Day 3 - Reasonable to expect a Punter

[Lout]

With the loss of Brad Nortman, and only a 28 year old punter, with no live game NFL experience on the roster, I think it's reasonable to expect that Swayze Walters will no be our punter next season.  We at least need to give him some competition.  There are 3 Punters expected to go between Rounds 5-6.

If we don't draft a Punter in the 5th, there is a plethora of Punters that are expected to be 7-UFA Round grades.. yes, we could take our chances with our inevitable bargaining power obtaining the best UFA Punter on the market, or we can assure ourselves by taking the punter we covet in the 7th Round.

Names to consider in Round 5.

Drew Kaser - P - Texas A&M,  Has a booming right leg.  He broke Shane Lechlers school record for Punt Avg twice!, with 47.4 and 47.45 respectively. For comparison sake, Brad Nortman had a 42.1 punt avg.  Drew has been known to out kick his coverage at times, as 38% of his punts were returned.  He shows great touch, pinning 17% of all his punts within the 10yd line.  Routinely has a punt of over 53 yards in 75% of his games.  Needs to work on hang time.  Very nice release from snap to punt.. usually able to stay calm under pressure.

Nick O'Toole - P - West Virginia, Quality hang time average at 4.06 seconds.  Not too shabby 45.1 Punt Avg.  Only 2 games with a punt over 50 yards.  Very quick release from snap to punt.  Had 4 punts returned for TDs in 2014 (not necessarily his fault), but worth noting.  Good athleticism for a punter, able to successfully complete Fake Punts while running for first downs.

Tom Hackett - P - Sam Houston St,  2-Time Ray Guy award winner!  Had a stellar 47.95 Gross AVG.  Led the nation with punts inside the 20, also punts inside the 10.  Rugby style kicker that will need to convert to base style.  Unable to get accurate hang time due to rugby style. 

[JawnyBlaze]

Meh, with the impact our draft class is shaping up to have I'd rather just get an UDFA punter for competition.  We need to nail our remaining draft picks.

[Lout]

14 minutes ago, JawnyBlaze said:

Meh, with the impact our draft class is shaping up to have I'd rather just get an UDFA punter for competition.  We need to nail our remaining draft picks.

I think, at this point in the draft, a Punter may have the biggest impact for us.  Typically we aren't able to find highly impactful players in the 5th Round (at least as a Rookie).  Yes, Bene was impactful, but he's the exception.  We could go for a DE, backup OL, RB or, slot WR at pick 5 if the value is there, but I wouldn't write off a Punter either

[JawnyBlaze]

I mean sure, if no one I'm interested in is there a Punter would be fine.  But I'm holding out hope we can get Booker or Collins.  Cash or P. Cooper would be nice too.

[Ruff]

Tom Hackett is really good. (He went to Utah, btw) I would be happy to get an effective punter who can really change the field when called upon. 

[juliosantos]

please no . this would be a damn nightmare 

[juliosantos]

draft a speed wr so we wont need to punt;]

[The_Rainmaker]

Trade up with this year pick and a low round future pick for TE Jerell Adams

[PantherBoy95]

I kind of agree with OP.  A 5th Round DE has a pretty low likelihood of taking on a big role statistically I'd assume.  Whereas if we can guarantee that we get a very solid to great Punter for years to come I'm all for it.  It's a  game of field position.

[PantherBoy95]

I actually forgot that we'd lost Nortman, that will likely be reflected on at point this season.

[O-Ther]

Hurney valued punters enough to draft Nortman in the 6th round of 2012. Hurney ain't here no mo.

We've recently drafted or claimed young players to develop at every position, except TE and QB. Also, of the O-line backups, Gradkowski is more of a reclamation project since we are his 3rd team, Chris Scott's probably maxed out with 2016 being his 5th year, leaving Daryl Williams as the only young player we are developing on the O-line.

I'd say we use our 2 remaining picks to get young players at 2 of those 3 areas, possibly even trading both to move back into the late 4th round to grab a guy that's fallen.

[SOJA]

Gettleman is marching to the beat of his own drum - so while drafting a punter seems logical I'm not putting anything past Gman

[Norway]

Valid point, and totally agree with OP. Even though it's kinda boring, it would propably be wise to pick a punter with the 5th pick

[KB_fan]

11 minutes ago, O-Ther said:

leaving Daryl Williams as the only young player we are developing on the O-line.

Agree we need more Oline depth, but not quite as bad as you make it.  Remeber we've got some futures contract guys we signed in Jan. as well as last year's PS guys, so here's all our oline guys:

So there's Masifilo at C;  Dismukes, Larsen & Yankey at G (some of whom may also play C), and at T there's Foucault and Hawkins.  I would argue we're thinnest at Tackle.

	Gradkowski, Gino	C	6-3	300	27	5	Delaware
67	Kalil, Ryan	C	6-2	300	31	10	Southern California
64	Masifilo, Matt	C	6-3	280	26	2	Stanford

 

63	Foucault, David	T	6-8	320	27	2	Montreal
78	Hawkins, Donald	T	6-4	305	24	2	Texas
73	Oher, Michael	T	6-4	315	29	8	Mississippi
74	Remmers, Mike	T	6-5	305	27	4	Oregon State
60	Williams, Daryl	T	6-6	335	23	2	Oklahoma

 

62	Dismukes, Reese	G	6-3	295	23	1	Auburn
69	Larsen, Tyler	G	6-4	315	24	1	Utah State
68	Norwell, Andrew	G	6-6	325	24	3	Ohio State
79	Scott, Chris	G	6-4	340	28	5	Tennessee
70	Turner, Trai	G	6-3	320	22	3	LSU
61	Yankey, David	G	6-6	320	24	2	Stanford