Jacksonville Jaguars first-year wide receiver Jaydon Mickens has been named AFC Special Teams Player of the Week for his performance in Week 14 against the Seattle Seahawks. Mickens is now the first returner in Jaguars history to win multiple AFC Special Teams Player of the Week honors and the first specialist since Josh Scobee in 2005 to win multiple AFC Special Teams Player of the Week honors in the same season.
Jaydon Mickens: 7 games in the NFL
— Tyler Morales (@TylerMorales__) December 13, 2017
6th in PR yards
2nd in PR average
1 TD, this couldve been his second. pic.twitter.com/WSLyTwpQkB
In the Jaguars’ victory over the Seahawks, Mickens returned a third quarter punt 72 yards to the Seahawks’ 1-yard line, which resulted in a Leonard Fournette touchdown on the ensuing play and gave the Jaguars a 24-10 lead. During the third quarter, the Jaguars scored on three consecutive plays from scrimmage — an 18-yard receiving touchdown by wide receiver Dede Westbrook, a 75-yard receiving touchdown by wude receiver Keelan Cole and a 1-yard rushing touchdown by Fournette follow Mickens’ return -– becoming the first team since the 2004 Minnesota Vikings (Week 16) to score a touchdown on three consecutive plays from scrimmage.
Mickens, who was promoted to the Jaguars’ active roster from the practice squad on October 21, has won two AFC Special Teams Player of the Week honors in seven career games. Mickens’ 72-yard return against the Seahawks was the longest of his career (18 career punt returns) and the fifth-longest in team history, and his 13.1-yard punt return average is the second-highest in the NFL among players with at least 10 punt returns.
Mickens won both awards and posted the two longest punt returns of his career in the two games in which the Jaguars wore teal this season.
Mickens is one of four Jaguars players to win AFC Player of the Week honors this season — joining defensive lineman Calais Campbell (4.0 sacks in Week 1), linebacker Telvin Smith (10 tackles and a pick-six touchdown in Week 5) and cornerback A.J. Bouye (interception in overtime and 51-yard return to set up the game-winning field goal) — and the only player on the team to win multiple Player of the Week honors this season.