I think he takes a big leap this year. Last game may have been his best. As he improves his hang time, they’ll let him punt further. His preseason stats and where they would rank vs all NFL teams in 2020: Avg 47.4. (7th) Net 41.3 (13th) % Inside the 20 58.3% (1st) Touchbacks 0 (1st of course)
Saleh letting the guys be themselves. He’s always had the leg, Jets needed gunners, they have a few good men in that aspect.
exactly right. the coverage was alot of the issue. saleh is addressing everything and it will all come into place if we can get/stay healthy. You’re going to start seeing alot of 60+ punts this season- get ready!
As long as we're hoping for stuff....I hope we don't have to see Mann much this season. PS. But the times we do I hope he booms it 60+
He's always been a good specialist without the right support. I just wish we would start drafting kickers (NB - I know Ammendola looks solid for now). Sixth round picks are far better used on class-leading special teamers than a scrub depth OL/RB.
His hang time wasn’t that good last year. Consistently outkicked the coverage. It looked better in the preseason , we’ll see if he can keep it up.
I was a big underwhelmed by Mann last year. Maybe I was expecting too much? Hopefully he has a good year. There was still no good reason that we let Trenton Cannon go either so that didn't help.
Thanks man--this is great. By any chance can you post another one with "years/seasons played" instead of FG% as the dependent variable?
Thanks for these stats. I'm a huge fan of Mann, and I think Boyer has done an immense injustice to Mann by having him focus on hang time rather than letting him continue boom the ball for distance. Yes, if you can pin them inside the 20 and have zero or few touchbacks that's the ideal, but you also don't want to take 10-15 yards off of his distance and give that to the opposing team in field position, which is what happened most of the time last year.
I think hang time is extremely overrated. If you can kick it over the returner's head and let it roll for 15-20 yards, then you do it. There's always a chance in his haste to pick it up, he bobbles the ball and we recover. Kicking it high just allows him to fair catch. He outkicked the coverage last year because our gunners were snails. Making him focus on hang time, took away his strength and consistently gave opponents better field position. Mann can boom the ball over the returners head. As long as he can control it and pin the opposing team inside the 20, that's all that's important. Hang time be damned.
I have to question this stat. I don't think there have been that many kickers drafted in the 1st -4th rounds in the history of the NFL, much less the last 20 years.
You can thank Boyer for being underwhelmed. Boyer had him change his kicking style and work on hang time rather than just letting it rip. Mann can place the ball and kick it out of bounds. Hang time is not that important.
This analysis falls down when you realise that pretty much every kicker the Jets have ever had would be to the far-right of the chart. You take the opportunities that your kicker can handle - the chart would suggest we roll with Sam Ficken taking FGs from the 20 yard line for the next 15 seasons. At least using a low round draft pick gets you the one that you want.
Boyer still there though, and he’s widely thought of to be good. Again you can’t help but wonder if Gase wanted his punter to get more air whether it’s due to lack of speed and experience with the gunners or some Gase inspired “gameplan”.
Saints 2020: 46 punt return yards allowed (#1 All-Time within NFL history). Jets 2020: 446 punt return yards allowed (31st). Justin Hardee is one of the greatest Special Team Gunners of All-Time (still only 27 years of age) and is going to help our younger punter look SO MUCH BETTER. Probably one of the NFL's top 5 most underrated FA signings this year.
Hang time is important, the longer the ball is in the air the closer the gunners are to the returner when he catches it the less likely a field position hanging return occurs. There’s a reason ST coaches track it and coach it. If you’re averaging 42 yds a punt but the balls in the air only 4 seconds you’re going to need prime usain bolt as a gunner to prevent big returns. Even pinning them deep doesn’t happen unless you give the gunner enough time to get down by the goal line to keep the ball in the play.
Yeah what? The name of the game is hang time. I'd imagine most punters can boot the ball similar distances with some variation.
