The only reason Fox isn't higher on this list is because he struggled with touchbacks. Myers might not be ranked at the top of his list, but he was arguably the best kicker in the NFL last year. The most noteworthy part of his game this past season was just how many plays he made on the football. The amazing thing about Crosby is that he's doing all this while playing in Green Bay, which isn't an easy place to kick due to the weather and the natural grass field. You name it, Young has it. After a solid rookie year in 2019, Bailey followed that up with arguably the best overall season by a punter last year. At one point in 2018, he hit 26 straight field goals, which set a Saints franchise record. CLUTCH.Daniel Carlson hits the 54-yard FG to put the @Raiders ahead by 10. For one, he made EVERY SINGLE FIELD GOAL HE ATTEMPTED (24 of 24), which makes him one of only three kickers in NFL history to attempt 20 or more field goals in a season and make all of them (Mike Vanderjagt and Gary Anderson are the others). If you've ever wondered what it's like to be a punter, the Chiefs gave us an inside look this season when they mic'd up their punter for a game. He is coming off a down year by his standards, but even then, his 76.4 PFF grade ranked 11th at the position. Since his rookie year in 2012, Hekker has been an absolute weapon for the Rams and during the early part of his career with the team, he was arguably the only weapon. Thanks to his booming leg, his punts also led to 28 fair-catches, which was the second most that any punter in the NFL forced last season. Whenever there's a conversation about the best punters in the NFL, Johnny Hekker's name almost always comes up, which makes sense, because he's one of the best punters in the NFL. 1. If you watched Washington play last season, you may have noticed that they had one of the worst offenses in the NFL and because of that, Tress Way ended up punting the ball 73 times in 2020, which was the most of any punter in the league. In 2019, Way finished with the 11th-highest single-season average in NFL history (49.6). 1 and then go from there (Although Tucker's grip on the top spot isn't as firm as it used to be). The following browsers are supported: Chrome, Edge (v80 and later), Firefox and Safari. Onwuzurike is arguably the most athletic defensive tackle in the class. Lamb is incredibly advanced as a route-runner. He reaggravated the . If there was one knock on Butker last year, it was that he struggled with his extra points, hitting just 88.9% of his kicks. #RaiderNation: #NOvsLV on ESPN: NFL app // Yahoo Sports app: https://t.co/pkp7nq0Q8u pic.twitter.com/cW3CGZDfgU. No one was really clear about it, so I'm just going to assume this is a classic "save the best for last" scenario. After struggling during a 2019 season where he hit just 76.7% of his field goals, Sanders bounced back in 2020 and finished the year as one of the NFL's best kickers. Hell be a guard at the next level, but in two games at tackle last season before tearing his Achilles, he didnt allow a pressure. The @Bridgestone Clutch Performance Play of the Year goes toTHIS PUNTER TO KICKER TOUCHDOWN. The rankings are based on PFF ELO Ratings. To preview the 2020 NFL season, we asked more than 50 league executives, coaches, scouts and players to help us stack the top 10 players at 11 different positions (sorry, special-teamers). During a Week 7 win over the Bears, Hekker put five punts inside of Chicago's 10-yard line. If he gets back to that level as a run defender in the middle of Jacksonville's defense and maintains his play in coverage, he'll push himself closer to the top tier of NFL linebackers. 7. The Patriots punter regularly got off booming punts, which includes the 60-yarder you see below. To a lesser extent, both Kwon Alexander and Dre Greenlaw give the 49ers above-average play in coverage from the linebacker position, as well. If you watched any Jaguars games in 2020, then you probably saw a lot of Cooke and that's because he was one of Jacksonville's busiest players. Of course, he also shined some areas and one of those areas was pinning the opponent inside their 20. Lambo was dealing with several lower-body injuries and it's not always easy to recover from those. Fox has a booming leg and his ability. Unlock all tools and content including Player Grades, Fantasy, NFL Draft, Premium Stats, Greenline and DFS. Thanks to his perfect performance in 2020, Crosby has now hit 90% or more of his field goals in two straight seasons (Before 2019, Crosby had never hit the 90% mark in his career). Dickson seems to have perfected the art of pinning a punt inside the 20-yard line because he did it 40 times last season, which was the most in the NFL. Hes above average in pretty much every aspect of the position you could ask for. Anger forced 24 fair catches last season, which was tied for the fourth-highest total in the NFL. A large part of that grade was that Greenlaw simply didn't allow big plays on his watch. As PFF's Sam Monson pointed out in a piece highlighting players entering prove-it years in 2020, Smith came out of Georgia as a player who profiled to be a strong point in coverage with the athleticism, instincts and feel needed to be a difference-maker. Despite that success, the Rams released Hekker in March and after that happened, the Panthers quickly snatched him up. The Raiders punter also dropped 43.8% of his punts inside the opponents 20-yard line, which was the sixth-best percentage in the NFL last season. The . Over the course of the season, he averaged 49.6 yards per punt, which ranked second in the NFL and 10th all-time in NFL history. Thanks to the tender, Carlson will make $3.38 million in 2021. He doesnt have the high-end athleticism of the top of the linebacker class, but hes no slouch himself. If you watched the Texans play last season, you may have noticed that they had one of the worst offenses in the NFL and because of that, Johnston saw A LOT of action. Overall, Dickson placed 48.2% of his punts inside the 20, which was the second-highest percentage in the NFL. The linebacker position has been somewhat diminished in recent seasons as nickel and dime defenses have become base, but there is still a group of guys at the top that you want on the field every play as a defense. Kendricks is coming off the best season in his five-year NFL career. 2004-2023 CBS Interactive. According to Football Outsiders, Fox averaged 52.5 yards per punt when he was forced to kick the ball from inside his own 35-yard line and that number ranked second in the NFL behind only A.J. Hes split wide in Georgias offense and won legitimate wide receiver routes. Johnson was on precisely no one's radar heading into last season. Hes damn near unblockable one-on-one in the run game but has yet to earn a pass-rushing grade above 70.0 for a season. Thats a great skill for a modern back. Johnston was one of the few bright spots for the Texans last season. The Lions punter hit seven touchbacks last season, which was tied for the most in the NFL. During his time with the Bills last season, Bojorquez had a 72-yard punt, which was tied for the longest in the NFL. When a punter is pinning teams deep, he'll sometimes have to give up some of his strength for finesse, but not Dickson, who was regularly booming punts in Seattle. Hes one of the best centers in college football in space. The Class of 2019 kicker/punter hit 3 of his kickoffs over 67 with his best being a 68-yard kick with 3.64 seconds of hangtime. He wasn't quite as good this past season as he has been in years past, but when looking at the past five seasons as a whole, McKinney's 86.8 run-defense graderanks fifth among the 66 linebackers with 2,000 or more defensive snaps. #NOvsCHI #Saints pic.twitter.com/6PfrBXEU3W. Leonard has posted grades of 75.0 or higher as a run defender, pass-rusher and coverage defender since 2018 joining Wagner and the next guy on this list (Demario Davis) as the only two linebackers to do so. Only the top two to three percent of analysts are on the team of "senior analysts" in charge of finalizing each grade after review. At the rate he's going, Fox might crack our top 10 list for best quarterbacks next season. He has sported a top-20 coverage grade at the position in each of the past two years reaching as high as sixth in 2018. He also averaged 44.4 net yards per punt, which ranked third in the league. He was also a first-team All-American according to Sporting News, and holds the NCAA career record for punting yards . Tua Tagovailoa, Alabama Fox was almost as good in 2021. Just cause a team sucks and they kick it every other drive doesn't make a punter good . Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl Win Probability: 30% Perhaps with Kuechly out of the picture, this is the year that David gets his well-earned recognition. PFF employs over 600 full or part-time analysts, but less than 10% of analysts are trained to the level that they can grade plays. #OnePride: #DETvsATL on FOX: NFL app pic.twitter.com/i6bmR7DyBp. Johnston was also able to force 22 fair catches with his punts, which was tied for the fifth-highest total in the league. 6-keys: media/spln/nfl/reg/free/stories, at . He comes in as the second most valuable linebacker, per PFF WAR, over that eight-year stretch, as well. Covering receivers who are that talented one-on-one is a tough ask for any linebacker. Although Bailey had one of the best punting averages in 2021 (47.3 yards), his net punting average took a huge hit falling from 45.6 in 2020 to 39.6 in 2021. He is the only fantasy analyst to rank in the top 5 of FantasyPros ranking competition in 3 of the last 4 years. Lutz also hit 98.3% of his extras points in 2020 (57 of 58), which was the third-most accurate in the NFL. Henderson locked down his side of the field last year as well as any corner in the country. McKinney is a jack of all trades for the Alabama defense. The Seahawks clearly know they have something special in Dickson, which is probably why they gave him a four-year, $16 million extension this offseason. PFF's exclusive metrics provide matchup previews, position rankings, grades, and snap counts. Of course, yards per punt isn't a great way to measure a punter's skill. In 2018 and 2019, Lutz ranked in the top-seven in accuracy, including 2019, when he hit 88.9% of his field goals, which ranked seventh overall (He ranked sixth in 2018). Cooke only kicked one punt into the end zone the entire season, which was tied for the fewest in the NFL by any punter that had 20 or more punts in 2021. Pass protection is a bit of a different story, though, as hes been protected a good deal in Georgias offense. Of his 51 punts in 2021, only nine of them were returned, and his 17.6% return rate was by far the lowest return percentage for any full-time punter in the NFL last season. Bush showed a nose for the football early with 100-plus tackles, two interceptions (to go along with a dropped pick) and four fumble recoveries, and it's clear he was getting more comfortable and consistent as the season progressed. He has only two drops on 56 catchable in his career. That's an Oscar-worthy performance. Bailey also managed to put a total of 31 punts inside his opponents' 20-yard, which was the second-highest number in the NFL. It's not often you see one of the best punters in the NFL switch teams, but that's exactly what's happening with Bojorquez this offseason. Note: Free agent punters weren't considered for this list since there's no guarantee they'll be playing in the NFL this year. Our exclusive database, featuring the most in-depth collection of NFL player performance data. Hed be an elite athlete for a safety, and his coverage skills are unsurprisingly elite already. During the 2020 season, Way averaged a booming 48.0 yards per punt, which ranked fifth in the NFL and this came just one year after a 2019 season where he finished with the 10th-highest single-season average in NFL history (49.6). PFF's exclusive metrics provide matchup previews, position rankings, grades, and snap counts. Hes the definition of a one-cut runner who can cut on a dime and get up to full speed quickly. Atlanta needs several of the young cornerbacks they've added to step up in order to see meaningful improvement in their team coverage, but the impact that Jones has over the middle of the field shouldn't be overlooked. coming off the best season in his five-year NFL career, missed just nine of his 254 tackling opportunities, piece highlighting players entering prove-it years in 2020. Robinson was reportedly ousted from West Virginia over the summer and still hasnt found a home for this upcoming fall. His stiffness likely limits him scheme and versatility wise, though. Recording grades of 80.0 or higher as both a run defender and in coverage, as Vander Esch did in 2018, is impressive stuff. His body control at the catch point is also elite as he makes difficult catches look commonplace. Tucker's accuracy numbers would be even higher if the Ravens didn't regularly trot him out for crazy kicks. As he enters the 2020 campaign at 31 years old, there's a chance his play could be on the decline, but it's too early to say that's the case at this point. Hekker did that a total of 28 times, which was the third most in the NFL. Gay can absolutely fly sideline to sideline. He brings athleticism, speed and playmaking ability to the linebacker position that Pittsburgh has missed since Ryan Shazier's injury. When you're punting that often, there's always a chance that you could mess up or your leg could fall off, but neither of those things happened to Johnston. Hes got track speed at 220 pounds. (via @NFL) pic.twitter.com/uk77Hb5yKt. It will be interesting to see how he fares without the Hall of Fame-bound Kuechly in the middle of that defense. Lambo must love kicking in Jacksonville, because he's made almost every kick he's attempted since signing with the team in 2017. Alamar steered Stanford's 2013 special teams to a trio of top 40 NCAA rankings, including net punting (33rd - 38.49 yards/punt), punt returns (21st - 11.96 yards/return) and kickoff returns (39th - 23.09). Lions punter Jack Fox with a DIME on this fake punt! Koo finished the year with 144 points scored, which was tied with Daniel Carlson and Jason Sanders for the most in the NFL. 2004-2023 CBS Interactive. Kinlaw has a great combination of size (6-foot-6, 305 pounds) and athleticism when projecting to the NFL. Highest-Graded Player: QB Russell Wilson (90.3), Super Bowl Win Probability: 2% Hes seen a distinct upward trajectory to his career but still needs to clean up some more things. 2022 NFL Punting Statistics | The Football Database 2022 NFL Punting Statistics The following are the 2022 NFL Punting statistical leaders, sorted by gross punting average. Although the Pro Football Hall of Fame has only inducted two true kickers -- Jan Stenerud and Morten Andersen -- in its 58-year existence, Tucker is making a strong case for being the third (or fourth, if Adam Vinatieri gets in), so needless to say, he's at the top of our best kicker list. Wishnowsky is the first of two Australians that landed on the top-10 list this year. He has truly impressive movement and change-of-direction skills for how big he is, and by all accounts, he's the kind of leader you want on your defense. His 92.1 coverage grade since getting drafted in 2016 trails only Kuechly and David among qualifying linebackers, and despite missing much of the 2018 season, Jones' 26 forced incompletions are tied for second-most at the position over that four-year stretch. The Rank value requires a minimum number of snaps played. In each of his four full seasons with the Patriots (2013, 2014, 2015 and 2019), Collins has delivered PFF coverage grades of 69.0 or higher and PFF pass-rushing grades of 75.0 or higher as one of the better blitzing linebackers in the league. Anger had such a big season that Cowboys rewarded him a new three-year contract in March that's worth up to $9 million. Now, if he can just fix his drop problem that saw him muff 10 a season ago. Hes the definition of a modern safety. Edmunds will have to clean up the missed tackles and improve in coverage to rise toward where most slot him currently a top-10 linebacker on this list next season. Dickson seems to have perfected the art of pinning a punt inside the 20-yard line because he did it 32 times last season, which was the most in the NFL. Not even 250 pounds, hes one of the best bull-rushers in the country. His lack of high-end traits and dominant play, however, are concerning. Vaughn runs with great pacing and patience. All other NFL-related trademarks are trademarks of the National Football League. His 15 contested catches are top-10 among returning wideouts. Butker was a huge weapon for the Chiefs in 2020 and he showed just how clutch he can be early in the season when he hit a 58-yard game-winning field goal against the Chargers that still stands as the second-longest overtime field goal in NFL history. It doesn't take long, though, before you get to players who excel against the run or against the pass but not against both. Unlock all tools and content including Player Grades, Fantasy, NFL Draft, Premium Stats, Greenline and DFS. Fox went undrafted in 2019 and although he would eventually sign with the Chiefs, he got cut before the 2019 season started, which means he was basically sitting at home when the Lions finally decided to take a gamble on him heading into the 2020 season. Herbert has all the arm talent in the world. Townsend was so good at placing his punts that returners only averaged four yards per return against the Chiefs last season, giving Kansas City one of the best coverage units in the NFL in 2021. Thats right folks, this is a 60 yard punt (in the air) with a 5.15 second hang time. 2023 NFL Enterprises LLC. Our exclusive database, featuring the most in-depth collection of NCAA player performance data.