Punting QBs fading from NFL scene
Big Ben showed his booting talent early
When Ben Roethlisberger arrived in Pittsburgh 17 years ago, he thought there wasn’t anything hecouldn’t do.
One practice during his rookie season, he took the field and walked by veteran punters Josh Miller and Chris Gardocki. Gardocki was in his 14th year in the league and had been named a Pro Bowler eight years prior, and Miller was entering his ninth seasonand first in Pittsburgh.
Roethlisberger saw the punters warmingup together. As any overconfident 22-year-old would do, he approached them and tried to showthem up.
“Ben’s an extremely confident guy,” said Kevin Spencer, the Steelers’ special teams coordinator at the time. “He’s probably humbled a little bit now, but not back in the day when he was a rookie. There wasn’t anything that Superman didn’t think he coulddo.”
So Roethlisberger joined in on the punting practice — and immediately caught his coaches’ attention.
“He showed that he has this ability to catch the ball and actually go through the technique,” Spencer remembered. “It’s not like he was as polished, obviously, as Gardocki or Josh Miller, but he wasable to do it.”
Thatday at practice sparked the interest of Spencer and offensive coordinator Ken Whisenhunt, who thought that maybe his leg could become an asset in the future.
Over the nearly two decades that Roethlisberger has spent in
Pittsburgh, the Steelers have put his punting talents to use seven times — more than any other active NFL quarterback.
He has built quite the resume over the years — two Super Bowl titles, seven Pro Bowls, an Offensive Rookie of the Year award, 60,000 passing yards, nearly 400 touchdowns and seven NFL passing records. While it’s his arm that will earn him a spot in the Hall of Fame one day, his dynamic ability on special teams has been a secret weapon for the Steelers andhis college team.
Leave the punter at home
When Roethlisberger arrived at Miami of Ohio in 2001, it was a trend for quarterbacks to punt in certain situations.
Joe Palcic, the RedHawks’ special teams coordinator at the time, remembered he and head coach Terry Hoeppner asked Roethlisberger to try punting during practice one day, and he landed eight in a row inside the 5-yard line.
“It’s not surprising becauseBen would be in the top 1% of the population in any sport that he played,” Palcic said. “He was an all-state basketball player. … He’s an unbelievable golfer. He was a great baseball player in high school.He played receiver up until his senior year in high school. ... It doesn’t matter what sport you play, what kind of athletic skill you ask him to do, he’s going to excel atit.”
That discovery began a rather impressive punting career for Roethlisberger in college, in addition to his record-setting performance at quarterback. He punted 24 total times — once his freshman year, 11 times as a sophomore and 12 times as a junior.
The 2002 season was his best by far. In the regular season opener against North Carolina, he had a careerhigh 59-yard punt in the 27-21 win. Later that year against Toledo, he pinned the Rockets at their 9-, 4- and 3-yard lines and earned MAC East Special Teams Player of the Week for his performance. He punted three times that game while the team’s starting punter, Mike Wafzig,only punted twice.
“Usually on Monday mornings, I’m hearing that Roethlisberger is the conference offensive player of the week,” Ohio University coach Brian Knorr said to reporters the following week. “Now I’m hearing that he’s special teams player of the week.He can do it all.”
Wafzig averaged 41.7 yards per punt in the 2002 season. Roethlisberger averaged 43.8. In fact, he would have led the MAC in yards per punt and would have finished seventh in the nation if he had registered enough kicksthat season.
“Ben’s not really a punter, although sometimes it’s a temptation to tell our regular punter I’m leaving him at home for road trips,” Hoeppnersaid at the time.
Palcic said Hoeppner used to give Roethlisberger the signal on fourth down indicating whether he should punt or go for it. He remembered one game where Hoeppner told him to throw it on fourth down and said Roethlisberger had to do a double take because he was so used topunting it.
The RedHawks even started using him as their regular punter — not just during trick situations, but on critical plays or at the end of the half when they expected extra pressure from their opponent trying to blockthe kick.
Their reasoning for using Roethlisberger was more thana gimmick.
“Hoeppner would say, ‘Do you trust anyone else more than Ben Roethlisberger to catch the ball and get it off?’” Palcic said. “Let’s say it’s a bad snap. He’ll catch the ball, andhe’ll get it off in one step. I guarantee you. He’s not going to panic. No situation was ever too big for him in college.”
All about field position
While Roethlisberger hasn’t punted nearly as often since going pro, the Steelers use his talents every once in awhile.
Once Spencer and Whisenhunt noticed that he had the ability, they knew they had to get head coach Bill Cowheron board.
“We obviously pitched it to coach Cowher, and of
course, you have to win over the head coach and even probably make him think it was his idea,” Spencer said. “Coach jumped on it because he’s a special teams guy at heart, and Bill was like, ‘If there’s any way I can stick it to you, and I can use the kicking game, I’m going to do it.’ So,we won him over.”
Itbecame a check-with-me where Whisenhunt would advise Roethlisberger to either run a screen play out of it or just punt it away if nothingwas there.
Two of Roethlisberger’s seven punts were in the Cowher era — both during the 2005 season — while the other five have happened under Mike Tomlin. One was blocked in 2014 against the
Colts, but the other six rangedfrom 26 to 39 yards for an average 31.3 yards per punt.
Every one of his punts came from opponent territory, typically from around the 35-to-40-yard line. The Steelers determined that using his ability would play to their benefit and force the defense to choose between sendinga punt returner back toreceive and having 11 players defend a possible offensive play. Almost 100% of the time, teams are going to keep the extra defender, which allows a quarterback to land the punt and let it roll to pin their opponent inside the 10yardline.
“If you can pin someone inside their own 10, the percentage of them driving 90 yards to score is very, very low,” Palcic said. “That’s the advantage that you’re trying to get. You don’t have to be as perfect as the punter. You canlet it bounce on the 15 and let it roll down there and stop it on the 1. That can win you gamesright there.”
At Heinz Field, this strategy is particularly advantageous. With the open south end of the stadium and the wind coming off the river, it is one of the more challenging places for kickers to kick field goals, so pooch punts are good alternatives to 50yardattempts.
Many of Roethlisberger’s attempts have worked exactlyhow the Steelers hoped.
On average, his punts have opponents starting around the 10-yard line. Two resulted in touchbacks, one held the Bengals at their 10 and two pinned the Ravens and Browns on their own 1yardline.
Outside of the block, the only unsuccessful one was his most recent against the Ravens in 2018. He landed it at the 11-yard line, but Baltimore had studied his punts and picked up on the trick play. When Roethlisberger lines up to punt, he usually takes a few steps back to avoid getting the punt blocked. Once the Ravens saw him step back, they dropped a safety, who ran it back18 yards.
“Now it’s dangerous because you have a bunch of offensive linemen running down there trying to tackle somebody, and they’re not used to doing that,” Palcic said. “If they put someone back, then you probably have to either call a timeout orkick away from them.”
A Steelers thing?
Few other teams have had as much success with quick kicks as the Steelers have. Of the 114 active NFL quarterbacks, Roethlisberger and Tom Brady are the only two to ever punt. Brady has recorded three attempts in his career for an average of 38.7yards per punt.
It was much more popular decades ago. Former Eagles quarterback Randall Cunningham punted 20 total times and averaged 44.7 yards per punt with a careerlong 91 yarder. That boot is still the third-longest in NFL history.
Of the 27 Hall of Fame quarterbacks, only five ever attempted a punt. The top two, Bob Waterfield and George Blanda, were kickers and punters in addition to quarterbacks. Roethlisberger would tie for fourth with John Elway and be one punt behind Terry Bradshaw who recorded eight in his career. Former Steeler Bobby Layne ranks fifth on thelist with one punt.
Kordell Stewart even joined the exclusive club. He attempted six punts in his career, one with the Steelers. The others were during his 2004 season in Baltimore. Given his incredible athletic ability, Spencer said, that’s nosurprise.
The NFL hasn’t seen a quarterback punt since Roethlisberger’s last attempt in 2018 and it’s becoming less commonover the years.
While there certainly are advantages to the trick play, there are disadvantages, as well. Teams often sacrifice a field goal attempt as a result, plus there is a higher chance thekick is blocked.
Spencer said the increased talent among puntersexplains the decline best.
“The proficiency of the puntershas improved so dramatically,” he said. “[Coaches are] thinking, ‘These guys look darn good. Why entrust this to a quarterback?’ I think there’s still relevance. I just think the reason why you don’t see it is people have so much more confidence in their punters now than maybe back when we introduced this with Ben.”
While most other teams haven’t thought to put their quarterbacksin punting situations, and the Steelers may never do it again, it was no question for them in Roethlisberger’s early years, as his skill added a weapon to their specialteams that most opponentsnever saw coming.
“He could do it, and you trusted him,” Spencer said. “He’sjust a kid who you trust inthose situations because of who he is and how he conductsbusiness.”