New York Jets punter Austin McNamara must be stopped

Somebody stop Austin McNamara before it’s too late.

Only 24 years old, the New York Jets’ ascending punter is getting much, much too good at his job. If some opposing special teams coach out there doesn’t figure out a way to stop this man, he will drive future generations of punters into a wallowing pit of despair, altering the fate of the sport as we know it.

Aspiring NFL specialists will spend their entire careers hopelessly striving to meet McNamara’s unattainable standards, only to eventually realize their lofty goal of becoming the NFL’s greatest punter of all time will never be achieved. Nobody will see a point in taking up the position, as young players desperate to achieve “GOAT” status will know they have no chance of ever sniffing McNamara’s stratosphere.

Punters will go extinct, and NFL teams will be forced to go for every fourth down, much to the enjoyment of Madden addicts and analytics nerds across the globe. Grandfathers will tell tales of the era when teams employed a guy whose only job was to kick the ball back to the opponent, which prevented teams from having to make their quarterback chuck up prayers on fourth-and-20.

And the grandchildren will laugh, boasting about the excitement of the modern game as Arch Manning IV throws his third fourth-down pick of the night, setting up the London Jaguars at Toronto’s 10-yard line.

Jokes aside, McNamara is off to a scintillating start for a young punter just six games into his NFL career.

Here are McNamara’s rankings through Week 6:

• Punt DVOA: +7.3 (1st)
• Average hang time: 4.78 seconds (1st)
• Net yards per punt: 45.3 (5th)
• Return rate allowed: 37.5% (7th)
• Yards per return allowed: 4.4 (3rd)
• Punts downed: 5 (T-1st)
• Fair catches forced: 9 (T-3rd)

McNamara is getting it done in all aspects of the position.

The Texas Tech product launches his punts far and combines the distance with sufficient hang time, allowing his teammates to rally and either force fair catches or stop returns for minimal gains.

When punting around midfield, McNamara has displayed deft touch, generating a league-high five punts downed by a teammate.

McNamara was a standout in New York’s Week 6 game against Denver. If the Jets had won, his performance would have been a major reason.

Across seven punts, McNamara averaged 49.1 net yards. He delivered multiple beauties that set up the Jets’ defense for success (and, ensuingly, the offense, as the defense got quick stops to flip the field).

Punting from Denver’s 45-yard line in the third quarter, McNamara launched a gem of a pin-deep punt. He dropped the ball at Denver’s 9-yard line and generated 4.84 seconds of hang time while doing so, which bought time for multiple Jets teammates to rally and position themselves to down the punt. Arian Smith saved the ball from going into the end zone, and Kene Nwangwu downed it at the 3-yard line.

On the very next play, Micheal Clemons drew a holding penalty in the end zone for a Jets safety, giving them an 11-10 lead.

This one just isn’t fair. It’s why my opening to this article wasn’t hyperbole, not even a little.

Up by one point, the Jets need a clutch field-flipping punt to open the fourth quarter, and they get one from the San Jose kid. Not only does McNamara wallop this thing 55 yards down the field, but he hangs it in the air for a jaw-dropping 5.11 seconds, pinning Marvin Mims along the sideline to boot. Mims has no choice but to accept a 55-yard fair catch.

It’s the punting equivalent of a quarterback dropping a deep bomb in the bread basket.

Forcing a fair catch is a positive for the punting team, as you eliminate the risk of a big return while maintaining a chance that the returner muffs the punt. But punters often have to sacrifice distance to keep the ball in the air long enough to force a fair catch. McNamara, though, has the rare ability to maintain excellent hang time while extending the distance of his punts. It buys enough time for his teammates to sprint downfield and influence the returner into calling for deep fair catches.

If McNamara didn’t have the matching hang time to go with his 55-yarder, Mims would have room to return the ball and make up the extra yards of distance on the punt (“outkicking the coverage”). However, McNamara consistently does a good job of ensuring he only adds distance if there is enough hang time to complement it. This is why he and the return team have done such a good job of working in tandem to limit return yardage, force fair catches, and down punts.

In fact, this wasn’t McNamara’s first clutch punt of this exact variety. In Week 1 against the Steelers, McNamara forced another 55-yard fair catch on Pittsburgh’s Calvin Austin. It came at a pivotal fourth-quarter moment, backing Pittsburgh up at its own 19-yard line to start a potential game-winning drive with 3:13 remaining.

The Jets’ defense blew the lead after that punt, but their punter did everything he could to set his team up for success. And the punt was almost a game-decider; after all, Steelers kicker Chris Boswell had to make a career-long 60-yard field goal to cap off the drive. If McNamara’s punt were any shorter, Boswell’s kick would have become much easier with each and every yard given back by McNamara.

With the Jets currently ranked atop the league in punting DVOA (a strong metric for evaluating all aspects of the punting unit), McNamara is building a case for first-team All-Pro honors. The Jets have only had one punter in franchise history earn All-Pro honors: Tom Tupa, who was voted to the first team in 1999.

It’s a shame that the efforts of New York’s kicking duo have gone to waste. McNamara and Nick Folk have been the NFL’s best pairing, as the Jets lead the NFL in both punting DVOA and field goal/extra point DVOA.

There are many seasons in the past when a special teams duo like this could have pushed the Jets into the playoff hunt. You immediately think back to the three games New York lost in 2024 due to Greg Zuerlein’s misses.

McNamara, in particular, would have been invaluable to the 2015 Jets team, when New York had the worst punting DVOA in the NFL. That year, the Jets lost two one-score games in which they allowed a special teams touchdown, while they also lost a one-score game in New England where two shanked punts set up Patriots touchdowns. Flip those three games, and the Jets would have been the AFC’s No. 1 seed instead of missing the playoffs.

Unfortunately, Folk and McNamara’s efforts are being wasted on a bad team. It shouldn’t take away from how tremendously they have played.

The two stars reside on opposite ends of the age spectrum. When Folk made his NFL debut in 2007, McNamara was six years old.

Folk may not solve the Jets’ long-term solutions at kicker, but he’s given them everything they could hope for through six games of his age-40 season. McNamara, though, could be flipping fields in New York for years to come.

His status as one of New York’s best players is laughed off as comic relief on this 0-6 Jets team, but in time, McNamara could be a critical difference-maker for this franchise. If they ever find a way to build another team as good as the 2015 squad, a punter like McNamara can flip multiple close losses into wins, elevating the Jets from playoff contender to title contender.

The Jets are trying—and mostly failing—to use the 2025 season to build the bedrock of a foundation that can sustain winning for years to come. McNamara is one of the few people who has done his part in creating that type of foundation.