He was one of the New York Jets’ best players relative to his position in 2025.
Now, he’s near the bottom of his position.
Jets punter Austin McNamara has been one of the team’s sneakiest underperformers through the first two games of the 2026 season. After a breakout 2025 campaign that saw him rank third among punters in All-Pro voting, McNamara has struggled in the early goings of his second NFL season as a starter.
Here is a comparison of McNamara’s 2025 metrics versus his rankings over the first two weeks of 2026 (10 punt attempts):
- 4.70s average hang time (2nd) → 4.28s (20th)
- 29.6% of punts returned (2nd) → 50% (20th)
- 90.3 PFF punting grade (2nd) → 60.9 (25th)
- 43.1-yard net average (6th) → 37.6 (29th)
- 6.3 yards per return (2nd) → 15.0 (26th)
- 18 punts downed (1st) → 4 (1st)
- 25 fair catches (2nd) → 0 (30th)
What stands out the most is his decline in hang time, which explains his rise in opponent return rate and opponent yards per return.
McNamara’s elite hang time was his greatest weapon in 2025. He consistently hung the ball in the air long enough to either force a fair catch or allow his teammates to rally and quickly stop the punt for little or no gain.
This year, McNamara’s punts have spent 0.42 fewer seconds in the air on average. Therefore, it’s little surprise that returners have gotten more chances to take the ball back, and that the Jets’ coverage team has not been able to stop those returns as quickly. He also has yet to force a fair catch.
What makes the decline in hang time even more troubling is that it has coincided with an increase in distance. In 2025, McNamara averaged 46.7 gross yards per punt, but so far in 2026, he’s up to 48.2. So, he’s kicking the ball 1.5 yards further, but it’s staying in the air 0.42 seconds shorter.
Simply put, he’s been kicking more line-drive style this year, and that’s not ideal for the coverage unit.
Interestingly, though, this issue was not a culprit on the Jets’ most obvious special teams blunder so far: the 63-yard fourth-quarter punt return yielded to Skyy Moore in Week 2. On that play, McNamara booted the ball 51 yards with a hang time of almost exactly 5.0 seconds, which is a plenty good combination of distance and hang time for the coverage team to get downfield. The Jets just couldn’t make the tackle.
Still, McNamara’s punts this season have generally not been as effective. It’s a small sample size of just 10 attempts, so it does not warrant panic just yet, but it is something to monitor as the season progresses.
