The New York Jets on Wednesday cut Xavier Gipson, whose fumbled kickoff helped the Pittsburgh Steelers beat the team in Week 1.
The Jets signed wide receiver/kick returner Isaiah Williams in a corresponding move on Wednesday.
With the Jets up 26-24 after a Pittsburgh touchdown at the start of the fourth quarter, Gipson coughed up the ball on the ensuing kickoff, recovered by the Steelers at the Jets’ 22-yard line. Two plays and 50 seconds later, Aaron Rodgers connected with Calvin Austin III on an 18-yard pass for a touchdown that gave the Steelers a 31-26 advantage with 14:07 left.
The Steelers won 34-32 on a 60-yard field goal by Chris Boswell with 1:03 remaining in the fourth quarter.
On Wednesday, Jets head coach Aaron Glenn dismissed the notion that Gipson was cut solely for his fumble on Sunday.
“We’re trying to get the best players on this team that can play a role, and at this point, I just felt like we need to have a change at that spot,” Glenn said. “And it wasn’t just one thing when it comes to accountability. There’s accountability in everything that we do, so I don’t want to just pin it on him fumbling the ball. There were a number of things that led up to this. I just felt like it was time to make a change, and (general manager) Darren Mougey and I had conversations about it and we made the change.”
After the game on Sunday, Glenn said such mistakes wouldn’t be tolerated.
“The one thing to me that turned this game is man, we can’t have turnovers, we can’t do it,” Glenn said postgame. “We have to be a more disciplined team. There was some penalties that happened in that game that was true discipline issues, and again, that’s something that will be addressed because you will not be on the field with this team if you’re gonna cause us to lose games.”
The Jets signed Gipson, a wide receiver, as an unrestricted free agent before the 2023 season. Primarily a special teams contributor, Gipson appeared in 35 games and made 27 catches for 268 yards and one touchdown. He added one rushing touchdown.
Gipson, 24, also returned 68 punts with an average of 8.9 yards per return and a touchdown. As a kick returner, he averaged 26 yards on 44 chances.
Williams, 24, recorded an 8.5-yard average on 11 punt returns spread over eight games last season with the Cincinnati Bengals and Detroit Lions.
