Patriots' Jake Bailey named AFC Special Teams Player of the Week, joins rare company

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Bill Belichick loves his punters, and it appears he found a good one in Jake Bailey.

The New England Patriots punter was named the AFC Special Teams Player of the Week for his performance against the New York Jets on Sunday.

Bailey landed five of his seven punts inside the 15-yard line Sunday and four inside the 10-yard line. His efforts helped the Patriots lock down the Jets offense, which mustered just 105 total yards and failed to score a point.

The Stanford product also made history as the first Patriots rookie punter to win an AFC Special Teams Player of the Week award.

In fact, Bailey is just the third Patriots punter to win AFC Special Teams Player of the Week since Belichick became head coach in 2000, joining Ken Walter (2001), Chris Hanson (2008) and Ryan Allen (2014 and 2016).

New England cut ties with Allen in the offseason after taking Bailey with the 163rd overall pick (fifth round) in the 2019 NFL Draft. So far, Bailey has made that decision worthwhile.

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