named the Curtis Martin Team MVP<\/a> Friday morning for his efforts in turning the tide of the 2025 season\u2014if only for a little bit.<\/p>\nWith two special teams touchdowns and plenty of big plays, there weren\u2019t many players on a three-win Jets squad who were as dependable as Williams. It only highlights how special the year has been for the Illinois product. <\/p>\n
Isaiah Williams did it all<\/p>\n
For a player to bounce on a practice squad, to an active roster, only to be released a couple of weeks later and find his way back on the team to be a dependable target is rare in the NFL. <\/p>\n
That is precisely what happened with Williams, though. In just his second season, he leads the league in punt return touchdowns (and even had one called back due to a penalty). While he doesn\u2019t lead the league in any other category, the Jets remain thrilled with what they have seen from him in just under 13 weeks. <\/p>\n
Becoming the team MVP, though, is something entirely apart. <\/p>\n
\u201cI thought that was really special,\u201d Glenn said. \u201cWhen you look at what he did, when you look at the road he\u2019s traveled, I think it\u2019s been pretty exciting for him and for this team, and especially since the players vote for that, that\u2019s what makes it more special than anything else.\u201d<\/p>\n
Much like many aspects of the Jets\u2019 2025 season, it\u2019s rare for a special teams player to be considered the most valuable performer of the year. <\/p>\n
Could it highlight the team\u2019s overall play, as well as the lack of star talent on either the offensive or defensive side of the ball? Sure. <\/p>\n
However, Williams\u2019 NFL story highlights his competitiveness and willingness to never give up on his dream. It\u2019s a message he passed today as part of the announcement. <\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t let nobody else write your story,\u201d Williams said. \u201cNo matter what nobody else thinks, no matter what happens in this life, no matter what it looks like, never forget who you are.\u201d<\/p>\n
In just a single season, Williams has gone from an unknown to one of the best special teams players in the league. As long as he continues to play that role into 2026, he\u2019ll remain a key cog in what the organization is looking to build moving forward. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It wasn\u2019t too long ago when Isaiah Williams was nothing more than a practice squad player on the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":652133,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2051],"tags":[1585,29476,7,3228,27091,226,1917,255,2321,2097,6,4403,55499,3916,3234,31834],"class_list":["post-652132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-jets","tag-aaron-glenn","tag-curtis-martin","tag-football","tag-free-content","tag-isaiah-williams","tag-jets","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-jets","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkjets","tag-nfl","tag-ny-jets-coaches","tag-ny-jets-legends","tag-ny-jets-players","tag-standard","tag-syndication"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115834388026878038","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=652132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/652133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=652132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=652132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=652132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}