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Jets punter Ben Graham ...


Big Dave

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I would clarify one thing in that piece. He doesn't drop-kick the ball. It is called a drop-punt where you kick the ball by dropping it point down onto your foot. The drop punt is used 99% of the time in Aussie Rules as it is the most accurate way of kicking.

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I saw him in training camp 3 different times, and this is my opinion. He is a beast. Not just in the kicking game, but physically he is probably the biggest player on the field. I know it says he's 6'4" 220lbs., but he looks about 6'7" 260 but built. I was scared to be standing near the guy. I would be scared if i was lets say Allen Rossum or Dante Hall, a smaller punt returner and you see the punter instead of standing still and trying to slow you down coming out you wanting to knock your helmet off. You know full well that he wants to do nothing more than hit something, and he can easily do it with force.

Now away from his physical attributes and onto what matters and the kicking. In the Lions game he averaged 54.7 YPK, and i figured, "Maybe he just got 3 good kicks off". Then I saw him at practice and his shortest kick (besides one he had to put inside the 10) was 55 yards. Out of 5 kicks, every one was over 55 yards with lots of hangtime, my watch on one had it at 4.1 seconds and another at 4.3, which is crazy for a punter. Most hangtimes are in the mid to high 3 seconds. I know it isn't significant in time wise, and the physical steps that the special teams players take; but as the ball is in the air longer, the punt returner is thinking more and more that he is going to get laid out and will do a fair catch. The whole point is to kick it as far as you can with the smallest return. Graham's net punting will be best in the league...write that down now.

When he was on the 50 yard line and tried to kick it so it pinned the d in 10, i saw him do 6 kicks, of which none went into the endzone. He was kicking the ball much differently than i ever saw a punter, as he kicked the side of the ball away from the punter to create a backspin effect which caused the ball when it landed to either stick where it was in the grass, or roll back about 3-5 yards. Either way, if the other team is pinned inside the 10, they are working a long field against our defense.

Just imagined how much better our defense would have been last year giving up points, if the opposing offense started 10-15 yards further away and had to pick up maybe 1 or 2 more first downs. The punting game seems insignificant, but it can have huge effects if it consistently putting the opposing team deep on their side. They have to change play calling and make sure that they don't get their defense pinned there either.

Graham, based on today's reporting, moved ahead of Knorr on the depth chart, which is one sign that he is goign to make it. And with what I saw, there is little doubt that he is going to be, after Ty Law, the greatest pick up the Jets made in the offseason.

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