The Packers Punting Game Is In The Hands and Feet Of Babies

Friday the Packers solidified (let’s hope) its kicking game with the signing of 5th round draft pick (#138) punter J.K. Scott and 7th round draft pick (#239) long snapper Hunter Bradley and the cutting of last year’s punter Justin Vogel, which added to not offering a tender to long-time long snapper Brett Goode means the Packers will begin the 2018 season with rookies in 2 of the 3 critical kicking positions without any fallback position in the case both or either fail.

This seems like a  classic Ted “one of the best talent evaluators that have ever done this” Thompson move like leaving no viable backups for the offensive line or just undrafted free agents as backups for the secondary, so it just proves that Thompson is still running the Packers show and not his personal puppet Brian Gutekunst. When will we ever get rid of him?

During the modern era (in the case of the Packers that means from 1959 on) the Packers have employed 30 punters (Max McGee (59-60), Boyd Dowler (60-62), Jerry Norton (63-64), Don Chandler (65-66), Donny Anderson (67-71), Ron Widby (72-73), Paul Staroba (injury replacement in 73); Randy Walker (74), Steve Broussard (75), David Beverly (75-80), Ray Stachowitz (81-82), Bucky Scribner (83-84), Joe Prokop (85), Don Bracken (85-90), Bill Renner (injury replacement in 88 & 87), Paul McJulien (91-92), Bryan Wagner (92-93), Craig Hentrich (94-97), Sean Landeta (98), Luis Aguiar (99), Josh Bidwell (00-03), Bryan Barker (04), B.J. Sander (05), Ryan Flinn (injury replacement in 05), Jon Ryan (06-07), Derrick Frost (08), Jeremy Kapinos (08-09), Tim Masthay (10-15), Jacob Schum (16), Vogel (17) and now Scott, well maybe, if history is any indication.

In the early years punting was handled by another position player. In the Curly Lambeau era from 1921 to 1937 the punting, the place kicking and the punt and kickoff returning duties were handled by the same man and mostly by a different person each season.

From 1937 to 1971 the kicking and punting duties were handled by two different position players, except for the War Years when the rosters were limited. The Packers punters were end Wayland Becker (38), fullback Clarke Hinkle (39-41), halfback Lou Brock (42-44), halfback Ron McKay (45-46), quarterback Jack Jacobs (47-48), quarterback Jug Girard (49-51), quarterback Babe Parilli (52), end Clive Rush (53), end Max McGee (54), end Dick Deshaine (55-57), McGee (58-60), end Boyd Dowler (60-62), safety Jerry Norton (63-64), place kicker Don Chandler (65-66) and halfback Donny Anderson (67-71).

The 1st Packers punter, who was just a punter was Ron Widby, who the Packers got from the Cowboys along with cornerback Ike Thomas in a 1972 trade 12 days before the 1st game by Dan Devine, who gave up a lot, which he did on a regular basis (i.e John Hadl) trading a 1973 #2-46 pick used to draft wide receiver Golden Richards. Widby had been the Cowboys punter since 1968 after being drafted in the 4th round (#81) by the Saints in 1967.

Widby was an excellent punter for the Packers averaging 41.8 and 43.1 over the next two seasons (72-73). However, his career ended when he suffered a ruptured spinal disc in a freak accident with two games remaining in the 1973 season and also costing him all of the 1974 season. Wide receiver Paul Staroba, who was the punter at Michigan and 4th in the nation in 1970 with a 41.5 average, took over the punting duties for the final 2 games. He punted 12 times and averaged just 31.1 yards.

Over the years the Packers have drafted 10 punters with the 1st one being Randy Walker in 1974 by Dan Devine in the 12th round with the 298th pick. The others were Ray Stachowicz in 1981 by Dick Corrick in the 3rd round with the 62nd pick; Bucky Scribner in 1983 by Corrick in the 11th round with the 299th pick; Jim Meyer by Forrest Gregg in 1985 in the 12th round with the 323rd pick; Bill Smith by Tom Braatz in 1987 in the 7th round with the 191st pick; Brian Shulman by Braatz in 1989 in the 8th round with the 206th pick; Kirk Maggio by Braatz in 1990 in the 12th round with the 325th pick; Jeff Fite by Braatz in 1991 in the 5th round with the 135th pick; Josh Bidwell by Ron Wolf in 1999 in the 4th round with the 133rd pick; B.J. Sander by Mike Sherman in 2004 in the 3rd round with the 87th pick. Ted Thompson never drafted a punter until this year.

In the modern era of the 30 Packers punters there were 8 who started as true rookies: Randy Walker (1974), who lasted 1 season; Steve Broussard (1975), who was cut after 4 games; Ray Stachowicz (1981-82), who was cut after 9 games his 2nd season; Bucky Scribner (1983-84), who lasted 2 seasons;  Joe Prokop (1985), who was cut after 9 games; Bill Renner (1986-87), who replaced Don Bracken for 3 games in both 86 and 87 when Bracken was hurt and Paul McJulien (1991-92), who was cut after 9 games his 2nd season and now Vogel cut after just 1 season.

Last year Vogel was an undrafted free agent who started as a rookie and did very well ranking 9th in net average with 41.6 yards, 25th in gross average (44.4), tied for 29th with 19 inside the 20 and no blocked punts. Out of 71 punts (thanks to Thompson and his handpicked backup quarterback Brett Hundley) only 24 were returned for an average of 6.8 yards with no touchdowns. As far as I can see he is the only one who was cut for another reason than being incompetent.

Now here’s the weird part or maybe I should say the inexplicable part Vogel set the Packers record for net average breaking Masthay’s 2015 record of 40.3. In fact, here’s a perfect example of never assuming anything when it comes to the mercurial moves of Ted “one of the best talent evaluators that have ever done this” Thompson. In his 2018 Packers Roster Breakdown for the Acme Packing Company/SBNation Evan “Tex” Western said this, “The Packers certainly appear to have found a long-term solution at punter. Expect Vogel to stick around for several years.” Well that lasted just 3 months and 22 days.

Upon further reflection I have the reason. Thompson is a penny pincher and a skinflint when it comes to the Packers money, except for paying an extra salary (his), so with Vogel scheduled to make $556,666 in the 2nd year of his 3-year contract Scott has been signed to a 4-year, $2,460,000 contract and will make only $480,000 this season . There you go. Money saved and mystery solved.

However, when researching for this article I found another mystery. Just how much is Ted Thompson being paid? In true Trumpian SOP Thompson salary is not disclosed. His initial contract in 2005 was for 5 years. His contract lapsed after 2010 and then signed an extension in 2011 that ran through 2016.  In 2014 he signed another extension that runs through 2018. So that means he is in the final year of his contract, but we never knew the details and the local kiss-ass media never asked for the details. Another excellent example of the local kiss-ass media being so far up Thompson's ass they haven’t seen light since 2004.

An article “Top Five Highest Paid GMs in the NFL in 2016” by Nat Berman of MONEY, Inc. stated, “While the going rate for a GM in the NFL is typically around $1 to $3 million dollars per year, some NFL GMs are paid less, and others are paid substantially more”.  He stated the salaries of Bill Belichik ($7,500,000), John Schneider ($3,750,000), John Elway ($3,000,000, but he signed an extension a year later to make him the highest paid GM), Ozzie Newsome (unknown, but worth $10,000,000) and Ted Thompson (His salary is largely unknown, and his current net worth is also kept largely under wraps. What is known is that he is one of the most valuable GMs in the NFL at the moment, along with those listed above).

What is he hiding and why is that acceptable for a publically owned club? I would hope someone would ask that question at the upcoming Stockholders Meeting or maybe I should just attend and ask it myself.

Well, back to the business at hand.

There were 3 other punters who started their 2nd season after not playing their rookie seasons. Craig Hentrich (1994-97), who was undrafted by the Jets and was cut before being signed to the Packers practice squad in 1993. He then started in 1994. He was allowed to leave as a free agent after the 1997 season and was one of the mistakes Ron Wolf always brings up saying he should have paid him the million dollars he wanted, because he had an 11-year All-Pro career with the Titans; Josh Bidwell (2000-03), who was placed on the non-football injury list with testicular cancer and was allowed to leave as a free agent after his rookie contract; B.J. Sander (2005) was a big bust. He was kept his rookie season, but didn’t play and given the job the next year, but was injured after 14 games. He was cut in training camp; Jon Ryan (2006-07) started in the CFL for 2 years and was an All-Star before signing with the Packers. Then suddenly at the end of the 2008 training camp after he kept his job Thompson cut him just before the 1st game and he was picked up by the Seahawks and is still their punter while Thompson signed veteran Derrick Frost, who was terrible and eventually signed veteran Jeremy Kapinos, who lasted 1 more season before being cut and replaced by Tim Masthay.

So with Thompson/Gutekunst going into the season with a rookie punter and adding insult to injury a rookie long snapper Packer history shows the success of a drafted punter or a rookie punter starting is not good.

Of the 10 drafted punters only 5 made the team and of those 5 Josh Bidwell drafted by Ron Wolf had the longest tenure with Packers with 4 years, but he was not re-signed. The Bucs signed hm as a free agent and he spent 5 seasons with them before suffering a career-ending hip injury. The other 4 were 1 or 2 and Done. B.J. Sander lasted 14 games, Randy Walker 1 season, Ray Stachowicz 1 season and 9 games and Bucky Scribner 2 seasons.

Of the 8 rookie punters the longest tenure was Scribner who lasted just 2 full seasons. The remainder were Steve Broussard, who was cut after just 4 games; Bill Renner (who played a total of 6 games over 2 years as an injury replacement); Joe Prokop, who was cut after 9 games; Walker and Vogel, who was cut after 1 season; and Stachowicz and Paul McJulien, who were cut after 1 season and 9 games.

In fact being a Packer punter is not a long-term proposition. The longest tenured Packer punter is Tim Masthay (2010-15), who lasted 6 full seasons. The others were David Beverly (75-80), 5 seasons and 10 games; Don Bracken (85-90), 6 seasons minus 13 games); Donny Anderson (67-71), 5 full seasons; Max McGee (54; 58-62) 3 full seasons and parts of 3 others; and Craig Hentrich (94-97), Josh Bidwell (2000-03), with 4 full seasons.

The shortest was Steve Broussard during the clusterf**k that was the 1975 season. After Dan Devine was fired, or more accurately, Devine resigned to coach Notre Dame just before he was going to be fired Bart Starr took over the program and, well, his 1st year was not good dropping from 6-8 to 4-10. Walker was the punter for Devine, but he averaged only 38.4 yards a kick after replacing Widby, who was still recovering from his back injury. However, to his credit Walker didn’t have a punt blocked or give up a touchdown on 69 kicks in 14 games.

However, Starr went looking for a new punter and his 1st signing on Feb. 3rd was Bills veteran punter Spike Jones (not of gluck-gluck fame). He then waived Widby on July 18 when he failed his physical. He also lost future Hall of Famer Ted Hendricks to Oakland and while it has nothing to do with punter, it shows how bad 1975 was. During training camp he signed Damien Nygaard on August 29 and 3 days later cut Walker while also losing future Packers Hall of Fame guard Gale Gillingham, when he retired. When it rains it pours for the Packers during the Wilderness Years.

Nygaard is interesting because he was a much hyped, but never living up to his reputation Australian Rules football player, who had retired after the 1971 season. He was the 2nd Aussie to try out for the NFL following Colin Ridgway, who was signed by the Cowboys in 1965 and faced the Packers in a preseason game where he played a key role in beating the Lombardi Packers according to Wikipedia, but they offer no details. He started the season on the taxi squad and ended up punting 13 times in 3 games late in the season averaging 39.2 per kick. He was cut during training camp in 1966 and never played again.

15 years later Darren Bennett successfully made the transition punting 9 seasons with Chargers (1994-03) where he was All-Pro twice and eventually was selected to the NFL 1990s All-Decade Team as well as the Chargers 40th and 50th Anniversary Teams and the Chargers Hall of Fame. He finished his career, where all good Packers ex-players go with the Minnesota Vikings (04-05). In between Colin Scotts (what’s with Colin, it must the Australian version of Tom or Mike), was drafted by the Arizona Cardinals in 1987 in the 3rd round and played 7 games, but as a defensive end/tight end.

I sure do get off on tangents, but I love history and its quirky sidebars. So 3 days after than he cut Jones and a week later cut Nygaard. Then on Sept. 14 he re-signed Jones and 3 days later cut him again when he claimed Broussard off waivers from the Saints 4 days before the first game. Jones went on to play for the Eagles in 1975 punting 64 times averaging 40.3 yards with no blocks

The former Auburn/Mississippi State alum got off to a terrible start in the season home opener against the Lions setting a NFL record by having 3 of his 9 punts blocked, including 2 being returned for touchdowns. (To add injury to insult placekicker Chester Marcol was lost for the season in that game with a torn quad muscle. Also along the way cornerback Willie Buchanon broke his leg and left tackle Bill Hayhoe broke his left leg for the third straight year ending his career. Like I said if it weren’t for bad luck the Packers would have had no luck at all during the Wilderness Years).

Broussard went on to punt 20 more times without another punt blocked, but averaging just 31.8 yards. Ironically, after averaging 19.7, 35.7 and 30.6 he had his best game of the season averaging 42.8 yards, including a 51-yarder at the Superdome, but he was cut after the game and replaced by David Beverly, who was claimed off waivers from the Oilers, who finished out the season and held the job for the next 5 years. Broussard never played again.

Well so much for walking down Packers Punter Memory Lane.

The long snapper position has been more stable. I have no records on who did the long snapping chores for the Packers until 1997 when Paul Frase, who was a defensive tackle by trade came from the Bucs, and Rob Davis, who was da Bears long snapper in 1996, showed up. Frase got injured and Davis replaced him and like Lou Gehrig he didn’t miss a snap until he retired to become Director of Public Development for the Packers 11 years later.

Goode replaced Davis in 2009 and also didn’t miss a snap until he injured his knee and missed the final 2 games of 2015. He was re-signed in 2016 and started all 16 games, but last year he suffered a hamstring injury in the 3rd game and was released with an injury settlement. Undrafted Taylor Pepper replaced him for 4 games before breaking his foot. Undrafted former engineer for Harley Davidson Derek Hart was re-signed after being cut in the preseason and lasted 2 terrible games before being cut with Goode coming to the rescue when he was re-signed for the last 7 games. So for the last 22 years there have been a total of five long snappers with Davis snapping the spiral for 11 seasons and Goode 10.

As you can see the Packers have never drafted a long snapper in their history. However, 6 long snappers have been drafted by the other teams since 2001:  Joe Maese, 6th round by the Ravens in 2001; Ryan Pontbriand, 5th round by the Browns in 2003; Zak DeOssie, 4th round by the Giants in 2007; Tyler Schmitt, 6th round by the Seahawks in 2008; Jake Ingram, 6th round by the Patriots in 2009; Joe Cardona, 5th round by the Patriots in 2015; Jimmy Landes, 6th round by the Lions in 2016.

Maese was the Ravens long snapper for 4 seasons and ended with the Lions for 3 games. Pontbriand was the long snapper for the Browns for 8 seasons appearing in 134 games, DeOssie was drafted as a linebacker and has played in all but 4 games for the past 11 years taking over the long snapping duties in 2008 when he earned All-Pro honors. Joe Cardona has been the Patriots long snapper for his entire 3 year career while Jake Ingram was the Patriots long snapper for his 1st season and then was cut halfway through the 2010 season and ended the season with the Saints for 1 game. Finally Tyler Schmitt and Jimmy Landes spent their rookies on their rosters, but not appearing in any games. The others didn’t make a roster.

There were 3 long snappers (Tanner Crew from Oregon, Ike Powell from Auburn and Drew Scott from Kansas State) profiled for this year’s draft, but all 3 were not drafted. Instead what smells like a Thompson “I Know Better” type of pick he snatched out of obscurity Hunter Bradley from Mississippi State, who nobody did a profile on, so the local kiss-ass media have reported he is the 2nd coming of Rob Davis despite nobody else seemingly having made that assessment. So I think it’s just another example of Thompson’s “FAKE NEWS” or McCarren’s “Rosy News” full of crap pap.

So after a walk down Packers Punter and Long Snappers Memory Lane it come s down to the Packers have a terrible history with drafted and rookie punters with long snapper, who is a key player in both the punting and place kicking phase of the game, being mess after what “one of the best talent evaluators that have ever done this” did to the position last year by signing 2 NOT NFL quality players and then not re-signing Goode, who never botched a snap when he returned for the last 7 games.

Like I’ve said for the past 7 years, WHEN WILL WE BE SHED OF TED?????????????????