The New York Jets received tremendous news on the injury front ahead of their Week 6 game against the Denver Broncos.
Speaking to reporters in London, head coach Aaron Glenn revealed that edge rusher Jermaine Johnson and kick returner Kene Nwangwu will play on Sunday.
Johnson missed the previous three games with an ankle injury suffered in Week 2. Nwangwu suffered a hamstring injury in the season opener and missed the next four games.
The returns of Johnson and Nwangwu are massive for New York. Both players fill critical roster holes that have played major roles in the team’s 0-5 start.
Without Johnson, the Jets have suffered from arguably the worst edge production in the NFL. Johnson’s fellow starter, Will McDonald, is the only edge rusher on the team with a sack.
The lack of sacks is just the tip of the iceberg. Outside of McDonald and Johnson, the rest of the edge rushers on New York’s roster have combined for just as many total pressures as missed tackles (7), a shocking degree of ineptitude. For reference, the league-average edge rusher in 2025 has a 7-to-1 ratio of total pressures to missed tackles.
Johnson’s return will bring a much-needed infusion of pass-rush juice, run-stopping tenacity, and overall football IQ to a unit that has looked lost without him.
Nwangwu hopes to end the Jets’ suffering at the kick returner spot. Due to a combination of injuries and poor performance, New York has had eight different players return a kickoff this season. Two of those players, Xavier Gipson and Isaiah Williams, lost a fumble in an eventual one-score loss, leading to their releases (Williams remains on the Jets’ practice squad).
Nwangwu was tabbed as the Jets’ primary kick returner entering the season. He has scored four kick return touchdowns in his career, the most among active NFL players. New York would love for him to bring that type of spark to the return game, although at this point, Nwangwu would be a significant upgrade simply by protecting the football and taking knees in the end zone.
The Jets’ league-worst woes at edge rusher and kick returner may be in the past. Considering how big a role those two positions played in the Jets’ first five losses, perhaps these returns will be enough to spark the Jets to their first win of the season.
