See ya Kaser, Welcome Donnie Jones

[charger1993]

Draft the kid from texas a&m kid can punt 81 yards, you cant return the kick if hes punting it out the back of the endzone

[Panamamike]

Draft the kid from texas a&m kid can punt 81 yards, you cant return the kick if hes punting it out the back of the endzone

Why do u want to give them starting field position at the 25 every time you punt? Terrible strategy IMO.

[charger1993]

Why do u want to give them starting field position at the 25 every time you punt? Terrible strategy IMO.

Simple i rather them start at the 25 versus our team whiff tackles, and him run to thw 50 or the td,it would cover up just how bad our specials team are.

[like54ninjas]

Draft the kid from texas a&m kid can punt 81 yards, you cant return the kick if hes punting it out the back of the endzone

If if he can produce 5.5 second hangtime, directional kick, and put that pitching wedge backspin on the ball inside the 10 then worth a very late pick. I hate kickers.

[oneinchpunch]

Why do u want to give them starting field position at the 25 every time you punt? Terrible strategy IMO.

Why would they get the ball at the 25?

[Boltjolt]

Why would they get the ball at the 25?

Instead of asking one of your typical passive aggressive dumb questions, why don't you just tell them that touchbacks on punts go to the 20?

[oneinchpunch]

Instead of asking one of your typical passive aggressive dumb questions, why don't you just tell them that touchbacks on punts go to the 20?

Because its more fun to see your response

[richpjr]

Because its more fun to see your response

This is OIP in a nutshell.

[oneinchpunch]

[richpjr]

Tom Krasovic @SDUTKrasovic 16m16 minutes ago

Among players Team Spanos worked out this month was a long-snapper. Among kickers team worked out last week before signing Michael Badgley was former Vikings draftee Daniel Carlson. Badgley made all 6 kicks v #Browns

I was half joking when I said that Windt was the next one to be blamed. I guess it wasn't a joke... And Carlson is going to make our kicking better how???

[charger1993]

If if he can produce 5.5 second hangtime, directional kick, and put that pitching wedge backspin on the ball inside the 10 then worth a very late pick. I hate kickers.

Hes a punter, but watch the kid, his longest punt was 81 yards this srason and innever tjougjt it was gonna come down... Pretty much cpuld eliminate our crappy special team coach of were anywhere near the 35 or 40. Just punt it out the stadium

[oneinchpunch]

This is a punter:

How Darren Bennett became the patron saint of Australian punters


There are times when Darren Bennett and his wife, Rosemary, look at each other, laugh and ask, "What are we doing?"

For nearly 20 years, their San Diego home has been a way station for Australian punters. Young athletes attempting to follow Bennett's path from Australian rules football into American football have filled their guest rooms and crashed on their couches. By day, the punters work out with Bennett and pick his brain to refine their skills. At night, they feast on Rosemary's back-home cooking, play Xbox with the Bennetts' two sons and flop in front of the TV.

Bennett estimates that he and Rosemary have hosted 15 to 20 Australian punters per year. At times, they have several guests at once. Some stay a few nights. Others stay for months.

"We always think there's some sort of Bennett calendar in the Googlesphere somewhere," Bennett said, "because there's days where a guy's leaving on Tuesday and someone calls randomly and goes, 'Hey, is there any chance I can stay Wednesday?' And we literally wash the sheets. We're running a bed-and-breakfast at times. There's times we get tired, but we never say no. It's tremendous to have these guys."

Bennett, 52, is the patron saint of Australian punters, the point man for what's become a wave from Down Under of specialists into the U.S. game. The former Aussie rules standout came across the Pacific in the early 1990s, earned a job with the Chargers in San Diego and played 11 NFL seasons (1995-2005). He revolutionized punting with the skills he brought from Aussie rules, or footy, and was named to the NFL all-decade team for the 1990s.

At 6-foot-5 and 230-plus pounds, Bennett could hit high, booming spirals with balloonlike hang time or pop a footy-style directional end-over-ender to pin opponents deep in their own territory.

Once Bennett opened the NFL door, Aussies such as Mat McBriar, Ben Graham and Sav Rocca followed. This season three Australians are punting in the NFL: Jordan Berry(Pittsburgh Steelers), Lac Edwards(New York Jets) and Brad Wing(New York Giants).

The Australian invasion has been even more extensive in college football, where more than 75 punters have caught on, many of them outstanding. Australians have won the past four Ray Guy Awards, given to the nation's best college punter, and all three finalists last year were Aussies.

Not all, of course, check in to the Hotel Bennett. Most of those bound for college come ready-made out of Prokick Australia, an academy run by Nathan Chapman (a friend of Bennett's who just happened to stay with Darren and Rosemary after being released in 2004 by the Green Bay Packers during training camp).

But often, when those players want to refine their skills, talk punting, get a dose of home or prepare for the NFL, they'll arrange a visit to the Bennetts through the Aussie pipeline.

"You'd be downright crazy not to contact Darren," said McBriar, 38, who retired in 2014 after punting 11 seasons in the NFL and calls Bennett "the godfather of Australian punters." "I mean, he's got the manual. If a kid's talented and driven, he should pick up the phone, call the Bennetts. Nine times out of 10 they're going to say, 'Come on over. We'll get you sorted out.'"

'It's an Australian thing you do'


Rosemary says they've been opening their home to visitors since arriving in San Diego in 1993. Family, friends, friends of friends and old footy pals have stayed with them on visits to the States.

"We have a lot of guests all the time," she said. "They're not always footballers. We've fit football in amongst everyone else who comes as well."

Even now, while living in a smaller home in Tulsa, Oklahoma -- they've moved there for a few months while Darren volunteers at the University of Tulsa, where son Thomas is the No. 1 punter -- they've provided a bed for a handful of visiting punters.

Rosemary always has enjoyed the visits. The Aussie guests give her two American-raised sons (Will, 21, and Thomas, 20) a taste of their parents' homeland and some fun company, plus it's something neighborly they can do for young men who are some 7,500 miles from home.

"Just to be hospitable is always kind," she said. "And it's an Australian thing you do, I think. I mean, I'd expect it if my kids were traveling the other way to Australia, that another family would put them up as much as their kids coming this way."

It all began with McBriar. Bennett had recommended him to former Chargers head coach June Jones, who had taken over the program at the University of Hawaii. McBriar stayed with the Bennetts in San Diego on a school break in 2001 because it was cheaper than flying home. That began a string of productive visits throughout his college and pro careers. McBriar calls Bennett his "one true mentor."

"I've leaned on the Bennetts a lot, as have a lot of other Australians who have come over and tried to do the same thing," McBriar said. "They're the most welcoming family you're going to find. ... They always had an open door for me."

Among those who have followed McBriar into the Bennetts' guest rooms are Graham, Rocca, Edwards, Wing and Chris Bryan, all of whom have punted in the NFL, plus collegians Tom Hornsey (2013 Ray Guy winner at Memphis), Tom Hackett (2014 and '15 Ray Guy winner at Utah), Cam Johnston (2016 Ray Guy finalist at Ohio State), Sam Irwin-Hill (Arkansas) and Tom Sheldon (North Carolina).

Jy Bond, who attended training camps with the Giants and Miami Dolphins and played in the United Football League, is a family favorite. Bennett figures Bond stayed the equivalent of a year at his home over a four-year span. Graham, too, was a frequent guest.

"They know if they need it, we're a comfortable place for saving them a trip home to Australia," Bennett said. "They can have a bit of Australia with us."

Sheldon, the fifth-ranked punter in FBS this season, set a record for the largest entourage. He arrived with five of his Aussie rules buddies on a trip to the U.S. in 2010.

"Tommy had all his mates and said, 'We're going to stay in hotels,' and we said, 'Look, just stay with us, mate,'" Bennett said. "It was fun to have them all at the same time."

Sheldon didn't know much about American football at the time, but after "a bit of a kick" with Bennett, the seed was planted. In 2016, he became North Carolina's starting punter.

Sheldon has come back to the Bennetts' five-room home several times, twice staying for over a month. While there, he punts three to four times a week, does yoga and stretches, surfs with Bennett, joins the family for dinner, watches "Game of Thrones" and sports on TV and plays video games with Will and Tom.

"You're like another kid in the family," he said.

Underlying everything, though, is Bennett's ability to help improve his visitors' punting skills.

"He can figure out things you don't even notice you're doing," said Sheldon, who talks to Bennett often by phone as well. "He watches most of the boys' games, and he'll give you a few pointers here and there."

Will, who has muscular dystrophy and uses a wheelchair, also has a good eye and offers help after so many years of watching his dad and learning fundamentals.

"He'll give you a technique correction that you never even noticed," Bennett said of his older son.

'A lot of Costco runs'