Win over Falcons can give Jets fans hope about the future of special teams and Adonai Mitchell

NFL games can take surprising turns. At halftime of the Week 13 clash between the New York Jets and the Atlanta Falcons, the contests had the feel of a preseason game. The Jets were giving reps to a lot of inexperienced guys, many of whom actually did see extensive playing time during the exhibition season. The stadium appeared to be as empty as it is in August with Jets fans opting to watch from home rather than trek to the Meadowlands in bad weather on a holiday weekend. Mainly, though, it resembled preseason because the game just wasn’t very entertaining. The two teams barely eclipsed 100 passing yards combined in the opening half. They had 8 punts between them and two touchdowns, one of which was set up by a muffed punt.

Little did any of us know, an entertaining second half full of scoring was about to emerge. The Jets came from behind three different times to tie the game up and only took their first lead as the clock expired as Nick Folk connected from 56 yards to secure the win. It was a bit of redemption from Folk who missed his first kick of the year earlier in the game from 55 yards.

At this point of the year, how the Jets arrive at a win or loss seems at least as important as whether the team actually wins or loses. The 2025 season is long lost, and all of the focus is on the future. We want to know how repeatable the good and the bad are.

I think it is fair to say that this game was won primarily by Jets special teams. The Jets were not particularly impressive on either side of the ball. Atlanta outgained New York in yardage 389-269. The average yardage per play had the Falcons with a 5.8 to 4.3 advantage. Atlanta had 25 first downs to New York’s 16. The Falcons only committed one penalty to the Jets’ nine.

Yet the Jets won. How is that? The game has a third phase, special teams. And for a second time in four weeks, this phase of the game was enough to drive the Jets to a win. The Jets incredibly had two scoring drives where they moved the ball 2 yards or less. Another, the drive that won the game no less, required only 19 yards. That is due to phenomenal special teams play.

New York’s only score of the first half came when they started a drive at the 2 after recovering a muffed punt. An 83 yard kickoff return by Isaiah Williams to start the fourth quarter left the Jets in range of a field goal to erase a brief Atlanta lead. And the winning score came after a sequence where the Jets and Falcons traded punts. New York’s punt netted 54 yards. Atlanta’s netted only 24. The 30 yards of field position gained ended up being decisive. Then came Folk’s heroics.

So what long term takeaways could come from something like this?

Well there is increasing evidence that the Jets might have a star in young special teams coach Chris Banjo. He seems to understand how to use the skillsets of his players properly, how to coach them up, and how to scheme things effectively.

That might not make a big difference for a 3-9 team. The Jets don’t plan to be a bad team forever, though. In the near future they hope to be good. Special teams can be a big differentiator for more competitive teams. It can make a good team great or lift a great team to a championship. This is a league where roughly half of the games are decided by a score or less. Little things here and there can be the difference between winning and losing. Special teams is frequently overlooked, but it matters in a tight game, particularly when it nets you 30 yards in a key spot.

If there is another positive takeaway to be had for the Jets, it was the stellar performance by Adonai Mitchell. To the extent the Jets offense found success in Week 13, the recent acquisition from the Colts was the reason for it. Mitchell carried the offense with 8 catches for 102 yards, including a 52 yard touchdown that finally breathed life into a struggling offense in the third quarter.

I think any objective assessment of Mitchell would acknowledge that he is a bit of a project. His route running needs refinement. This was an excellent game, but it remains one game. We should certainly hold off on proclamations about the Jets having found a starter or even star.

After all, it was just a week ago that people were proclaiming John Metchie a key part of the Jets offense going forward. In this game, Metchie struggled with multiple drops. It was just two weeks ago that Mitchell had multiple drops and was being written off.

We should only assess players once we have a sufficient amount of data. We lack a sufficient amount for either Mitchell or Metchie. They shouldn’t be declared core pieces of the future. They shouldn’t be written off. We have seen some good and some bad.

This good was really good from Mitchell, though. These are the types of flashes you want to see. He has the physical tools to potentially be a very good receiver. And if he can get open deep with the ease he showed in this game, it will force defenses to give him a big cushion and make getting open underneath a lot easier. He won’t need to be a brilliant route running technician or even have a huge route tree to have success.

For now we can dream of this being the breakout game that launched a productive Jets career.

We can dream of special teams staying elite in the future and propelling the Jets to wins in much more significant games in the years ahead.

And we can dream that the Jets are finally putting the pieces together in a meaningful way. Perhaps they are even starting a trend of winning games that they used to lose.