Bargain shopping: punters such as Craig Hentrich can be a great investment at a relatively cheap price

Football Digest, Oct, 2005 by Mike Beacom

"Craig's been invaluable to our team," says Titans special teams coach Alan Lowry, "especially the last two years when he's had to take on kickoffs and long field goal duties."

What makes Hentrich one of the league's elite punters is that versatility. Most of the great legs in the game can kick off better than the team's placekicker and do everything else well that a good punter should. Those talents show up in net average, gross average, and inside-the-20-yard-line percentage. It's no surprise that the same group of players--Hentrich, Sauerbrun, Shane Lechler, and a few others--appears near the top in those categories every year.

Sometimes it can be a tough formula to understand. After plenty of trial and error, McKay now feels better about what he is shopping for.

"I've been all over the board with respect to punters in my time in the league," says McKay, who spent more than a dozen years in the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' front office before coming to Atlanta. "I've had the Dan Stryzinskis that could hang the ball up in the air and get a good net, and the Reggie Robys that could launch the ball and get a good gross. What we've decided on is a punter with a consistent hang time that delivers a good net average."

It's not an easy order to fill, but like everything else, you get what you pay for. It also should come as no surprise that a majority of the league's elite teams own the best legs. Last year, for example, the San Diego Chargers, Pittsburgh Steelers, Indianapolis Colts, and New England Patriots ranked as the four top teams in the AFC during the regular season. Their punters all ranked in the top six in inside-the-20-yard-line percentage.

So when does all of this translate to dollars? Unfortunately for the league's punters--even the best of the best--it hasn't yet. But Sauerbrun and his agent believe that is changing.

"A lot of teams don't realize the value of [the punting game] until it costs them a game," says Sauerbrun. "They feel like they can get by with any Joe Schmo until they need a big bomb or they're giving up points because of [poor punting]." The economics are changing, adds Sauerbrun, "but I think it's moving a lot slower than what I had hoped."

Last year Sauerbrun earned $1.9 million in total salary, a few hundred thousand dollars less than Hentrich. This May, Sauerbrun was traded from the Panthers to Denver, where he is expected to turn around a shoddy Broncos kicking game.

"Not every team is going to pay their punter $1 or $2 million a year. There are obviously the economics that come into play. To pay a punter that amount when he may only touch the ball five or eight times a game--some teams think that's crazy," says Canter. "But, I'd be hard-pressed to find a team in the NFL that doesn't value the position increasingly more."