Malachi Corley drops football 1 yard from touchdown in bonehead play of the year

New York Jets rookie Malachi Corley was inches, literally, from his first NFL touchdown.

In the blink of an eye, however, his first NFL touchdown became a touchback, gifting the Houston Texans possession of the football.

With Thursday night’s game between the Texans and the Jets knotted at 0-0, Aaron Rodgers and company were on the move, facing a 1st and 10 early in the second quarter. The Jets called for an end-around to Corley, with Rodgers flipping Corley the football working towards the right side.

Corley burst into the secondary and looked to have his first NFL touchdown, but eagle-eyed observers noted that the rookie might have dropped the football before the end zone:

The play was reviewed, not only to determine whether Corley had indeed dropped the football but what happened to the football after he dropped it. If a Jets player had managed to recover the football, it still would have been a touchdown. But if a Texans player recovered the loose football, it would have been a touchback.

Instead, the ball simply rolled out of the end zone, which also resulted in a touchback:

At least one group believed it was a touchdown: The social media team for the Jets. They posted a clip of the play on X (formerly known as Twitter) before receiving a “Community Note:”