It’s a shame that their greatness has gone to waste in an otherwise dismal season, but the New York Jets’ special teams unit has taken the NFL by storm in 2025.

Whether it’s Nick Folk’s perfect kicking, Austin McNamara’s precise punting, or Kene Nwangwu’s dynamic returns behind excellent blocking, the Jets’ special teams unit has thrived in just about every aspect. It’s been a masterclass display from first-year coordinator Chris Banjo, who is the second-youngest STC in the NFL at 35 years old.

This has quite clearly been the NFL’s best special teams unit in the 2025 season thus far. But it’s time to start thinking about a much grander title.

Could this go down as the greatest special teams unit of all time?

It’s a lot more feasible than you probably think.

Jets’ all-time special teams ranking

The best all-encompassing metric for evaluating special teams play is DVOA, currently provided by FTN Fantasy and originally developed by Football Outsiders. It accounts for a team’s efficiency in all controllable areas of special teams, eliminating the impact of luck-based factors such as weather or the opponent’s field goal percentage.

Through Week 12, the Jets lead the NFL with a special teams DVOA of 9.5%. Nobody else is remotely close.

The gap between New York and the second-ranked team (Seahawks, 7.2%) is equal to the one separating Seattle from the fifth-ranked team (Commanders, 4.9%). Additionally, the distance between New York and the third-ranked team (Jaguars, 5.5%) is larger than the margin separating Jacksonville from the 13th-ranked Giants (1.5%).

Jets (9.5%)

Seahawks (7.2%)

Jaguars (5.5%)

Colts (5.0%)

Commanders (4.9%)

Dolphins (4.1%)

Titans (3.6%)

Ravens (3.3%)

Bengals (3.1%)

Lions (3.0%)

Vikings (2.6%)

Cowboys (1.9%)

Giants (1.6%)

Steelers (1.3%)

Bills (1.1%)

The Jets’ elite performance in this metric is a product of their excellence across all five phases of special teams. They are the only team in the NFL with a positive DVOA in every special teams phase:

FG/XP: 10.2% (1st)

Kickoff: 0.8% (10th)

Kick return: 9.3% (1st)

Punt: 8.4% (5th)

Punt return: 3.9% (6th)

The way they’re playing, the Jets have a chance to pursue the all-time throne in special teams DVOA if they keep pushing the envelope.

New York’s overall special teams DVOA of 9.5% is currently on pace to finish as the eighth-best single-season mark in NFL history since DVOA was first tracked in 1978. The record is 11.8%, held by the 2002 New Orleans Saints.

Best single-season special teams DVOA in NFL history (1978-2024):

2002 New Orleans Saints (11.8%)

1985 Los Angeles Rams (11.5%)

2007 Chicago Bears (11.2%)

1994 Cleveland Browns (10.4%)

1986 New York Jets (9.9%)

1979 Philadelphia Eagles (9.8%)

2009 Cleveland Browns (9.7%)

1997 Dallas Cowboys (9.4%)

1996 Carolina Panthers (9.3%)

1986 New Orleans Saints (9.3%)

Jets’ deep coaching ties on special teams

The 2002 Saints’ record-setting special teams unit was led by the late Al Everest, a two-time NFL specials teams coach of the year (2002 and 2007).

Everest spent 16 years as an NFL special teams coordinator for the Cardinals (1996-99), Saints (2000-05), 49ers (2007-09), and Steelers (2010-12). Legendary Saints special teamer Steve Gleason credited Everest’s guidance for allowing him to make it in the NFL.

Al Everest died in 2019. I can say that without his guidance, I never make it in the NFL. His knowledge of the strategies and tactics of special teams & his ability to teach these things to players was, well masterful
@Lewlew84Michael will agree, I’m sure#Rebirth2020 4/4

— Steve Gleason – “Live Impossible” (@SteveGleason) April 6, 2020

That’s some tremendous company for Banjo to find himself in.

Speaking of the Saints, the Jets’ excellence on special teams this year can be largely traced back to their coaching staff’s ties with the New Orleans organization.

Banjo played three years for the Saints (2016-18), and in the latter two years, New Orleans had the legendary Mike Westhoff on their staff, who led the Jets’ special teams to consistent excellence across 12 years as its coach (2001-12). Meanwhile, Jets head coach Aaron Glenn was the Saints’ defensive backs coach during Banjo and Westhoff’s overlapping years with the team.

It sure seems like Banjo and Glenn absorbed a great deal of knowledge from Westhoff during their time with him in New Orleans. Banjo even worked alongside Westhoff on the Denver Broncos’ staff over the last two years (2023-24), when Banjo was an assistant and Westhoff was Denver’s assistant head coach.

As for Glenn, he continued gaining exposure to special teams excellence in Detroit. Across Glenn’s four years with the Lions, Detroit never had a negative special teams DVOA, finishing with an average DVOA of 2.7%. The 2024 Lions had the league’s top-ranked unit.

The Lions’ special teams were led by coordinator Dave Fipp during Glenn’s four years with the team. Fipp’s first job in the NFL came in 2008 as an assistant special teams coach for the 49ers, when their special teams coordinator was… Al Everest.

The ties to Everest don’t stop there.

Banjo closed out his playing career with the Cardinals from 2019 to 2022. Arizona’s special teams coordinator over that tenure was Jeff Rodgers, who spent three years with Everest in San Francisco (2005-07). In fact, when Rodgers left San Francisco in 2008 to become Kansas State’s special teams coordinator, it was Fipp who took his place as the assistant special teams coach on Everest’s staff.

The Jets’ new coaching staff has a rich lineage in the special teams department, and it’s translating to the field on game days. After gaining a wealth of special teams expertise from brilliant minds around the NFL, Banjo and Glenn have developed great eyes of their own for special teams talent, sustaining the excellence of the coaching trees they hail from.

In addition to absorbing knowledge about special teams, it appears that Glenn’s exposure to coaches like Westhoff and Fipp helped him develop an appreciation for the value of special teams. It’s one thing for a head coach to say that he cares about special teams, but it’s another thing for him to back it up with his actions.

Throughout Glenn’s first year as a head coach, it has become apparent that he prioritizes special teams more than the typical NFL head coach. Many of the Jets’ offseason moves at the back end of the roster seemed to be heavily influenced by players’ ability to contribute on special teams. Whether it’s claiming Cam Jones off waivers, trading for Ja’Sir Taylor, or maintaining belief in Isaiah Williams despite his early follies, the Jets have made a focused effort to identify and develop special teams talent.

Isn’t the NFL’s coaching tree fascinating? Twenty-three years ago, Al Everest led the greatest special teams unit in modern NFL history, and now, Aaron Glenn and Chris Banjo have a chance to break his record after learning from two of Everest’s protégés.

Jets’ chances of pushing for the record

The Jets currently have a 9.5% special teams DVOA through the first 11 games of the 2025 season. If they finish the season with that number, it would be the second-best mark in Jets history, trailing only the 1986 team. It would also be the best mark by any NFL team since the 2009 Browns.

For the Jets to push their special teams DVOA from an already-historic 9.5% to the record-setting 11.9% in a matter of six weeks, they will have to be downright phenomenal over these remaining games. That means they need to generate plenty of game-changing plays (particularly breakaway returns) while preventing the opponent from doing the same.

The good news is that the Jets have a great chance to take a step closer to the all-time special teams crown in this week’s contest against Atlanta.

The Falcons, who rank 28th in special teams DVOA this season, have struggled to both prevent big returns and produce their own. They have allowed the third-most yards per kick return (28.4) while averaging a league-low 22.3 yards on their own kick returns. Atlanta is also gaining the fifth-fewest yards per punt return (7.2).

New York’s kick return unit has become difficult to game plan against due to the combined excellence of Kene Nwangwu and Isaiah Williams. Nwangwu is the star, owning five career kick return touchdowns to his name, but Williams has established himself as a threat in his own right.

Last week in Baltimore, the Ravens tried to kick away from Nwangwu, forcing Williams to take four out of five returns. Williams made the Ravens pay, taking all four of his tries past the 33-yard line and generating an average starting field position of the 37-yard line. Nwangwu took his lone return to the 41.

That performance was against a solid Ravens kickoff unit that currently allows the 12th-fewest yards per kick return. Against the Falcons’ putrid kickoff unit, New York could feast.

The Jets have generated plenty of headlines for making the wrong type of history this season. Their special teams unit could flip the script.

There is a chance we are watching the best special teams unit in NFL history. Stay tuned to see if they can complete their push for the throne.

Even if the group can’t bring the title home, they will still likely go down as one of the best special teams units in the history of pro football (barring a major collapse), and perhaps the best in Jets history. It should have Jets fans feeling giddy about the unit’s bright future under Banjo’s leadership.