Tom Rock: The Jets' Andre Cisco was a starter. Then he was a backup. For six snaps. Now he's back as a starter.
Valley Stream native Andre Cisco during training camp in Florham Park on Aug. 5, 2026. Credit: Ed Murray
FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — For almost all of his career, really since the back end of his rookie season in Jacksonville in 2021, Andre Cisco hasn’t just been a safety in the NFL. He’s been a starting safety.
He played that position with that title 47 times in four years for the Jaguars and eight times for the Jets last season before a pectoral tear ended his first year with them. When he returned to the Jets this summer, that’s the role he was penciled into and many expected him to keep.
Then came Sunday’s opener. When the game began in Tennessee, Minkah Fitzpatrick, the All-Pro for whom the Jets had traded, was starting in the secondary, sure, but so was free-agent acquisition Dane Belton, who had impressed in training camp and climbed over Cisco from special teams addition to the first team. Cisco was on the bench.
He could have hung his head. He could have short-changed his preparation. He could have done a lot of things that plenty of people would do when they are handed a demotion.
He did none of that.
“I was completely bought into what the coaches were telling me in terms of understanding where they felt like I best fit into this team,” he told Newsday on Wednesday. “It doesn’t always match your ideal situation, but that’s OK . . . If you fuss and fuss about things not being how you wish they were or how you wish they were before, you are going to miss your opportunity.
“There were no hard feelings.”
Good on Cisco for recognizing that. And good for the Jets that he did, too.
Because six plays into the game, Fitzpatrick suffered a groin injury. Cisco had to step back in with the starters and play the rest of the contest. He went from expecting to be on the field for a handful of defensive snaps and focusing mostly on special teams to having the second-most tackles on the team (five) and sitting out only when the Jets were on offense. And the Jets won, 23-10.
“First I was concerned about Minkah and hoping he’ll be all right,” Cisco said. “But then I was just focused on doing my job to the best of my ability.”
Now, with Fitzpatrick listed as week-to-week and almost certainly not playing Sunday against the Packers, Cisco figures to be back to starting in the home opener at MetLife Stadium, the building where he used to root for the Jets when he was growing up in Valley Stream.
“Obviously, he’s our leader and he provides so much stability and leadership,” Cisco said of Fitzpatrick. “He’s a captain of our team. I think our job is to continue to understand the game plan first and lead how we all know how to lead, whether it’s Dane, myself, Brandon [Stephens], the rest of the guys.”
Coach Aaron Glenn said of replacing Fitzpatrick: “We have other experienced guys on our team, too. That’s the good thing about our team right now, and those guys have to step up. I mean, Cisco’s played a lot of football in this league and he’s been a damn good player in this league.”
We are about to see if he still is.
The stakes will be a little different from what they were last week, at least heading into the action. Whatever happened in that game against the Titans, Cisco said he was going to enjoy it.
After his injury last year, he wasn’t sure what would happen with his playing career. He was a free agent and it turned out the Jets brought him back, but things could have gone in any number of directions. Playing in nickel and dime packages and special teams? “That’s not something you can be mad about at this point in my career,” he said.
What he got was more than that, of course. He got another chance to be an every-down player. And he got a win, the first one he was able to really enjoy with the Jets.
The team he played for last year lost its first seven games. When it finally notched that first victory in Cincinnati, it was the game in which he suffered the season-ending injury.
“It was a long way back,” he said. “I wasn’t always sure how I would look coming back. To take the field with the Jets and to walk off the field with a win, it’s been a long time.”
Next up is the Packers, a team with considerably more firepower than the Titans. A team that undoubtedly will look at the injury report, see Fitzpatrick sidelined and want to attack that part of the field.
A meeting early this preseason stuck in Cisco’s head throughout camp and still does.
“We talked about being a star in our roles,” he said. “You always have to have your mindframe set on being ready. Everybody on the 53, you have to be ready. My mindset has been there before from the standpoint of not starting the game on the field, but I understand how quickly things can change and I understand that my role is extremely important.”
They sure did change fast on Sunday. Cisco was ready then. And now, back as a starter, temporary or otherwise, he is ready still.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
