FLORHAM PARK, N.J. (AP) — Andrew Beck strolled onto the field in Kansas City last Sunday, blasted the football as far as he could and had more than a few people — at the stadium and watching on TV — scratching their heads.
The 6-foot-3, 255-pound Beck is officially listed on the New York Jets ’ roster as a fullback. But the offense considers him a tight end. Now, he can add another position to his resume of football versatility: kickoff specialist.
“Just keeping you guys on your toes, man,” Beck said with a big laugh.
Same for opposing return units.
NFL teams typically use kickers or punters to handle kickoffs, but the Jets tried something different during their 35-12 loss to the Chiefs. They had Beck — instead of kicker Jason Sanders or punter Austin McNamara — kick off all five times in the game.
And it had nothing to do with New York not being satisfied with the kicking of Sanders or McNamara.
“Any time you have an opportunity to get an extra tackler on the field with a play like this, I think it’s a benefit,” special teams coordinator Chris Banjo said. "So, yes, we’ve definitely been working on it for a while. Always look for different ways, a way to get 1% better, continue to close the gap that we continue to talk about and stress.
“So, whenever we feel like and identify an area where it can help, we’re definitely going to try to maximize it.”
Beck's first kickoff went 59 yards, followed by kicks of 56, 59 and 61 yards. His one mistake came on the kickoff to open the second half when he sent it out of bounds, giving Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs the ball at their 40. And with a short field, Kansas City quickly turned a two-point game into a nine-point advantage — and cruised from there.
“Hats off to the coverage unit, man, because it worked out well for us last week, as long as I kept the ball in play,” Beck said. “So I think the goal for this week is to keep the ball in play, factor in the coverage and let those guys hunt.
"If it’s something that Banjo wants to do this week, awesome. If not, it’s something we’ve got in our repertoire moving forward.”
Special teams was a strength of the Jets last season, but the unit has struggled at times on kick coverage this year, in large part because of injuries to key contributors such as Marcelino McCrary-Ball, Kiko Mauigoa and Arian Smith. New York gave up a 95-yard kickoff return for a touchdown to Las Vegas' Dylan Laube two weeks ago, so the Jets thought using Beck, a special teams regular who can tackle, would help.
“Those are things that I’m always going to look at, things sometimes are out-of-the-box thinking to where we can get good players on the field,” coach Aaron Glenn said.
The New Orleans Saints are the only other NFL team to use a player other than a kicker or a punter on a kickoff this season. Safety Justin Reid — who previously filled in as an emergency kicker for Kansas City — kicked off to start the second half against Las Vegas in Week 3.
“It gives other teams something to prepare for,” Saints special teams coordinator Phil Galiano said. “They may have a return called and now they see Justin standing back there and he's about to kick off and they're going to have to make an adjustment. It's one less double-team, per se, that they can have on somebody unless they're just willing to let him run free to the ball.”
There's one catch: By NFL rule, the kicker can't cross the 50-yard line until the ball hits the ground or a player in the landing zone — the area on the field between the receiving team’s goal line and 20-yard line — or goes into the end zone.
“I knew the rule a little bit before just because we had watched the clips of Justin Reid kicking off,” Beck said. “As soon as I saw him do it, I obviously went to coach and was like, yeah, we have to try this. So I think it took him a little to kind of decide to.”
That came last week, when Beck practiced his kickoffs and felt more comfortable with each practice.
“That’s something we’ve talked about over time and we just kind of allowed it to mature,” Banjo said. “And it ended up being a weapon for us.”
The 30-year-old Beck has some kicking in his background — mainly soccer, though, especially because his father Chris played for Army in college. The Tampa, Florida, native knew how to boot a soccer ball, but gravitated toward football as he got older, eventually playing at Texas.
“I would kick for teams, but it wasn't something I really messed with in college,” said Beck, who was signed as a fullback by New England as an undrafted free agent in 2019. “And then when I got to the NFL, they were all like, the more you can do, the more you can do, you know?”
So, during stints with Denver, Houston, Green Bay and now the Jets in his eight-year NFL career, Beck has become a versatile jack-of-all-trades.
“Guy's just a football player,” tight end Jeremy Ruckert said as he passed by Beck's locker.
“It’s fun and I just love football, man, and whatever I get to do on the field, it just gives me more opportunities to hang around a little bit,” Beck said. “And I really enjoy it. So I'm waiting to see what they want me to try next because I’ll just say I can do it and then figure it out later.”
Beck has lined up in the backfield as a lead blocker and carried the ball in short-yardage situations as a fullback. He has been part of the Jets' five-tight end sets and has four special teams tackles. And it's anyone's guess where else he might end up.
"I’m just our emergency specialist,” Beck said. “I emergency long snap, kick and punt.”
But can he kick a field goal?
“Yeah, in an emergency if I had to,” a smiling Beck said. “That’s obviously not something I want to do. Jason is really good at that, man, so let’s let him keep doing that.
"But if he breaks his shoelace, I got him.”
See AP’s full NFL coverage here
FILE - New York Jets fullback Andrew Beck (47) warms up before an NFL football game against the Miami Dolphins in East Rutherford, N.J., Oct. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Adam Hunger, File)
DUBLIN (AP) — European nations are seeking an envoy to represent them in talks on ending the Russia-Ukraine war, concerned that a U.S.-backed process will leave them sidelined and Kyiv vulnerable as Moscow and Washington decide the fate of a conflict that has roiled the continent.
Whether Europe should be represented by one person or a team — and who should take on the role — is being debated Friday as leaders from the 27-nation European Union meet at a summit in Dublin. Senior EU officials and politicians have been suggested, but there is no consensus yet.
What the job might entail is also unclear and contested. But there is broad agreement by governments from the U.K. to Ukraine on the need for Europe to join the ongoing negotiations involving Moscow, Kyiv and Washington.
“This needs to be resolved," Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin said as he arrived at the summit.
“I would hope that today’s discussions bring clarity around this,” he said. "It needs to be, in my view, finally decided upon within the next week or two.”
Ukraine is eager for support from its European allies. It's reluctant to leave the talks solely in the hands of a U.S. administration that has often seemed to lean toward Moscow’s views. Russia does not want European countries involved in direct negotiations, complaining they are financing and supplying Ukraine’s military effort.
European leaders also distrust U.S. President Donald Trump to negotiate on their behalf after a series of tense standoffs over trade, Greenland and conflicts in Iran and Ukraine.
“Without Europeans, there is no support for Ukraine,” French President Emmanuel Macron said at a meeting of the European Political Community in Dublin on Thursday. “There is no more U.S. support."
“At the end of the day, we will be the ones to define and decide for our future security as Europeans,” he said.
European leaders fear Russian President Vladimir Putin will press Trump to back a peace settlement that weakens not just Ukraine but broader European security. Putin has demanded NATO troops be pulled back from Russia’s borders and that no European forces be deployed in Ukraine.
As envoys from Washington, Moscow and Kyiv met in Abu Dhabi, several European countries, including the U.K., France and Germany, attended discussions nearby.
U.S. envoy Jared Kushner and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said after they met in Dublin late Thursday that Europe would be part of the next round of talks. Zelenskyy said Europe would send a negotiating team, adding, "They will have a voice.”
“We cannot conclude this deal without the Europeans being at the table,” Kushner said. He said Putin "is willing to give it a try.”
Supporters of a single envoy, like Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, argue that the absence of a united European voice has allowed individual countries or small groups to engage in freelance diplomacy.
“There are too many different groupings discussing the issue,” she said.
Meloni has criticized a series of seemingly uncoordinated initiatives, including an October call to Putin by Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, that she said could undermine European interests.
Martin said that European representation at the negotiations “can't just be European Union” because the Coalition of the Willing — a group of over two dozen countries that have pledged military support to help maintain a future peace in Ukraine — “has involved far more than the European Union.”
“It's a European continentwide issue,” he said, pointing to Norway and the U.K.'s support for Ukraine.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Thursday that for Europe to join peace talks, it first must name a representative. “The Europeans squabble like spiders in a jar."
The question of who represents Europe is an old one. Europe itself is loosely defined. Is it the 27-nation EU, the 32-nation NATO military alliance made up mostly of European countries, the 29-nation Schengen zone, or the 47-nation European Political Community?
That has frustrated Washington in the past and present.
After this week's U.S.-brokered talks between Ukraine and Russia in the United Arab Emirates, Kushner said that “if Europe could identify one person to speak on their behalf, that would be a bigger achievement than getting the Russians to include them in the negotiation.”
That echoes the famous question often misattributed to former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger: “Who do I call if I want to call Europe?”
France, Germany and the U.K., the region’s top three economies collectively known as the European trio or E3, have so far been the most engaged European body in negotiations. But while London is deeply involved with Ukraine, the U.K. left the EU in 2020.
But an E3 envoy would leave out the other 25 EU nations and rankle smaller nations like those that border Russia and Belarus on the bloc’s “eastern flank,” which face constant hybrid threats, including influence campaigns and disruptive drones.
Some back a top EU official for the job. Even inside Brussels, however, there are two leading contenders: European Council President Antonio Costa and the EU's top diplomat Kaja Kallas.
“European security cannot be discussed without a European voice at the table,” Costa said in Dublin on Thursday. “That European voice needs to be a team effort between European nations, the European Union and NATO.”
But earlier this year, Costa faced criticism within the EU after his office set up a hush-hush back-channel with Moscow.
The perhaps obvious candidate, however, is Kallas, a former prime minister of Estonia.
She laid claim to the envoy role Friday, saying “I’m the one who is representing Europe in the foreign and security policy.”
“I know that the Russians don’t want me, but, you know, do we have a say, who is representing Russia?” she said. "We can’t send any person that has no institutional role like the Americans are sending.”
Another name that has been floated is Stubb, the Finnish president. He has warm relations with Trump and met in Oslo with U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Kushner in October.
But some leaders deeply distrust the U.S.-brokered talks. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk was critical of the negotiations, reflecting the pessimism of EU countries formerly dominated by the Soviet Union.
“In my opinion, calling them negotiations is an exaggeration," Tusk said Thursday. “We will not build a new security architecture simply because the Russian president, or someone in the United States, wishes it."
Associated Press writers Geir Moulson in Berlin, Lorne Cook in Brussels, and Colleen Barry in Milan contributed to this report.
Ireland's Prime Minister Micheál Martin welcomes European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to the EU Summit in Dublin, Friday, Nov. 13, 2026.(AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
U.S. special envoys Steve Witkoff, right, Jared Kushner, U.S. President Donald Trump's son-in-law, left, and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speak to the media at the airport in Dublin, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026.(AP Photo/Peter Morrison)
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, left, speaks with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen during a meeting of the European Political Community (EPC), in Dublin, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, right, speaks with Germany's Chancellor Friedrich Merz during a round table meeting of the European Political Community (EPC), in Dublin, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
Britain's Prime Minister Andy Burnham, left, sits next to the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, with other European leaders in attendance, during the Ukraine security meeting as part of the European Political Community (EPC) summit in Dublin, Ireland, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (Stefan Rousseau/PA via AP, Pool)
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and French President Emmanuel Macron meet during the European Political Community (EPC) Summit in Dublin, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026.(AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stands next to French President Emmanuel Macron, right, and Ireland's Prime Minister Micheál Martin as they pose for a family photo of all participants during the European Political Community (EPC) Summit in Dublin, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026.(AP Photo/Peter Morrison)
