Part 11 in a series analyzing the New York Jets

The Jets had a pretty good year on special teams in 2019, despite the challenge a rash of injuries presented with players going in and out of the lineup for coordinator Brant Boyer.

Longtime NFL writer Rick Gosselin does a special teams rankings each year, and he had the Jets eighth last season. That measures all units. The Jets scored two special teams touchdowns, one off a fumbled punt return and one on a blocked punt. The Jets did not give up any special teams touchdowns.

As good as the Jets coverage and return teams were, their kickers and punter struggled. The Jets were on their fourth kicker by Week 2. That was Sam Ficken, who had some good moments but was very inconsistent.

Ficken made 70.4 percent of his field-goal attempts. He is back in 2020, but the Jets signed former Cowboys kicker Brett Maher to push him in training camp. Maher made just 66.7 percent of his field-goal attempts before Dallas released him in December.

It will be Ficken and Maher when training camp starts, but it won’t be a surprise if they cycle through a few kickers in the preseason, like last year.

The Jets finally grew tired of punter Lachlan Edwards and his inconsistency. Edwards seemed to have a knack for a bad punt at the worst time. The Jets drafted Braden Mann in the sixth round out of Texas A&M. He won the Ray Guy Award, given to the nation’s best punter, in 2018 and was considered the top punter in this draft. He had a punt of 82 yards in college and had 26 punts inside the 20-yard line last year.

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Mann also figures to take over kickoff duties. He averaged 64.1 yards per kickoff last season and had 42 touchbacks.

Braxton Berrios is expected to be the team’s punt returner again. He averaged 11.4 yards per return last year, which was No. 2 in the NFL.

Vyncint Smith should be the kick returner. The speedster had 10 returns last year and averaged 29.9 yards per carry. A fumble caused a loss of confidence in him but he showed enough explosion that he should get the first crack at the job. His long return last year was 78 yards.

Boyer will be missing some of his favorite special teams players who are now gone as free agents. Rontez Miles was not re-signed and Brandon Copeland signed with the Patriots. Both were major special teams contributors on multiple teams.

The most intriguing rookie when it comes to special teams is third-round pick Ashtyn Davis. He can be used in coverage as well as a return man. Davis was a champion hurdler in the Pac-10 and has tremendous athleticism. He can be a chess piece for not just defensive coordinator Gregg Williams, but Boyer as well.