AW's Next Level Punting

Hello ISFL! It is time to bring you punting like you've never seen before, or at least for some time at least! What I hope to bring you is some week to week punting analysis that really dives deep into a punter and their effect on the game each week! Using way more manual research into the stats and play by play than I wish I had to do, we have a ton of information on our big booted brethren than you do at a quick glance at the index or at the overall file stats. I hope that these stats, while not perfect, will be a fun read and can maybe be looked at during awards time when considering a punter of the year award and maybe break ties or close battles determined just on your basic average punt and inside the 20 percentages. As someone who used to be an aspiring punter only to be turned down after a short collegiate tryout for a Division 1 school, I still love the position and it's overall impact on the game. It is one of the more overlooked positions but the punter is a huge piece of a special teams unit and has an impact on both the defensive and offensive end as a field flipper. 

Interesting Facts about Punting in our sim!

First I want to detail some very interesting things I found out in the sim that had an overall impact on my statistical data collection and overall analysis. There were things that our sim don't portray right or even calculate right when it comes to punting.

1) Punts Inside the 20 are not calculated correctly and boosted slightly

I have heard that the change to this latest sim has inflated the number of punts inside the 20 and they were much lower on the older version of the sim. I have found out why! It appears, incorrectly, that punts that fall inside the 20 but are then taken past the 20 on a punt return are still being counted as a punt inside the 20 yard line. Per official rules when determining a punt inside the 20, wherever the ball is at the end of the punt, that is where you consider the determination. If a kick is inside the 20 and a return or a return plus a penalty end up essentially short of the 19 and a half yard line, the punt is considered a punt inside the 20. Our sim just considers any kick that gets enough air to be inside the 20 to be that even if it is returned out.

2) Blocked Punts are considered in the punter's total numbers

I have not done the research enough to see exactly what it considers here but I did some research into how an individual punter is credited when their punt is blocked. It is technically considered from a statistical point to not count the blocked punt against the punter themselves but against the team. So, if a punt is blocked, the punter is not really credited with a punt as a punt is considered a ball kicked forward past the line of scrimmage. Therefore, usually in a box score, from my understanding, if there were 4 punt attempts in a game but one was blocked, the punter would have 3 punts and the team would have 4. It is a bit of a weird one but for the sake of this, any blocked punts, I have removed from the totals as a blocked punt is more likely to be a result of faulty blocking rather than a punter doing something wrong to my knowledge at least here within the sim and mostly in real life too.

3) Touchbacks are not at the correct yard line

While there is a proposal going to be included in the NFL's competition committee about changing the touchback rule on punts, it has not actually been changed, other than in this league I suppose. When a punt lands in the end zone, it is considered a touchback and traditionally I believe in both the NFL and college football, the ball is placed on the 20-yard line. Kickoffs are placed at the 25-yard line which I believe was a move made to help with player safety as kickoff returns are violent but punt returns are not really so or as much so they stayed at the 20. Our sim has touchbacks on punts having the offense starting out on the 25-yard line. It is much more costly in general to have a touchback in the ISFL than real life as the offense gets those extra 5 yards. A 40 yard touchback now has just a net of 15 yards and while it was an unimpressive 20 before, it still can make a big difference. When calculating the net punt yardage here, we had to use the 25-yard line as the gauge on touchback punts which is sad because subtracting 20 yards is so much easier.

So, first, we have to talk about what the heck we are even doing here and why do we care, and what extra information could you possibly care about when it comes to punting in our league? Well, I am here to tell you!

We have, of course, the traditional index stats that we all know and love which include the total number of punts, total punt yardage, average yards per punt, longest punt, and number of punts inside the 20 (even though it is wrong in the index!). What I aimed to do was give you a little bit more and not just over the course of a season but week by week, game by game, punt by punt stats or tidbits of information to expand upon what we already have. I made a spreadsheet which I will share at some point that details each punter's games over the season starting with week 1 and included is the week number and opponent they played so you can go back and look at how punters fared in what week or even what teams are giving up the best punting performances over a season or just overall, see some cool punting stats. A lot of talking but not enough stats talk? Let's fix that!

So, we will include some extra stats to give out lovable punters some...love! I will list them below!

- Returns Against

- Return Yards Against

- Yards Per Return

- Percentage of Punts Returned

- Net Yardage

- Net Yardage Per Punt

- Inside the 20 Percentage

- Touchbacks

- Touchback Percentage

- Punts Blocked

- Average Punting Position

- Average Opponent Field Position After a Punt

- Inside the 10 Punt Totals

 - Inside the 5 Punt Totals

That is on top of what we already have! Wow! So much punting stats! Did I KICK it up a notch or what!?

What will we do? Well, the plan is to try and detail these stats week by week and talk about the punters on a week by week and then seasonal aggregate level as we move forward. We will talk about all the stats, share some data, and talk about some of the top punts of the week. We will even try and give a punter of the week each week. It is a lot of data so sometimes it may be slow but I really enjoy looking into this weird stuff and think it could be very interesting, especially for those users with kicker/punters in our league or even just people who like this kind of stuff like me.

We saw some great punting performances in week one and in general, we get a lot of everything. Some booming punts, some fixing of the game's inside the 20 stat, a blocked punt, and a punt return for a touchdown, overall a pretty good well rounded punting week in the ISFL! I should also point out that I pulled the Average Position and Average Opponent Start right from where the ball was before the punt was snapped to the punter and where the opponent started their drive after the punt respectively and while we expect the Net Average to make up for this difference, there are some slight rounding both in the sheet and in the game that has it just percentage points to a yard or so off but it is more to see field position.

Stats table (sorted by Net yards per punt descended):

What we usually like to see in punters are their average punt distances and this includes both the gross and net punting averages where gross is just how far the punt traveled in the air or how far past the line of scrimmage it landed and net is that amount minus any return or touchback yardage. These can be looked at in many different ways as well because some punters, as we see and will see have different average positions from where they are punting from. These differences in punting position can affect the punt distances as a punter punting from the 40 each time won't be able to boom the ball as much than ones punting from the 20. Punters in general, if punting from closer to their opponent's territory should likely have more punts inside the 20 and maybe more touchbacks as well and we have to look at the accurate and power punters a bit differently in some cases. However, net yardage is usually a really solid barometer of limiting returns or avoiding touchbacks and some punters can both boom the ball with their foot and do solid directionally as well.

Top 5 in Gross Average:

1) Known Acquaintance - Berlin Fire Salamanders  - 52.8 Y/P

2) Booter McGavin - San Jose Sabercats - 52.7 Y/P

3) Jeremy Crouse Jr. - Orange County Otters - 49.3 Y/P

4) Jayme Jayne Jay-Jamison - Arizona Outlaws - 47.7 Y/P

5) Charlie Brown - Austin Copperheads - 47.4 Y/P

Top 5 in Net Average:

1) Booter McGavin - San Jose Sabercats - 52.7 NY/P

2) Jeremy Crouse Jr. - Orange County Otters - 49.3 NY/P

3) Known Acquaintance - Berlin Fire Salamanders  - 43.4 NY/P

4) Orlando Doom - Colorado Yeti - 43.0 NY/P

5) Jayme Jayne Jay-Jamison - Arizona Outlaws - 42.2 NY/P

Some slight differences but a lot of the same names on both lists though McGavin really shines here as the only punter with 50+ yards in both averages. Crouse Jr. has hit net match his gross punt yardage and Acquaintance drops a bit having some returns and touchbacks against him. Jay-Jaymison is the other one to share both lists being 4th in gross and 5th in net. Brown and Doom on the gross and net lists respectively give us an idea of some differences where Brown may have been more returnable while Doom was solid in limiting returns and especially with his starting field position, helping pin his opponents back a bit. With one game of sample data, it is hard to really say much as in general, punters that boomed the ball further tended to have higher nets as well but not always and only a few punters really maintained both solid averages. As the season progresses we should see these numbers become more distinguishable and such and maybe we see more differences from the big legs versus the directional guys.

Top 5 in Field Position:

1) Patrick Cunningham - Cape Town Crash - 44.8 Yard Line

2) Mike Makmur - Baltimore Hawks - 44.3 Yard Line

3) Double Doink - Yellowknife Wraiths - 44.0 Yard Line

4) Alfonso Dos Santos - New Orleans Second Line - 40.8 Yard Line

5) Orlando Doom - Colorado Yeti - 36.3 Yard Line

Bottom 5 in Field Position:

1) Jeremy Crouse Jr. - Orange County Otters - 23.8 Yard Line

2) Booter McGavin - San Jose Sabercats - 27.7 Yard Line

3) Jayme Jayne Jay-Jamison - Arizona Outlaws - 29.0 Yard Line

4) Charlie Brown - Austin Copperheads - 29.2 Yard Line

5) Known Acquaintance - Berlin Fire Salamanders 32.1 Yard Line

Top 5 in Pinning Opponent Back:

1) Alfonso Dos Santos - New Orleans Second Line - 18.8 Avg. Opponent Starting Yard Line

2) Booter McGavin - San Jose Sabercats - 18.8 Avg. Opponent Starting Yard Line

3) Orlando Doom - Colorado Yeti - 20.0 Avg. Opponent Starting Yard Line

4) Known Acquaintance - Berlin Fire Salamanders - 23.9 Avg. Opponent Starting Yard Line

5) Patrick Cunningham - Cape Town Crash - 24.5 Avg. Opponent Starting Yard Line

A lot to digest here as we look at it and again, with just one game of data here, it is hard to gain conclusions exactly. However, McGavin having the 2nd worst starting punting position but also the 2nd best average opponent starting field position is very impressive and it shows with his huge net average. Cunningham is hurt a bit by his team's punting position and has 3 touchbacks and struggled a bit to keep the ball out of the end zone. You would expect his advanced field position to have him one of the best in pinning an opponent back but he sits just 5th with an average around where a touchback is at the 24.5 yard line, close to the 25 yard line. Essentially, on quick glance, you can say that Dos Santos and Doom did a solid job pinning opponents back with solid accuracy even with advanced field position. We can also say McGavin was a real field flipper here as well which we could see with the gross and net averages before as well. Acquaintance as well should be noted for solid field flipping ability with a low field position but solid opponent starting yard line.

1) SJS Punter Booter McGavin had a 70 and 68 yard punt that was downed at the 2-yard line in the game against Honolulu.
2) CTC Punter Patrick Cunningham had a 66-yard punt downed at the 1-yard line in the game against Sarasota.
3) COL Punter Orlando Doom had a 61-yard punt downed at the 1-yard line in the game against Berlin.
4) BAL Punter Mike Makmur had a 45-yard punt returned for an 81-yard touchdown in the game against New York.
5) CHI Punter David Doug had a punt blocked in the game against Yellowknife.

Week 1 Punter of the Week

Booter McGavin - SJS - @ajtigger

There are a few guys who showed up really well in week 1 but in my opinion, no one more than McGavin. There were punters who kicked far and placed the ball well but no one did both as good as McGavin did in week one. In fact, he had the two longest punts of week 1 of 70 and 68 yards and both of them were downed at the 2. He completely flipped the field and put his team in position to succeed and a stronger offensive showing from the Sabercat offense may have had Booter as an MVP candidate for the game. The only punter with both a gross and net average above 50 yards gets the award for the week.

Honorable mentions: Orlando Doom, Jeremy Crouse Jr.