Judge: Ray Guy's gotta be in Canton
During a summer visit to the Dallas Cowboys training camp in San Antonio, I met Dallas Cowboys punter Mat McBriar and told him I wanted to discuss one of the NFL's holy-grail records with him.
"Oh you mean Sammy Baugh's punting average," McBriar said.
Bingo.
|
|
| The Niners' Andy Lee averages 50 yards a punt. (US Presswire) |
Think again.
The way the NFL's punters are going, it's definitely going to fall someday -- and sometime soon.
McBriar pushed it last year when he led the league with a 48.2 average, the highest average since Yale Lary averaged 48.9 in 1963. McBriar's 48.2 average tied Baugh's 48.2 in 1942 as the fifth-best ever.
Nice season. But it would place him fifth in the league this year. It's punters gone wild.
San Francisco 49ers punter Andy Lee and St. Louis Rams punter Donnie Jones are both averaging 50 yards per punt. Shane Lechler of the Oakland Raiders is at 49.9 and Denver's Todd Sauerbrun is at 48.5
So why is this happening?
"That's a good question," Buffalo Bills special teams coach Bobby April said. "I really don't know why there would be such an improvement this year over the past couple. When you look what has happened in the past 10 years, you can understand why the numbers are up. Guys train more and they punt a lot more than they did back 10-15 years ago. But to see the numbers go up like they have this year is a tough question to answer."
To see how far punters have come in the past couple of decades, one need look only at former NFL great Ray Guy. He is considered by many to be the greatest punter of all-time, a player some say should be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Guy was legendary for his sky-high punts that were part of the glory days of the Raiders. He's the most-famous punter ever. But by today's standards, his career numbers can be summed up in one word: pedestrian.
Guy led the league in punting average three times during 14-year career. His best average of the three years was 43.8 in 1975, the best of his career.
You know where that would place him in the league rankings this week? Try tied for 17th.
"It's different now," Jacksonville Jaguars special teams coach Joe DeCamillis said. "There's better training. There's more talent out there. There's better coaching. That helps make the numbers go up."
April thinks it helps that kids grow up now wanting to become punters and kickers. From and early age, they attend punting and kicking camps. Guy has his own camp.
If you're not athletic enough to play in the league, which most are not, you still might find your way there as a punter.
"Most of these guys punting come up like the tennis prodigies of the past," April said. "They're molded into punters. They go to the camps. They watch all the coaching videos. It's way beyond what past generations did."
They're also bigger and more athletic. Guy was a big punter for his day at 6-3, 190 pounds. By comparison, some of today's punters are huge.
Philadelphia Eagles punter Saverio Rocca looks like a defensive end at 6-5, 265 pounds. Like McBriar, he is a former Australian Rules Football Player. McBriar is 6-1, but he's a solid 225 pounds and looks like a linebacker.
Some other big punters are Ben Graham (6-5, 235 pounds) of the New York Jets and Brandon Fields (6-5, 236 pounds). Chris Kluwe of the Minnesota Vikings is 6-4, 215 pounds and Seattle's Ryan Plackemeier is 6-3, 247 pounds. San Diego's Mike Scifres is 6-2, 236 pounds, while Kansas City's Dustin Colquitt is 6-3, 210 pounds.
"When we were playing the Jets we were walking out on the field and (Bills coach) Dick Jauron pointed at Graham and said, "Can you believe that's their punter?'" April said. "He was as big as the other guys on the team. Punters are getting huge."
They're athletic, too. Aside from the Aussie Rules players, Brian Moorman, who is considered among the best every year for April in Buffalo, was a track star in college. Adam Podlesh, a rookie punter in Jacksonville, had the fastest 200-meter and 400-meter times in New York State during his high school days.
McBriar said he wanted to be an Australian Rules star, and had the leg needed, but he said he wasn't as athletic as they wanted him to be, which is why he gravitated to punting. He saw San Diego's Darren Bennett make the move from Aussie Rules star to NFL punter with the San Diego Chargers and decided to ask for advice.
"I contacted Darren and he helped put me in touch with June Jones, the coach at Hawaii," McBriar said. "That's how I got into punting."
In his first two seasons with the Cowboys, McBriar averaged 42.4 and 42.5 before blowing up last season to 48.2. He's at 47.5 this season, which is interesting since he's the only one of the top-10 in the league who is not having a career-best season.
Jones is in his fourth season and has never averaged more than 43.5 yards. Lee is also in his fourth and has never averaged more than 44.8 yards. Yet here they both are within striking distance of the Sammy Baugh punting record.
The amazing thing is they are doing it in an era where specialized punting is the norm.
"The days of bombing it down the middle of the field does not make sense," DeCamillis said. "Devin Hester and those guys can rip it if you just punt it in the middle of the field. You have to be able to punt it to the sidelines."
McBriar put it a simpler way.
"The wrong thing to do is just try and kill it," he said.
Maybe so, but the league's punters are killing it this season. And as a result, one of the league's holy-grail records is being threatened.
They're gunning for you, Sammy Baugh.
"It's attainable," McBriar said. "Somebody will get it."
Count on it.
