TT signs punter

[Spaulding]

JSO has article out there that TT signed an Aussie punter to a three year deal? Is that common for length of a FA deal? Evidently was in house back in 2004 but no whispers of NFL since. Assuming camp fodder but if the guy can punt up to his size, maybe a poor man's Ray Guy

http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/sports/87856677.html

[Tony Oday]

6-feet-5, 215 pounds

if he isnt any good at punting maybe he can run and be a WR!

[Scott Campbell]

Re: TT signs punter

JSO has article out there that TT signed an Aussie punter to a three year deal? Is that common for length of a FA deal? Evidently was in house back in 2004 but no whispers of NFL since. Assuming camp fodder but if the guy can punt up to his size, maybe a poor man's Ray Guy

http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/sports/87856677.html

It's pretty common in a league without guaranteed contracts.


His coach was the one that was in the house back in 04 - not this kid.

[CaliforniaCheez]

Camp leg. He will be around to help the special teams practices in training camp.

Ted will find somebody else too.

Aussie football begins again in April. He is risking his old job to try for a new one.

[RashanGary]

Ol' tight wad Ted, signing another budget nobody.

[pbmax]

Ol' tight wad Ted, signing another budget nobody.

Can Tauscher punt?

[Freak Out]

Is Mesko worth throwing a pick at? I've never seen the guy play.....

[vince]

Now that's searching the world over to find what you need. Here are some Aussie Rules Football highlights of the guy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVdQAID2E0c

Between this and watching his punting footage on the JSO link, I like him better than Kapinos already.

[Fritz]

Watching Mesko at U of M, I saw a guy with a booming leg who had no sense of the intricacies of punting. I'm no special teams coach, but he seems like a pretty raw prospect.

[Scott Campbell]

Watching Mesko at U of M, I saw a guy with a booming leg who had no sense of the intricacies of punting. I'm no special teams coach, but he seems like a pretty raw prospect.

I thought the same thing. His mechanics seemed inconsistent to me. But his kicks were very consistent - both in distance and hangtime. There were no shanks, and no 30 yarders.

[Fritz]

My memory's hazy, but I think when Mesko first started punting for Lloyd Carr, ol' Lloyd was trying that Australian kicking thing, where the punter gets the snap, runs off to the right and punts while on the run. This was because the special teams kept getting punts blocked.

That I think occurred when Mesko was a young punter. If it was him, then no wonder his mechanics are messed up.

[CaptainKickass]

Can Tauscher punt?

Hell....

Someone better take a look-see if Crosby can Punt.

[vince]

Bryan had 5 tryouts scheduled and the Packers were the first. Upon seeing him punt at his private tryout in Green Bay, they immediately signed him before any of the other tryouts could occur. That would seem to be a pretty strong indication that they liked what they saw.

But that logical conclusion isn't drawn by the hacks at JSO - this time by Betard and his partner in crime, McGinn. McGinn is a little more nuanced at it though, at least citing another of his infamous anonymous sources to voice the unending criticisms. Among other half-truths and misleading content is this nugget.

A special-teams coach with intimate knowledge of prospects in Australia said Bryan was only mediocre.

"From what everybody over there said (Bryan) was a good guy, but he was nothing special, and they named three, four or five guys that were better than him," the coach said. "One of them was Rocca's brother (Anthony), who actually signed with the Eagles but got homesick and left."

Sounds like the guy has real intimate knowledge Bob. He heard from some more anonymous people over in Australia. That's not even first-hand information from a second hand source, much less intimate knowledge.

McGinn also goes on to profile all the failures and also-rans from Australia, projecting those traits onto Bryan, while ignoring the successes of some of today's better kickers from Down Under.

Benny Smith of Prokick Australia, who along with Nathan Chapman, coached Bryan, says that McGinn is "confused" about the whole situation. Based on past history from McGinn and company, I'd say that's stating it nicely.

The "mediocre punter" described in that article [by McGinn] is not Chris. Chris has not taken part in any camps and his Green Bay tryout was conducted in complete privacy with only Green Bay coaches in attendance. There are so many inaccuracies in that article it is disturbing. A real case of mistaken identity and not enough research once again.

To the contrary Benny, McGinn did just enough research to put together the critical tone of article he wanted from the get-go. I don't expect Prokick Australia to be objective in their information here, but they appear to be more so than the JSO. That's disturbing.

Of course, no-one knows if Bryan is going to be any good, or even make the team, but that doesn't stop McGinn from criticizing him and Thompson before anyone on the outside can have any realistic perspective whether this is a good move or not. Par for the course at JSO.

One thing that can be said is that the move doesn't carry any cost if he gets beat out by someone better. Another potential upgrade without risk that draws premature criticism from the hacks.

From the practice tape provided by Prokick Australia that's posted on Youtube, Bryan averaged 47.6 yds a punt and 4.8 seconds of hangtime in the 20 punts. There was little to no wind on that day judging from the trees the loose fitting clothes on his coach. There were 3 cuts in the 20 punts that were recorded, so in fairness it is possible that bad kicks were edited. However, also in fairness, there were less than stellar kicks that were included, so it appears to be a relatively fair and accurate recording of a practice session. The fact that the Packers quickly snatched him up after a live tryout would support that.

That distance would have ranked him 3rd in the NFL last year, and the hangtime is significantly above the average in the NFL, which based on the data I’ve been able to access from Philadelphia kickers and opponents over the last decade is about 4.25 seconds on average. It’s impossible to know if the balls were somehow bouncier than the real NFL game day variety and it’s safe to assume kicking in Green Bay in the fall will be different than Australia in the late summer/early fall. He took a 2-step approach, so getting the ball off shouldn’t be a problem.

Did JSO report any of that information? Of course not, the only thing Betard reported on the blog was, “He appears to be a left-footed kicker” (no shit) and he has hangtimes “over 4” and distances “over 50,” but “he looks slow to punt.” He then provides a link to an Australian Rules highlight where Bryan gets a kick blocked.

Astute observations Greg, and way to get that dig in and try to shape negative perception right from the get-go. Wouldn’t expect anything different from you, McGinn and an outfit like yours.

In other news not provided by the Urinal Mintenal, this punter has some potential.

[pbmax]

Well, Benny Smith didn't exactly refute anything McGinn wrote. McGinn didn't describe any public workouts or call him a mediocre punter. His source said he was not top two or three of the available legs out of Australian Rules Football. And Smith has a horse in this race. So he is not exactly an uninterested observer.

But I do want to see the article where Smith spoke. And the videos. Vince, can you post the links? The video posted earlier showed him landing a number of punts between 40 and 45 yards. Encouragingly, they were all over 4 seconds of hang time.

[pbmax]

Bedard's blog entry is reasonable. The primary video is his workout from his coaches which paints him in a pretty good light. He doesn't even mention the edits in the video which might put the lie to our earlier estimation of his distance and hangtime. Its also ridiculous to compare this to actual game conditions. To be fair, you would need good weather workouts from all other NFL punters to make a like for like comparison.

McGinn's article carries an argument for the mis-handling of the punter position by McCarthy and Thompson. It is hard to argue that they have handled that position well. But he gives credence to both arguments for Bryan's chances. Before the unnamed scout rules him below the top prospects (which for the Packers could be an improvement), McGinn gives earlier weight to his coaches assessment and lists the Australian Rules kickers who have succeeded and notes he maybe a better prospect than his coach was.

Outside of an accurate video, which we cannot be sure we are getting, the most significant fact might be the fact that he has never played American Rules Football. The fact that the Packers signed him might tell us more about their desperation than about the punter's chances. I hope it works out, but its far from certain. College kickers usually need to bust out of camp once or twice before sticking. He has a heck of a learning curve ahead of him