09/26 — “Reading the ball off of the foot is just like reading the ball off of the bat.”

That’s how Jim Leonhard views punt returning.

“I give a lot of credit to growing up playing baseball,” Leonhard said from the Jets locker room on Friday. “You develop that hand/eye coordination and you get comfortable catching the ball on the run during baseball. That’s helped my returning skills.”

Leonhard's return skills as well as his safety skills were on display against New England. Unlike in the opener at Houston when he and Leon Washington dropped back in double safety three times, Leonhard was back alone on all six punts by Chris Hanson.

His 16-yard return to the Jets 45 with 6:39 to play was his best of the day. It resulted in a 23-yard net punt. Even after a three-and-out by the Jets offense and Steve Weatherford's touchback punt, the Jets picked up some important hidden yardage as they held on to their 16-9 lead.

“The biggest emphasis is picking up those extra yards that nobody sees,” Leonhard said. “The normal fans don’t really understand how big special teams is and how much you can affect the offense and defense by changing field position.”

For the season, Leonard has three returns for 43 yards, a 14.3-yard average, plus four fair catches. On the nine punts he's been back alone for, the opposing punters netted 31.8 yards.

As for the double safety sets at Houston, that’s something that ST coordinator Mike Westhoff is going to continue to call in an effort to get No. 29 on the field as much as possible.

“There are multiple reason’s we do it. It might be a matchup thing,” said Leonhard. “Especially when it gets windy in the Meadowlands, it’ll help out. We use it a lot. We just feel like with the both of us on the field it gives us an opportunity to hit a home run.

But Westhoff said that they will only be on the field if there is a lot of open field for Washington to maneuver.

"Jim Leonhard will be in all the time — always," the coach said. "If they have good field position trying to punt us in the hole, Jim will be back all the time. Now, when they’re coming out of their own end zone, then you’ll probably be more likely to see two. We want to have Leon out there when we have more field to operate on that we can utilize two guys.

"Now sometimes that will depend on the wind or it will depend on what we’re going to do. We have a bunch of things we do and we try something different every time. You draw us up, you’ll be there a while."

One reason for Leonhard's role as a punt returner is his hands. Head coach Rex Ryan said he could field punts in a hurricane.

"He’s very sure-handed," Westhoff agreed. "He can catch it. He’s got very good hands. I haven’t seen him in a hurricane yet, but I wouldn’t doubt it. Jimmy has very good hands. He's just a good guy to have."

*Special Teams Saturday.