Things have not always gone smoothly for special-teams coordinator Brant Boyer in his time with the Jets, so you’d think he would be embracing the love his unit has been getting this year.
Not quite.
Football Outsiders has the Jets rated No. 2 in their special teams rankings, a reflection of how good that unit has been through four games. But Boyer is not buying it.
“I don’t even look at that stuff, [don’t] pay attention to it, to be honest with you, it’s so early,” Boyer said. “I think in the last three years in the first six, seven, eight, nine games we’ve been in the top 10-15 early in the season and then all of sudden it went down from there. We’ve got to maintain, and you got to keep going up and up and keep doing some things and making a difference. You make some plays, you’ve got to have more of an impact, and that’s what I’m trying to preach in that room.
“When we do get those chances, we haven’t many opportunities to return the ball in the last couple of weeks. When we do get the chances, we missed a big chance, I thought [Andre] Roberts was doing a hell of a job fighting for extra yards and everything. All we needed was one block, because he’s fighting his butt off for extra yards, and we needed one block to spring it and it’s gone to the house and we didn’t get the block. It’s little things like that, we got to do a better job of staying and maintaining on our blocks and taking advantage of the opportunities that they do give us.”
The Jets have already returned a punt for a touchdown, deflected a punt (technically not a block because the ball landed past the line of scrimmage), and kicker Jason Myers is 7-for-7 on field goal tries.
The Jets are trying to avoid a four-game losing streak. Under coach Todd Bowles, they have had a four-game losing streak three times. It happened twice in 2016 and at the end of last season. They have not lost five in a row under Bowles.
Broncos quarterback Case Keenum threw three touchdown passes in Denver’s first game of the season, but he has not thrown one since.