Jets Week 13 Game Balls: Adonai Mitchell, Special Teams Take Center Stage

The Jets got their third win of the season in Week 13 against the Atlanta Falcons. Let’s celebrate by handing out some game balls.

Adonai Mitchell: Time will tell what this game really means for Adonai Mitchell. Was it just a singular moment of excellence? Was it a sign he can carve out a spot as a role player and/or depth guy? Perhaps could he use the playing time he is receiving to develop into a quality starter?

Those are questions for a different day. What is clear is Mitchell played an excellent game, posting 8 catches for 102 yards, which included a 52 yard touchdown grab which sparked a struggling offense.

I won’t sit here and pretend that Mitchell was the centerpiece of the haul the Jets got when they dealt Sauce Gardner to the Colts at the NFL trade deadline. The Jets made the Gardner deal to get a pair of first round picks in the hopes of accelerating their rebuild.

Mitchell was a logical secondary part of the return. He has the physical tools to be a successful starter in this league, and his path to playing time was blocked in Indianapolis. If this is going to pan out for the Jets in the long run, you want to see big flashes over the final stretch of 2025. Big flashes are what we got against the Falcons.

Nick Folk: Folk added another chapter to his stellar Jets career by hitting that 56 yard field goal as time expired. This came after he missed his first kick of the season earlier in the game from 55 yards out. What else can we say? Folk is clearly one of the top two kickers in franchise history, and his legacy is full of clutch kicks. I wasn’t sure he had the leg to get the kick there, but as he always does when the game is on the line Folk found a way.

Isaiah Williams: Williams has come a long way from his Week 4 disaster in Miami where he fumbled a kickoff and made a fair catch at the 2 yard line. It’s been kind of funny reading some of the reactions online today to Williams’ performance. People bring up the Miami game and wax poetic about the fans who lacked patience and wanted Williams cut after that game. Such fans forget that Williams actually was cut by the Jets after the game. He had to go to the practice squad and earn his way back onto the team. The message has been received, and Williams has become a standout on special teams. His 83 yard kickoff return gifted the Jets a fourth quarter field goal. It also flew a bit under the radar, but his 16 yard punt return preceding the final Jets drive put the offense in excellent field position. The Jets needed to generate only 19 yards of offense to set Folk up for the game winner.

Qwan’tez Stiggers: Stiggers’ recovery of a muffed punt at the 2 yard line set up the only Jets score of the first half. If we are being honest, a recovery is almost always about being at the right place at the right time. Moving past that, Stiggers has been an excellent core special teamer this year. Prior to their game-winning drive, the Jets were in trouble. They were forced to punt from their own 13 yard line with less than a minute to go. A big return could have put the Falcons on the cusp of field goal range if not in it directly. Austin McNamara drilled a 55 yard punt, and Stiggers made a clutch tackle, limiting the return to 1 yard. This was a critical flip of field position. Combined with the aforementioned return by Williams, the Jets gained 30 yards on two punts. They proved to be decisive in this narrow victory.