Do you know how many college punters since 2016 have had at least a 43-yard average, a 40-yard net, a 4.25 second hangtime, and put 40% of their punts inside the 20 yardline? Nine.
Five are in the NFL today:
- Tommy Townsend, the NFL’s top punter in 2022 (ranked by Puntalytics punting EPA)
- Corey Bojorquez, the NFL’s 6th rated punter in 2022 and annually in the top 10
- Jake Bailey, consistently a top punter for the Patriots before his 2022 back injury
- Jordan Stout, last year’s top-rated college punter and top drafted punter in 2022 by Baltimore
- Braden Mann, previously with the Jets and now with the Steelers, unfortunately most famously known for a game-saving tackle that cost the Jets the top pick which would have brought them Trevor Lawrence
One, Sterling Hofrichter, was drafted by the Falcons, had a short career and was waived after an injury. Another, USC’s Ben Griffiths, is in the CFL and, if not for being a 31-year old, oft-concussed, converted Australian rules football college punter, should probably be in the NFL.
And the other two were in this year’s college class: Oklahoma’s Michael Turk, who signed with the Dolphins, and the Eagle’s own Ty Zentner.
And Ty almost never got here.
A bus may have gotten Ty to Philly
Ty was a multi-sport athlete at Shawnee Heights High School in Tecumseh, Kansas, but football wasn’t one of them. Entering his senior year, he had already committed to play soccer in college when the kicker-needy football team finally convinced him to come out and kick for them. And he did it reluctantly, getting an agreement from coaches to allow him to play both soccer and football.
But as his senior season continued, his high school kicking coach, Steve Block, was reaching out to junior colleges in Kansas to get Ty an opportunity to kick. And Coach Block asked him a question that may have started Ty’s path to the NFL. In Seth Kinker‘s (@SethKinker) recent interview, Ty explained:
[Coach Block asked me] would it be awesome to ride on a bus to your JUCO soccer games or would it be really cool to fly on a jet to your away football games when you are at Division I… ever since he brought up that point I was like ‘I think I want to play football’…”
Seth Kinker, “It’s Just a Dream Come True”, The Topeka Capital-Journal
With that, he switched sports, starting out at Butler Community College primarily as their kicker. After visiting Kansas State later in his freshman year, he knew that was where he was going to next but waited until after his sophomore season to transfer.
In his interview, Seth Kinker relayed a story from a colleague at Butler that what stood out about Ty was his willingness to bet on himself, knowing he could have transferred early to get more playing time but Ty knew he needed to develop:
When I was done with my freshman year at Butler, [I said] ok, I really need to learn how to punt… I knew deep down inside that I wasn’t good enough my freshman year… I needed to just work hard and knew going into my sophomore year if I developed the way I wanted to I would have a good season.
Seth Kinker, The Topeka Capital-Journal
In his second season at Butler and only his 3rd year even stepping on a football field, Ty was recognized as the nation’s best junior college kicker. And after only a handful of very obviously new-to-punting attempts his freshman year, Ty’s work paid off, improving his average from 27.6 yards per punt to 39.5.
And this year-over-year improvement hasn’t stopped.
Becoming one of the highest-upside punters in college
One of the highest rates of punts over 50 yards
Ty has incredible natural talent and one of the biggest – and quickest – legs in this class and showed it at Kansas State. When you watch him punt, he is so aggressive to the ball and it’s why he was second in this class with almost half of his punts going over 50 yards.
Watch these three punts but focus on his swing:
That’s a 55 yard punt inside the 10 that got the returner in trouble and caused a turnover, a 61-yarder, and a 66-yarder, each over 4.8 seconds of hangtime. And these aren’t selectively picking highlights – in 2022, Ty had 22 punts over 50 yards, second in this class behind only Bryce Baringer.
Pinning opponents deep from anywhere
Punting in the NFL is about distance, limiting returns which hangtime plays a big part in, and pinning teams back inside their own 20 yardline. That’s why I picked those metrics at the beginning of the article.
Last year I dug into the value of punts (“What’s the Value of a Good Punt?”) based on actual in-game scoring from 28,000 punts over 12 years. In it, I found that punts downed deep in opponent territory have high value, worth over 0.5 points per punt. Not surprisingly, the receiving team has a harder time scoring from a long field but what was surprising was that the majority of the value came from elevated scoring from the punting team’s next possession. Pinning the opponent deep often led to getting the ball back on a short-field.
Punters are expected to be able to consistently down the ball inside the 20 when punting from midfield or closer and Ty is really good here – he puts 78% of his short-field punts inside the 20 and 33% inside the 10 yardline. He had an “inside 20 to touchback” ratio of 5.8, right up there with the best in this class (except for Korsak who was so far ahead of everybody). And Ty, on average, forced opponents to start at their own 14, again behind only Korsak (who ridiculously forced an average start at the 6 yardline) and Brad Robbins (slightly ahead at the 12 yardline).
This is a really boring-in-a-good-way punt, showing his “average” short field punt. Punting from the Iowa State 46, he lands it at the 12 for a fair catch. While this is a dying punt in the NFL as teams play more aggressively, it’s what punters need to be able to consistently do when called on. It’s the 4-foot putt of football.
But as I watched all of his punts at Kansas State, what struck me is how many punts from his own territory he is able to pin inside the 20. In 50 open-field punts where he averaged kicking from his own 32 yardline, Ty put 22 punts inside the 20 yardline, better than anybody except short-field punting assassin Adam Korsak. And Ty put 10 punts inside the 10 yardline, this time better than Korsak and just behind Turk’s 12 punts for tops in college.
A couple of the clips above show this but three more. The first vs. Kansas is a high-value field-flipper with a 60 yarder from his own 20 in a nasty weather game… the second against TCU in the Big 12 Championship, where Ty put 5 of his 7 punts inside the 20 and 3 inside the 10… and the third against Iowa State under pressure where he took a running into the kicker penalty and got the ball downed at the 4 after a nice roll.
Focusing on his craft
I asked Ty what type of punter the Eagles are getting and he pointed to his leg speed and aggressiveness:
I’m a quick twitch athlete. My leg swing is just as quick as anyone else. I just need to turn that into controlled explosiveness.”
A lot of college punters have had big legs but that doesn’t guarantee success. But the one thing that is obvious if you spend any time with Ty is both his recognition of what he can get better at and his willingness to put the work in. He constantly uses the word “craft” when talking about his punting.
And it shows.
For a guy that had to be convinced to play football his senior year, Ty has improved every year. At Kansas State and still new to punting, he improved his average distance from 40.8 yards per punt his first season to 43.7 and finally to 44.2 his final year. Same with his hangtime, going from 4.12 seconds to a very pro-ready 4.27 seconds this season, best in the NCAA.
I asked about his dramatic improvements and he pointed to his constant work with coaches, continuously taking small things back to work on:
I’ve only played football for 6 going on 7 years. I have a lot of untapped potential. Each offseason I attacked strength training to get stronger, and I love diving into the areas I can improve. So I look at those things, go train with Jamie Kohl [of Kohl’s Professional Camps] on them, and take ideas and cues back home with me.
With this mentality, it is no surprise why the Eagles, with the type of players they have brought in and the culture that focuses on every detail and constant improvement, wanted Ty in the building.
I asked Ty about his pre-draft process:
The Eagles were the first team to contact me and work me out following the Combine. They were very transparent in the process, they told me what they liked about my style of punting and how it can fit into their system. I had a great connection with Coach Clay and Coach Brown so the interest was very mutual from the start.
The improvement hasn’t stopped. I asked him what he has been working on since the end of the season and it’s the length of his steps which he said has “been a game-changer for me since the season ended”.
The only knock which every scouting report and person that reviews Ty will hit on is his mis-hit rate. But watching these, two things. First, he has gotten some bad bounces that brought the short punt back. And second, he never misses off the side of his foot.
Why is this important? Because it is very fixable and his work on repeatable step length is going to help here. We only got to see two punts from last weekend’s rookie mini-camp but there is reason to be excited.
I asked Ty about these punts and they were warmups which explains his much more casual swing. But even with that, he hit a 4.7+ second hangtime punt.
On to camp…
Going undrafted, while a disappointment, gives late round players more control over where they want to go and to pick the best situation for themselves. The Eagles were Ty’s first choice and, given that the Eagles were in contact with Ty throughout the entire process, he was the punter they were targeting as well.
Speaking to KSNT’s Landon Reinhardt (@landonian87) in a post-draft interview, Ty explained why he wanted to go to Philly:
Great coaches, one of their core values is connecting and being able to develop people, that’s something I really like.
“Topeka’s Ty Zentner Soaks in NFL Opportunity”, Landon Reinhardt
I’ve said it before, if you are a team looking to compete for the Super Bowl every year, margins are incredibly slim and every position needs to be looked at for upgrade. Howie knows this and would not have been as aggressive to bring a punter in this offseason if he didn’t think it could upgrade.
And Ty is going to bring something that the Eagles have not had in years. Arryn Siposs is a dependable short-field punter but suffers with where the league is increasingly using punters. Among punters over the last 5 years with at least 30 punts, Siposs ranks:
- 58th out of 65 punters on punts over 50 yards
- 59th on punts over 60 yards
- 50th on punts downed inside the 20
- 20th on punts downed inside the 10 (this is his primary area of value)
- 17th most mis-hit or short punts (less than 35 yards)
Ty absolutely has a shot to win the battle as he has more leg talent than we have had in years. And it’s what we all want.
Philly is such a great fanbase and if there is another city that appreciates punters as much as Philly, I’m not sure what it is. I asked Ty if he saw this tweet from @TheBirdsBlitz and knows how excited Philly is to have him here and he said he has definitely felt the love.
My Twitter profile half-jokingly has three life goals on it – to get fans to stop mocking round one running backs in Philly, to draft a top cornerback, and to draft a punter. While Ty wasn’t technically drafted, I’m looking forward to being able to check this one off as he goes through camp.
And one last thing – Ty asked me to include this message to Philly:
I really appreciate all the support that the Eagles fanbase has given me. Right now I’m focused on improving every day and making the most out of each opportunity I get. Philly already has my heart.
Ty Zentner
As I’ve gotten to know him, I know he is going to be a guy that Philly loves.
Fly Eagles Fly and go mash the ball Ty!
Big thanks to Ty for being so kind with his time and answering a ton of my punting questions. And credits to both Seth Kinker and Landon Reinhardt for their great interviews with Ty – if you haven’t checked them out, please do so:
“It’s Just a Dream Come True” – Seth Kinker
“Topeka’s Ty Zentner Soaks in NFL Opportunity”, Landon Reinhardt
Thanks for reading and if you aren’t already, please follow us at @PhillyCvrCorner, @PhillyEagleNews, and @GregHartPA