Rough year for Brad Nortman in 2014?

[SgtJoo]

Ranked 34/35...

Carolina’s Brad Nortman was the worst regular punter in the NFL last year. The Panthers actually punted in pretty good field position for a bad offense: their average punt was at the 36, but Nortman had a miserable 36.4-net average. And he had two punts blocked (both against the Vikings)! And given that promising field position, his “inside 20” ratio was not particularly impressive, either. But the Panthers seem to like him, so what do I know.

http://www.footballperspective.com/who-were-the-best-punters-in-2014/

 

[Sam Mills Fan]

I don't know a single person that blames Brad Nortman for those 2 blocked punts.

[Jase]

key word is "net" average

[Montsta]

Kam Chancellor jumping over the entire offensive line like 4 times in a row with zero adjustment tells a man all he needs to know about our special teams last year. 

 

I've never seen anything like it. 

[vanilla B]

Kind of hard to keep your net average up when the other team gets at least one 20 or 30 yard return every game thanks to poor ST coverage.  

[KSpan]

Those data in combination with average returns against the Panthers would tell a much clearer story of exactly where the suckitude lies.

[PandaPancake]

He's had a better year than Deez Nuts 

[L-TownCat]

Totally false.  Cherry picked stats at its finest.  Terrible coverage and the leagues worst ST's unit caused that stat not Nortmans ability to kick the cover off the ball.  So apparently that guy knows about the same amount of football as an entire bag of penasia.

[TheRumGone]

nortman can boom and hang. our ST coverage last year was fuging atrocious.

[Adb6368]

Am I remembering incorrectly or the year we drafted him wasn't there another punter in the draft everyone wanted? I can't remember who he was or anything but I remember a slight uproar when we drafted Nortman instead. And I think the reasoning behind drafting Nortman over the other guy was that his hang-time was better (less powerful leg but could keep the ball in the air longer). If this is the case, was our special teams so bad last year that not even a punter that specializes in hang-time could help (this is a rhetorical question as the answer is more than likely yes)? 

This stat seems to be 99% due to how bad our coverage team was and not how bad Nortman was. I remember several times the punt returner having to back up to get to the ball but our coverage was no where in sight.

[Ricky Spanish]

Yeah, can you really even hold the punter accountable for those stats? It'd be one thing if they measured average hangtime or distance, but Net Average is definitely a "Unit"  stat, not solely the punter's responsibility. 

The entire ST sucked last year. 

[Khyber53]

Watching him play last year and in pre-season this year, he regularly out kicks his coverage. He can boom the punts with the best of them, but our gunners can't keep up with the ball. That points to a couple of things: either he needs to kick it higher and shorter, or possibly, quite possibly, our guys are slow and can't tackle on special teams.

I'm thinking our problem is really the second one. He can drop those punts right between the 10 and 1 yard lines all day long, but if no one can tackle, it won't matter. Shorter kicks with bad tackling would only make things worse, much, much worse.

[ed bell]

Am I remembering incorrectly or the year we drafted him wasn't there another punter in the draft everyone wanted? I can't remember who he was or anything but I remember a slight uproar when we drafted Nortman instead. And I think the reasoning behind drafting Nortman over the other guy was that his hang-time was better (less powerful leg but could keep the ball in the air longer). If this is the case, was our special teams so bad last year that not even a punter that specializes in hang-time could help (this is a rhetorical question as the answer is more than likely yes)? 

This stat seems to be 99% due to how bad our coverage team was and not how bad Nortman was. I remember several times the punt returner having to back up to get to the ball but our coverage was no where in sight.

I think it was either Anger (CAL)  or Butler (UGA) 

[Ricky Spanish]

I think it was either Anger (CAL)  or Butler (UGA) 

It was Butler because Butler's Dad and Rivera were teammates in Chicago.