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New York Jets punter Austin McNamara reacting in the middle of an NFL game against the Denver Broncos.
It has been a wild journey for Austin McNamara.
He started his football adventure as an undrafted free agent in 2024. McNamara signed a deal with the Cincinnati Bengals but never got a chance to prove himself after getting waived on August 7.
McNamara sat idle, unsigned, for months until he joined the New York Jets roster in March of this past offseason.
ESPN’s Rich Cimini revealed that after he was cut in August by the Bengals, “he had 13 workouts for 12 different teams, finally landing a contract with the Jets.”
Now he is one of the best punters in the NFL.
McNamara was ranked seventh on the AFC Pro Bowl ballot this week for punters with the highest number of votes, per NFL Network Insider Tom Pelissero. He is one of only two Jets who were represented in the top-10 at their position, with the other being Andrew Beck, the Jets’ fullback (sixth in the voting).
Insider Explains the Challenges That McNamara Had to Face
Back in March, renowned kicking coach Gary Zauner hosted a free-agent combine for specialists in Arizona.
Jets special teams assistant Kevin O’Dea attended this event to gauge the available placekickers and punters who participated.
ESPN’s Rich Cimini revealed that O’Dea was “so impressed” with what he saw from McNamara, who attended the event, that the Jets “got him on a plane to New Jersey for a private workout for team brass. They signed him immediately.”
It was a risky move by the Jets. They already had longtime veteran Thomas Morstead holding down the position. He was a proven entity and former Pro Bowler; McNamara was anything but.
Despite all that, the Jets coaching staff believed in what they saw, and the development has paid major dividends.
McNamara is fourth in the league with 22 punts that have ended up inside the 20-yard line. Opposing returners average 5.6 yards per punt return, which is the second-lowest total in the NFL, per ESPN.
McNamara’s 43.6 net yards per punt ranks fifth-best in the NFL. That net average would be the best single-season mark in franchise history, per The Football Database.
McNamara Earns Massive Honor From the NFL
On Thursday, December 4, the NFL announced that McNamara was named the AFC’s Special Teams Player of the Month.
“Mac, he is a weapon, and I call him a weapon,” HC Aaron Glenn said after last Sunday’s win over Atlanta via the NY Jets. “We call him our sniper because he has the ability to flip the field for us at any given time. But it’s the collective unit that I look at. We have a damn good punter.”
“According to StatsPass.com, McNamara (6-4, 204) unofficially is among the top punters in the NFL in hangtime. McNamara (4.79 seconds) and JK Scott (4.83) of the Los Angeles Chargers keep trading places at the top,” the team revealed in a press release.
McNamara, 24, is under contract through the 2026 season. In 2027, McNamara will be an “ERFA,” also known as an exclusive rights free agent.
“Any player with fewer than three accrued seasons and an expired contract. If his original team offers him a one-year contract at the league minimum (based on his credited seasons), the player cannot negotiate with other teams,” the NFL explained in the operations manual.
That is a fancy way of saying the Jets have McNamara under team control for at least the next two and a half seasons. McNamara has just a $1 million base salary in 2026, per Spotrac.
The highest-paid punter in the NFL is Michael Dickson of the Seattle Seahawks ($4.05 million per year), per Over The Cap. McNamara ranks No. 31 among the highest-paid punters in the league.
Paul Esden Jr. covers the New York Jets for Heavy.com. A New York native, he co-hosts a morning show, “The Manchild Show with Boy Green Digital.” Before joining Heavy in 2021, Esden Jr. covered both national and New York sports for FanSided, Elite Sports NY, and The Score 1260. More about Paul Esden Jr.
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