During his first year in the championship, New Orleans Saints Punter Matthew Hayball has been an extremely effective weapon for the Saints. In fact, you wish you never saw your punter.
Unfortunately for the Saints, they saw Hayball often. Fortunately for the Saints, Hayball often delivers. Punts aren’t usually scoring plays unless it’s a punt return, but Hayball regularly put the opposing offense in a tough spot.
Hayball placed 27 punts inside the opponent’s 20-yard line. No other punter has done it more times in 11 games. What’s more impressive is the percentage of punts he places inside the 20-yard line. 57% of Hayball’s punts went inside the 20.
If you’re hyper-focused on yards per punt, you might think Hayball struggled. He ranks 31st in the NFL in what can be a misleading statistic. You don’t want a 55-yard punt when you’re just outside of field goal range. Judging a punter solely on the average distance he runs is wrong because a punter does not always use his entire leg. Accuracy is what is most important in this situation.
Punts landing inside the 20-yard line also don’t tell the whole story, but it’s a better metric to measure efficiency. But even if he’s effective, let’s hope we see less of Hayball over the final six weeks – that would mean the Saints are finishing more drives with points than punts.
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This article was originally published on Saints Wire: The Saints rookie was one of the best punters in this key stat
