Special Teams Review: Jets-Miami

We've been breaking down this week's game against the Saints. We wrap up today's analysis with a look at the special teams.

Let's review the key contributions...

Kicking game - Power Rankins

In the kicking game this week placekicker Eddy Pineiro had another solid game but punter Braden Mann was inconsistent.

Piniero made a field goal and three extra points, remaining perfect through two games with the Jets. After the trajectory of last week's kicks were generally pretty low, he got much better distance on his kicks this week.

Mann had one superb punt that bounced on the one-yard line and was downed inside the five (albeit too late in the half to provide much of a problem for Miami) and a few other good punts including a 63-yarder with a short return. However, he also shanked two out of bounds badly.

Mann also handled kickoffs and was five-for-five in terms of touchbacks on the afternoon.

We mentioned this last week but Brandin Echols continues to get close to blocking extra points and field goals coming off the edge. Let's see if he gets one before the end of the season.

Perhaps the biggest play in the kicking game came when Miami tried to run a fake punt on 4th-and-1 near midfield. The upback fumbled and Sheldon Rankins recovered for the Jets.

Kick coverage - The Pinnock Gallery

With both Justin Hardee and Jeff Smith on the Covid-19 list, the Jets used Vyncint Smith and Jason Pinnock in the punt gunner role on Sunday.

Pinnock was impressive despite an early mistake where he didn't see the fair catch signal and lit up the return man to give away an unnecessary roughness penalty.

He immediately learned from that, as he got downfield well to force a fair catch and demonstrably pulled back from getting too close to the return man. Later he made a shoestring tackle after a deep Mann punt for the only special teams tackle of the day.

Pinnock also got downfield well on the punt that was downed inside the five. He was in position to stop it getting into the end zone but Smith ultimately downed it as it bounced up.

Return game - Brax Murderer

Braxton Berrios is clearly starting to earn a reputation for himself. On Sunday, the Dolphins were careful to prevent him from getting a chance at a kickoff return as they had a touchback on all six of their kickoffs.

On punts, Berrios did have returns of 11 and 12 yards. He made a nice stuttering move on the first to get upfield and the Jets set up the return well with double teams on the gunners on the next one.

He was forced into taking one fair catch on a play where Deuce Carter got beaten by the gunner.

Something to watch for Berrios is that you need 1.25 returns per game to qualify for the NFL ranking lists. That equates to just over 21 per season now that we have a 17 game season. With three games to go, Berrios has returned 14 punts so if he wants to qualify the Jets will need to set up at least seven more returns over the last three games.

That wraps up today's analysis from the game, but we'll be back with more over the next few days...