blake Grupe off of waivers, and he is on their active 53 right now.
So they clearly can't seem to find a guy that suits what they need at the kicker position, and we are going into the regular season right now.
They can't seem to make up their mind.
Also, mind you, Nick Folk last year was twenty-eight for twenty-nine on field goals, did not miss a single extra point on the year, and the New York Jets refused to match his offer sheet from the Atlanta Falcons to bring him back because they did not want to, quote-unquote, "risk" on a forty-one-year-old kicker.
And look, the New York Jets can't afford to have this position not figured out.
We saw it cost them a lot of games in twenty-twenty-four when Greg Zuerlein was struggling.
Greg Zuerlein was awesome in twenty-twenty-three for the Jets, not so awesome in twenty-twenty-four.
They ended up bringing in Anders Carlson, and he didn't play well either.
But the kicking game cost them some wins that season.
If the Jets want to start winning games this year, we know how often games are one-score games in the National Football League, coming down to a few points or a possession here, possession there.
Field goals are of extreme importance, and they've got to figure this out.
Now, look, if Jason Sanders isn't the guy, good.
Way to bring in Blake Grupe.
But why are we not giving Blake Grupe his proper run?
Why are we already working out other kickers?
If I'm a New York Jets fan, I don't like seeing that.
Justin Tucker is easily the best kicker on this list, but we know that that might be frowned upon to bring him into this locker room based on the previous allegations.
Michael Badgley and Josh Karty are also veterans who have carved out fairly decent careers.
But again, what are we doing working out all these kickers?
I would just hate for the Jets to start to figure stuff out on offense, start to figure stuff out on defense, only for the special teams to come back and bite them in the rear.
And again, I really do think Darren Mougey has had a great off-season.
I think Aaron Glenn's been doing a good job.
They've done a good job trying to build a foundation of this team and get it back to playing some winning football and improving week in, week out.
This, though, is not good, and the timing for it is even worse as they head to Nashville next Sunday, September the 13th, to face the Tennessee Titans.
And at this point, I don't even know who's gonna be kicking for them in that game.
The Jets better figure this out.
They better find their guy and lock him in as their kicker really soon, or it is going to come back to haunt them
