Tag: Thomas Hennessy

Thomas Morstead makes case for himself, Jets’ specialists to make Pro Bowl

Jets punter Thomas Morstead recently spoke with Jets Wire and said he would love for himself, Greg Zuerlein and Thomas Hennessy to all make the Pro Bowl.

Jets punter Thomas Morstead has been to the Pro Bowl just once in his 15 NFL seasons. That was back in 2012, his fourth year in New Orleans. He would love for 2023 to be his second trip to the Pro Bowl and made his case on Twitter.

Morstead very much has a case to be selected for the Pro Bowl. At 37 years old, Morstead is having one of the best seasons of his career. He is averaging 49.4 yards per punt and he has punted an incredible 81 times this season, tied with Jamie Gillan of the Giants. Only his 2012 Pro Bowl has seen Morstead have a higher punting average (50.1) and Morstead has already punted seven more times this season than he did all of 2012.

Morstead is tied for 3rd in punts inside the 20 with 28 and has done a fantastic job of pinning opponents near their goal line. Morstead is a key reason the Jets have three safeties this season.

Morstead would also love to see his fellow specialists join him in Orlando this season. Morstead made a case for kicker Greg Zuerlein and long snapper Thomas Hennessy.

“Look, Greg has missed one kick all season and that was a 52-yarder of the uprights (Week 4 vs. Kansas City),” Morstead said about his kicker recently to Jets Wire. “He’s been huge.”

Zuerlein has converted 27 of his 28 field goal attempts and 10 of 11 extra points this season.

Like Morstead, Zuerlein has also been to the Pro Bowl just once, back in 2017 with the Rams. His 96.4% success rate this season would stand as a career-high. He was successful on 95% of his kicks (38 of 40) in his 2017 Pro Bowl season.

As far as Hennessy goes, Morstead notes that he has been with the Jets seven seasons and hasn’t made a Pro Bowl but made sure to note he has been a key reason for the success on special teams this season as well.

“I think it would be a really cool thing for him to get a chance to go,” Morstead said about Hennessy. “He’s been a huge part of our success. You don’t have kickers and punters that are operating at Pro Bowl levels if they don’t have a snapper that’s operating at a super high level.”

Hennessy is currently the longest-tenured member of the Jets, joining the team in 2017. He signed a four-year extension worth $4.4 million back in April, a deal that gave Hennessy the most guaranteed money ($1.27 million) for a long snapper in the NFL.

Hennessy’s snaps are a big reason why Morstead has been able to get punts off so easily and why Zuerlein has been near perfect in his field goal attempts this season. It would be quite the highlight, and make plenty of sense, if all three specialists wind up going to Orlando for the Pro Bowl.

Jets sign long snapper Thomas Hennessy to four-year extension

Thomas Hennessy sticking around

The longest tenured player on the New York Jets will be around even longer as the Jets announced a four-year extension for long snapper Thomas Hennessy.

Hennessy has played seven seasons to this point with the Jets, including 98 consecutive games. He originally came into the league as an undrafted free agent with the Indianapolis Colts in 2017 before being traded to the Jets later that summer.

Hennessy officially signed his contract Friday.

Four Jets earn highest votes in AFC at their respective positions for Pro Bowl

Four Jets earn highest votes in AFC at their respective positions for Pro Bowl

The New York Jets will, at the very least, have a chance to be well-represented at the Pro Bowl in February in Las Vegas.

Fan voting wrapped up this week and four Jets players ended up leading their respective positions in the AFC from that portion of the vote, which counts for one-third of the vote. Coaches and players also get a vote.

The four Jets that led their positions in the AFC and seemingly one step closer to the Pro Bowl:

CB Sauce Gardner
DT Quinnen Williams
ST Justin Hardee
LS Thomas Hennessy

Of those four, all but Hennessy wound up the overall top vote-getters at their positions. Hennessy finished third overall. How about a round of applause for Jets fans for showing support for the long snapper?

Three other Jets finished in the top five in the AFC at their positions: LB C.J. Mosley (3rd), S Lamarcus Joyner (4th) and KR Braxton Berrios (4th).

The full Pro Bowl rosters will be announced on Wednesday, but the NFL got a head start Monday but revealing the first two players that are heading to the Pro Bowl, both of whom come from the teams playing Monday night. They are Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald and Packers cornerback Jaire Alexander.

Thomas Hennessy facing off against brother Matt in London

Jets long snapper Thomas Hennessy will take on his brother, Falcons center Matt Hennessy, in London.

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The Jets’ Week 5 trip to London to take on the Falcons carries special meaning for the Hennessy family.

Sunday marks the first time Jets long snapper Thomas Hennessy will take on his younger brother, Falcons offensive lineman Matt Hennessy. Atlanta selected the 23-year-old in the third round of the 2020 NFL draft and has started all four of its games so far this season at center.

“It’s pretty awesome,” Thomas told ESPN’s Rich Cimini. “It doesn’t happen every day that you get to play your brother.”

The Hennessy brothers both attended New Jersey powerhouse Don Bosco Prep, but never played together because of their four-year age difference. They’ll share the field as opponents on Sunday with both playing prominent roles for their respective teams.

His brother steals most of the shine as a key part of the Falcons’ offensive line, but Thomas Hennessy has entrenched himself as one of the best long snappers in football since joining the Jets. Even though they won’t be lining up directly across from each other, the first edition of the 2021 NFL London Games will go down as a contest the Hennessy family never forgets.

“It’s a unique experience and we’ll definitely cherish it,” Thomas said.

2020 New York Jets Position Preview: Special teams

Jets Wire breaks down New York’s specialists with training camp and the 2020 season approaching.

With training camp here, Jets Wire has been taking a close look at the makeup of the Jets’ roster entering the 2020 season. Last up is special teams.

While Brant Boyer’s unit has been one of the most reliable in the league for the past two seasons, New York didn’t exactly get much out of its kicking specialists last season. After Chandler Catanzaro abruptly retiring and the nightmare experiment that was Kaare Vedvik, the Jets finally landed on Sam Ficken after multiple workouts. Ficken was serviceable, but New York will need more reliability out of the kicking position in 2020. As for Lachlan Edwards, the Aussie punter was replaced this offseason.

Let’s break down the specialists at One Jets Drive.

The Starters

After the departure of long-term punter Edwards in free agency, Jets’ sixth-round pick Braden Mann enters the picture as the team’s lone punter.

Mann won the Ray Guy Award as the nation’s top punter in 2018. Over his last two seasons at Texas A&M, he netted a gross average of 51.0 and 47.1 yards per punt, respectively. Mann should have no problem making his presence felt. In addition to his punting duties, he will be New York’s kickoff specialist, according to Boyer.

Returning at long snapper is Thomas Hennessy, who has been one of New York’s more reliable special teamers since arriving via trade from Indianapolis in 2017.

Depth

Going through three kickers before the second week of the season, the Jets didn’t exactly nail down the position in 2019. Ficken was signed off the street and was unable to consistently make his kicks. He was average at best, making 19 of 27 field goals and missing three extra points.

That’s exactly why Joe Douglas brought in former Dallas Cowboys kicker Brett Maher as his competition. Maher is notorious for his big leg, but he’s not very accurate. He hit just 66.7 percent of his field goals in 2019 after making 80.7 percent the season before. After being waived midseason by the Cowboys, Maher appears to be the Jets’ latest kicking reclamation project coming over from Dallas.

Back deep for the Jets in 2020 should be some combo of Ashtyn Davis, Vyncint Smith and Braxton Berrios. Although it was a small sample size, Smith took full advantage of returning kicks for Gang Green in 2019. Smith’s 29.9 yards per kick return would have ranked second in the NFL, but the third-year wide receiver only returned 10 kicks — too few to qualify for league leaders. As for Berrios, he was one of the more reliable punt returners across the league last season . His 11.4 yards per punt return was second in the NFL.

George Campbell and Trenton Cannon could push as competition, but both are looked at as roster bubble players entering training camp.

Outlook

With Boyer in charge of the unit, the Jets should see continued success from their special teams in 2020. While Mann and Hennessy are locked in as starters, the kicking competition between Ficken and Maher should be a battle to watch over the duration of training camp.

If Smith’s and Berrios’ numbers from 2019 are any indication, they should be the favorites for the returns jobs.

See more from Jets Wire’s Position Previews series:

QB | RB | WR | TE | OL | DL | MLB | OLB | CB | S

Jets roster serving as a stable for ex-Colts

The Jets have 11 former Colts players on their roster.

You might as well call the Jets the New York Colts with the amount of former Indianapolis players on the roster.

The Jets have 11 former Colts players under contract. That includes Thomas Hennessy, Matthias Farley, Nate Hairston, Arthur Maulet, Quincy Wilson, Ross Travis, Henry Anderson, Tarell Basham, Pierre Desir, Jonotthan Harrison and Josh Andrews.

Of these 11 players, six of them were acquired under Joe Douglas and five under Mike Maccagnan. Farley, Hairston, Wilson, Travis, Desir and Andrews are Douglas guys while Hennessy, Maulet, Anderson, Basham and Harrison are Maccagnan’s doing.

Not many of the former Colts have made a huge impact with the Jets. Hennessy has been the most consistent player as the Jets’ long snapper for the past few years. Anderson had a good first season with the Jets with seven sacks but followed that up with a lousy 2019 season. Basham started to come on last season.

Harrison, meanwhile, has been in and out as a starter on the offensive line. Hairston was a major disappointment last year and Farley barely stepped foot on the field. Maulet was a solid depth piece at cornerback and made some good plays on special teams. Desir, Wilson, Andrews and Travis have yet to put on a Jets uniform.

New York seems to have a good relationship with the folks over in Indianapolis. Not only did the two teams pull off a couple of trades this past season, but Maccagnan traded with the Colts before the 2018 draft to move up to the third overall pick. That pick, of course, turned into Sam Darnold.

Temple C Matt Hennessy would love to play with brother in New York

NFL draft prospect Matt Hennessy could be a great Day 2 target for the Jets, and he’s the brother of long snapper Thomas Hennessy.

The Jets desperately need a center after Ryan Kalil’s failed comeback. Could the brother of New York’s long snapper be the answer to that problem?

Temple center Matt Hennessy, the younger brother of Thomas, is one of the top interior offensive linemen prospects in the draft. Draft pundits put Hennessy slightly below the best center in the draft, Washington’s Tyler Biadasz, who is projected to go in the early second round.

When a reporter asked him at the Senior Bowl what it would be like to play with his older brother on the Jets, Hennessy seemed overjoyed at that idea.

“Oh, that’d be incredible. That’d be incredible,” he told reporters Wednesday. “We never got the chance to play together, he’s always been a bunch of years ahead of me.”

If Joe Douglas is serious about strengthening the offensive line through the draft, Hennessy could be a great Day 2 pick to fortify the line. He’s projected to go somewhere between the end of the second round and the end of the third round, but his stock could rise if he performs well in the Senior Bowl on Jan. 25 and the NFL Combine in early spring.

Hennessy didn’t give up a sack in 828 snaps, allowed four total pressures during the 2019 season and only allowed 14 pressures during his three years at Temple. At 6-foot-4, 295 pounds, he helped anchor a Temple offensive line that ranked 23rd in the nation and a run game that ranked 29th, per Pro Football Focus, and graded out as PFF’s top-ranked center (86.9).

The Jets won’t use the 11th overall pick on Hennessy given the amount of top-tier talent that will still be available in the first round, but they could easily use their second-round or either of their two third-round picks on the center if they like him. The Jets had one of the worst offensive lines in football, and they haven’t found a reliable center since Nick Mangold retired in 2016. A center should absolutely be on the team’s radar early in the 2020 draft.

The Jets have three selections on Day 2 of the draft: No. 48 (second round), No. 68 (third round, from the Giants in the Leonard Williams trade), and No. 79 (third round) and they could use any of those picks to take Hennessy if they’re impressed by his workouts and if the board falls the right way. 

It would be a homecoming of sorts for the younger Hennessy if the Jets draft him. He and Thomas both grew up in Bardonia, New York, and attended Don Bosco Preparatory High School in Ramsey, New Jersey. Both are within a 30-minute car ride from MetLife Stadium.