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Lachlan Edwards Jets' most improved player no one's talking about


Steveg

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By: Sam Neumann

When it comes to the Jets this season, much of the focus has gone to New York’s up and comers. However, there is one youngster on a team full of them that regularly gets overlooked.

With a handful of rookies like Jamal Adams and Marcus Maye and second-year players like Robby Anderson and Jordan Jenkins grabbing attention, no one has noticed Lachlan Edwards’ transformation. He’s the Jets’ most improved player that nobody talks about.

Following a miserable rookie season in 2016, Edwards has quietly become one of the better punters in the NFL. He is in the top 10 in the NFL in yards averaged per punt and but is second when it comes to total punt yardage. Edwards is also ranked third among his counterparts with punts inside the 20-yard line.

Lachlan Edwards Career Numbers

  G Pnt Yds Lng Blck Y/P
2016 16 75 3,059 59 1 40.8
2017 15 87 4,054 70 0 46.6
Total 31 162 7,113 70 1 43.9

Edwards has been able to bounce back with a terrific sophomore season, his best performance coming just this past week vs. the Chargers. Playing at MetLife Stadium for the last time this season, he punted the ball nine times, averaging 46.8 yards per try. He pinned the ball inside the 20 five times.

The Austrailian has gone under the radar in terms of Jets success stories this year because he’s the punter, but few are getting the job done as frequently as he is. Edwards is second in the NFL in punts, as New York has been booting the ball a lot more lately since Bryce Petty has taken over under center.

If Edwards can continue to play at a near All-Pro level, he will be a known punter by not just Jets fans, but fans of the NFL as well.

The seventh-round pick has potential to be a great find and success story for the Jets regime, as any football fan knows that a good punter is not easy to come by.

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Edwards has had a very good year.  That's not something particularly exciting when coming from a punter, but considering the endless history of horrifically awful ones the Jets have, it's not such a bad thing.  The real difference maker is he's cleaned up last year's tendency of a couple of great-looking punts sandwiching a terrible shank.

It's nothing to celebrate, but he's still giving a better return than you'll get out of most seventh rounders.

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48 minutes ago, PCP63 said:

He had the most punts...of course he'll have some of the most yards. 

 

Not taking away from him, just saying that this is very lazy analysis. How's his hangtime? How often does he successfully coffin punt?

His average per punt is up 6 per kick, that's pretty good.

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Lachlan Edwards Enjoyed a Record 2nd Season

Jets Punter Broke Ryan Quigley's & Curley Johnson's Franchise Gross & Net Season Benchmarks

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One thing we know about Lachlan Edwards is that he'll work hard to improve. He did that in between his rookie and sophomore NFL seasons.

"I knew the Jets would bring me back, but I knew there wasn't a guarantee they were going to keep me," the punter said as he and his teammates were clearing out lockers and scattering from the Atlantic Health Training Center at the conclusion of the Jets' season Monday. "I needed to get better because they invested in me, so I needed to prove I was worth what they invested. I think I showed a bit of that this year and there's still a lot of room to grow."

Yes, Edwards did improve, to the point where his key metrics set franchise records. Still, when I told him he now holds the Jets' season marks with his 46.6 gross punting average and 40.5 net, he was surprised.

"No," he said in mild disbelief. "All right. I didn't know that."

It sounds odd that, with punting averages rising ever higher every season, Edwards is the first Jet to clear 46 gross yards and 40 net yards with his kicks, but it's true. Curley Johnson set the standards with his 45.3/39.7 averages in 1965, and they weren't surpassed until Ryan Quigley's 45.9/39.9 in 2014.

Another milestone for Edwards came with inside-the-20 punts. His 33 this season are the most in franchise history behind only Steve Weatherford, whose 42 I-20s in 2010 set the then-NFL record.

Edwards, the Australian by way of Sam Houston State, accurately assessed his second season in green and white.

"By no means is that my best," he said. "There were a lot of times throughout the year where I could've done even better. And there are still probably 10 to 12 punts that I wish I could get back. Whereas in my first year, when I had multiple bad punts in a game, this year there was maybe one. Most games I didn't have really any. That was a positive we built on from the previous year. And I'm going to take this offseason the same way."

Other than a short return Down Under to party with his brother, who's just gotten engaged, Edwards said it's all business, and that means another stretch in San Diego working with Darren Bennett, who's been dubbed the patron saint of Australian punters. Lachlan said kicker Chandler Catanzaro and snapper Thomas Hennessy are even planning to join him for a two-week stay.

The objective is to make a tighter drivetrain for the Jets' kicking game and to maintain and improve those punting numbers. As good as Edwards' season was in franchise annals, he still ranked 11th in the NFL in gross and 19th in net. He'd like to climb the rankings ladder but knows his net and the punt coverage team's stats are most important with ST coordinator Brant Boyer and will keep him employed.

"Overall, I was happy," he said, surveying the just completed season in his mind's eye. "Just if I can get maybe 10 percent of the punts back, I think there's no reason why we cant have a Pro Bowl year coming up in a couple of years."

 

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Just that we’re finally not talking about the P position feels good. 

Edwards....Anderson probably...Williams, who can maybe get better...the two safeties....After this I struggle to name a current Jets talent to be confident about sticking on the roster for all of the next two years. Oh and Enunwa 

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On 12/28/2017 at 7:50 AM, PCP63 said:

He had the most punts...of course he'll have some of the most yards. 

 

Not taking away from him, just saying that this is very lazy analysis. How's his hangtime? How often does he successfully coffin punt?

No he didn't. You think someone calling others lazy would take the 5 seconds it takes to fact check that.

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