{"id":914548,"date":"2026-06-09T21:06:40","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T21:06:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/914548\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T21:06:40","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T21:06:40","slug":"scouting-jets-kicker-jason-sanders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/914548\/","title":{"rendered":"Scouting Jets kicker Jason Sanders"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over the next few months, we\u2019re breaking down all of the undrafted free agents signed by the Jets since April\u2019s draft. However, today we are focusing on another recent veteran addition; kicker Jason Sanders.<\/p>\n

The 30-year old Sanders is listed at 5\u201911\u201d and 186 pounds and was a seventh round pick out of New Mexico in 2018. He had seven solid seasons with the Miami Dolphins, during which he was an all-pro in 2020. However, he didn\u2019t play last season due to injury.<\/p>\n

Sanders was unranked as a high school recruit, but enrolled at New Mexico and was their kickoff specialist in his first season in 2014. He got some chances to contribute as a placekicker in 2015 but missed four of his seven field goal attempts.<\/p>\n

Sanders broke out in 2016 as he made 12 of 13 field goals and all 59 of his extra point attempts. That included a game-winning field goal with 66 seconds left in a win over Utah State.<\/p>\n

In 2017, he only made 10 of his 15 field goal attempts but was still drafted by the Dolphins in the seventh round the following April.<\/p>\n

He impressed as a rookie, making 18 of 20 field goals. However, he missed seven in his second season.<\/p>\n

2020 was Sanders\u2019 best season to date, as he led the NFL in scoring and missed just three of 39 field goals attempts to earn all-pro honors.<\/p>\n

However, he regressed again in 2021, missing a career-high eight field goal attempts. Since then, he has had three solid seasons, but spent the entire 2025 season on injured reserve.<\/p>\n

Miami released Sanders in March and he was picked up by the Giants, but they cut him last week.<\/p>\n

The Jets signed Sanders last week after having released Younghoe Koo following some accuracy issues during OTAs.<\/p>\n

Now let\u2019s break Sanders down in a variety of categories, based on in-depth research and film study.<\/p>\n

Sanders isn\u2019t very big, and didn\u2019t conduct a workout at his pro day. However, he is a former soccer player and has shown flashes of athleticism as a tackler and on onside kicks and fake field goals.<\/p>\n

Sanders has an impressive leg. Although his longest field goal at the NFL level is just 57 yards, he has made several long kicks that would have been good from much further out than that.<\/p>\n

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He had made 21 of 34 field goals from beyond 50 at the NFL level entering the 2024 season, but had his best year from long range, making 12 of 14. He has also been captured on film making 70-yarders in practice.<\/p>\n

Sanders\u2019 leg strength has also been an asset on kickoffs. He has a 74 percent touchback rate, including a career-high 84 percent in 2023.<\/p>\n

Sanders has an impressive 85 percent field goal accuracy rate at the NFL level and had been over 80 percent in each of the past three seasons entering last year. That included an over-90 percent success rate in 2024.<\/p>\n

Earlier in his career, Sanders had two seasons where his accuracy percentage slipped below 80, either side of his all-pro season.<\/p>\n

On extra points, he has made 97 percent at the NFL level and his 111 of 112 in college, including a run of 81 in a row.<\/p>\n

His kickoffs have generally been accurate too, with just one penalty for putting one out of bounds.<\/p>\n

Reports out of Giants OTAs prior to him being cut suggested he had been struggling with his accuracy though.<\/p>\n

Sanders hit two game-winning kicks in college and has had six at the NFL level, including a 52-yarder in 2024.<\/p>\n

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Perhaps more impressively, he doesn\u2019t seem to have had any clutch misses to have cost his team a game at either the college or NFL level.<\/p>\n

The closest he came to such a situation was perhaps when his missed extra point in a late game situation against the Chargers left Miami with a 36-34 lead. They therefore could have lost if Los Angeles scored a field goal but they ultimately failed to get into range.<\/p>\n

Sanders has made contributions in kick coverage with four tackles and a fumble recovery at the NFL level and nine tackles in college. He had five of those tackles and a forced fumble in his freshman year. He had this bad missed tackle to lead to a touchdown in his first ever NFL game, though.<\/p>\n

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Intangibles\/Miscellaneous<\/p>\n

Sanders has never punted in an NFL or college game but was an accomplished punter in high school as he twice averaged over 45 yards and had punts of 74 and 77 yards.<\/p>\n

He prides himself on being versatile with onside kicks and has had a few recovered over the years, including one by himself.<\/p>\n

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Sanders was a two-time Mountain West Conference all-academic selection in college and also a Lobo Scholar Athlete.<\/p>\n

While he would mostly have kicked in warm weather during his career, he has shown an ability to make kicks in the cold, including in college when he his a 51-yarder in sub-freezing temperatures against Colorado State.<\/p>\n

As noted, Sanders missed the entire 2025 season due to injury. He had a hip issue in preseason which was only expected to be a short-term deal so he was placed on injured reserve with a designation to return. However, Riley Patterson kicked so well in his absence that Sanders\u2019 return was never a consideration.<\/p>\n

Prior to the hip injury, he had never missed an NFL game due to injury.<\/p>\n

While with Miami, Sanders has been a teammate of current Jets players Minkah Fitzpatrick and Keidron Smith.<\/p>\n

Finally, in 2019, he became the first NFL kicker since 1977 to catch a touchdown pass.<\/p>\n

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As the situation with Koo showed, the Jets don\u2019t seem to have much patience with their kicker position right now so if Sanders has the same accuracy issues early on with the Jets that he reportedly had with the Giants, he might not be here very long.<\/p>\n

However, if he can settle in early, his only current competition for the role is Cade York – and Sanders has a significantly better body of work than York at the pro level.<\/p>\n

He is only 30, so Sanders could still have several years left as long as that hip issue isn\u2019t still bothering him. Hopefully the Jets get the best version of him, because that would solve their current kicker issues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Over the next few months, we\u2019re breaking down all of the undrafted free agents signed by the Jets…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":914549,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2051],"tags":[7,226,1917,255,2325,2321,2097,6],"class_list":["post-914548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-jets","tag-football","tag-jets","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-jets","tag-new-york-jets-roster","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkjets","tag-nfl"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116722190917558134","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/914548","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=914548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/914548\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/914549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=914548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=914548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=914548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}