FanHouse DanielSepulveda

If you thought the Steelers special teams were bad last year, just wait until this year.

Punter Daniel Sepulveda, the team's fourth-round pick in 2008, tore the ACL in his plant leg on one of the first days of camp and will miss the entire season. Although he tailed off a little at the end, Sepulveda did average 42.4 yards per punt gross and 37.9 net, with a knack for putting punts inside the 20-yard line.

This is the second time that Sepulveda has blown out the same knee, which has to be some cause of concern. It will also bring on more criticism from those who think the Steelers shouldn't have drafted a punter so early (Pittsburgh traded a fourth and sixth-round pick to move up to get Sepulveda). Of course, considering the Steelers bad luck in drafting fourth rounders in recent years, they're haven't been a whole lot of better picks to compare to him.

If there's a bright spot, it's better to lose a punter now when you have time to sort through various punters instead of during the season when you could lose a game or two while looking for a punter who's worth keeping. The Steelers signed Paul Ernster, who punted last year for Denver and Cleveland, averaging only 36.0 yard gross and 35.6 yards net in limited action. Ernster's stats were better the year before when punting in the kicker's heaven that is Denver, but overall he's what you would expect to find sitting on the waiver wire. He'll get the first chance, but expect Pittsburgh to keep an eye on which punters hit the waiver wire in the next month, because right now, Pittsburgh can add poor punting to poor coverage teams as a cause for concern.

A lot's changed under new head coach Mike Tomlin: the yelling, screaming, spitting, all gone; veteran linebacker Joey Porter, released; and offensive coordinator Ken Whisenhunt is now in Arizona.

But one thing is the same as it's always been: dreadful special teams. Steelers former special teams coach Kevin Spencer was the scapegoat this off-season, and the new guy, Bob Ligashesky, was supposed to fix everything with his gadgets, drills, and hours of training camp devoted just to "teams."

Seventeen weeks later, it's the same 'ol, same 'ol. Pittsburgh is one of the worst coverage teams in the league, and save kicker Jeff Reed (and maybe rookie punter Daniel Sepulveda) there's not much to be excited about.

Which is why this off-season, the Steelers should make a legitimate effort to sign every available Bills special teamer. For the last few seasons, Buffalo has been a top-5 unit in every phase: field goals, punts, coverage and returns -- special teams coach Bobby April has done a splendid job of preparing his guys.

Despite Post-Gazette beat writer Ed Bouchette's unhappiness with the decision to draft a punter, the Steelers' decision to spend a fourth-round pick on punter Daniel Sepulveda is paying off outstandingly well.

Sepulveda has already stuck 24 punts inside the 20 yard line, more than twice as many as Chris Gardocki had in 2006 and is already as many as Gardocki had in any of his three seasons in Pittsburgh. In fact, Sepulveda is only a little bit off of the pace to break the Steelers' modern record of 35 punts downed inside the 20, set by Mark Royals in 1994 (as noted by Jim Wexell).

Sepulveda's new average of 37.5 yards per punt is also within striking distance of the Steelers record for net punting average of 39.2 yards, set by Gardocki in 2004.

But the most encouraging fact about these numbers is the realization that punters often make a pretty significant improvements as they gain NFL experience. It may not seem logical--punting is one aspect of the game that stays generally the same whether you're punting in high school or the NFL--but if you look at the league's best punters, they does seem to be at least anecdotal evidence that they show some significant improvement.

Punters are often overlooked as necessities, but not "real football players" or some such silliness. It's all fun and games until the special teams costs you a game. Then, not so much. That's why Andy Lee and Mike Scifres are so well regarded -- and appreciated -- by their teams.

Anyway, in an effort to beef up its special teams, the Steelers used a fourth-round pick on Daniel Sepulveda. Not a very well received move in some parts of the Pittsburgh media; in fact, one writer suggested the team would've been better off with Mike Barr, the free agent that was annually invited to Steelers training camp only to lose the job to whoever the competition was.

Like clockwork, Barr lost out to Sepulveda, was released, but did land a job with the Cardinals. That lasted 11 games until Arizona sent him packing earlier this week. The reason? He was awful, of course. And even without looking at the stats, the fact that the Cards invited Mitch Berger, Tom Rouen and Chris Gardocki to compete for the job is reason enough to think that Barr wasn't faring very well. (For the three of you who care, Berger won the job. Season saved in the desert.)

And for anybody else who thinks punters aren't important, here's what Dr. Z had to say following the Steelers-Dolphins Monday night game:

Every NFL team has now played eight games, meaning the season has reached the halfway point. So this week we're presenting our NFL FanHouse Midseason Midtacular.

Rookie of the Half-Season nominees:

Adrian Peterson, RB, Vikings
Minnesota took Peterson with the seventh-overall pick in April, and that's starting to look like a Tom Brady-in-the-sixth-round type steal. Through eight games, Peterson has 1,036 yards on 158 carries, good for a eye-popping 6.6 average. But it gets better: Peterson has only started five games, has five times rushed for more than 100 yards, and twice rushed for more than 200 yards (including last week's 296-yard effort against the Chargers).

Marshawn Lynch, RB, Bills
Buffalo was in the market for a franchise running back after sending that fraud Willis McGahee to the Ravens for draft picks. In hindsight, Marv Levy comes off smelling like roses on that deal. Lynch has been the starter from Week 1, rushing for 690 yards on 117 carries (3.9 average), including five touchdowns. He also threw a touchdown against the Bengals, but I don't know if that's more sad than impressive. Lynch would likely lead the Rookie of the Year voting if not for Purple Jesus up above.
Sorry, No Photos

CBSSports.com's Pete Prisco obviously has no idea what special teams is all about. I suspect the former Jags beat writer is focused more on Jacksonville's 2007 fourth-round pick, Adam Podlesh, but to make the blanket statement that using a draft-pick on a punter is a waste is, well, dumb. Especially when he includes Pittsburgh's rookie fourth-rounder, Daniel Sepulveda in the conversation:

Those two punters are near the bottom of the league rankings after two weeks. Adam Podlesh ... is averaging 38.3 per punt to place him 24th in the league. Daniel Sepulveda is averaging 37.7 yards per punt for the Steelers, placing him 28th, but he has five of his seven punts downed inside the 20, which isn't bad.

First, according to NFL.com, it's worse than Prisco writes -- Podlesh ranks 31st in average yards per punt, and Sepulveda ranks 32nd. But here's the thing: Sepulveda's net average is ... 37.7. You don't need to be Norman Einstein to know that that means he's yet to have a punt returned (seven punts, six downed, one fair-caught).

Also, of his five punts inside the 20, there have been zero touchbacks. Compare that to Chris "I've NEVER had a punt blocked!!" Gardocki, who had punted 11 times inside the 20 last season, and had four touchbacks.

Prisco's not impressed by fancy numbers, though: "So why draft punters high? You can find them without wasting draft picks on them." Ah, yes, because Pittsburgh has had so much success with their second-day picks in recent drafts. It's a completely insane idea to take a player who not only will make the team, but will start. Stupid, stupid Steelers.

What a difference an off-season of tedious, over-the-top special-teams drills can make. The Pittsburgh Steelers ranked 30th in 2006, according to Football Outsiders. Thanks to a perfect storm of crappy special teams play that included Chris Gardocki setting a modern-day record for 25-yard punts and touchback, the returners leading the league in fumbles and muffs, and the coverage units not covering much of anything, the Steelers finished ahead of only the Rams and Cardinals. Yeah, not good.

After hiring a new head coach, one who believes "teams" are very important -- important enough to devote three morning practices a week throughout training camp to just the coverage and return game -- Pittsburgh saw the fruits of their labor on Sunday. As FanHouser J.J. Cooper wrote, against the Browns, kicker Jeff Reed had three touchbacks, punter Daniel Sepulveda had four punts downed inside the 20, and the coverage team smothered Joshua Cribbs all day.

But it gets better: Football Outsiders' Week 1 ratings are out and the Steelers rank 8th in special teams, 8th in offense, and 1st in defense. Yeah, that the season is only a game old, and the opponent, the Browns, would struggled to make the Division I-AA playoffs, isn't lost on me. Still, when the Steelers' special teams shows any signs of improvement, it's worth noting. The sooner we can put Ricardo Colclough and Chris Gardocki behind us, the better.

As several Pittsburgh papers note today, the Steelers special teams rewarded head coach Mike Tomlin for spending time with them. New punter Daniel Sepulveda put four punts inside the 20, something Chris Gardocki did only 11 times all last year. Dangerous returner Josh Cribbs got the chance to only return four of seven kicks and none of the Steelers six punts.

When you consider that kicker Jeff Reed had only four touchbacks all of last season (in 76 kicks) and has never had more than seven in a season, it's hard to argue with the results. Reed told the Post-Gazette that he didn't gain leg strength over the offseason, but that he has a better approach on kickoffs these days. Like a golfer who gains distance when they stop trying to muscle up on their drives, Reed says he's gained distance by trusting his leg.

I think it says something about the state of Baylor University football when ESPN.com's newest blog dude, Matt Mosley, writes:

I had the pleasure of watching [Steelers' fourth-round pick and Baylor grad Daniel] Sepulveda punt in person at least 12 or 13 times, and he may be the most exciting prospect to come along since Buzz Sawyer. And don't ever forget Pete Rutter's fine work.

To be fair, Mosley covered the Cowboys for the Dallas Morning News and graduated from Baylor, so there are two good reasons why he's seen so much mediocre football (and explains why he saw so much punting). His post was in response to the Steelers finally released 37-year-old Chris Gardocki. And it signals Pittsburgh's recommitment (yeah, I made it up) to special teams. Or something.

As Mosley points out, some Steelers fans thought taking a punter in the fourth round was dumb (because Pittsburgh has such a glowing track record with recent second-day picks), but Gardocki was a third-rounder. Yes, he basically quit trying sometime during the 2004 season, but he played for 17 years, so he was doing something right. While I was all for Pittsburgh taking a flyer on Sepulveda in the fourth, and that a third-round pick seems kinda steep for a punter, despite his last few seasons in Pittsburgh, Gardocki had a pretty good career.

He averaged more than 43 yards a punt eight different times, fewer than a quarter of his punts inside the 20 went for touchbacks five different times (and twice he had that number below 10 percent), and ... wait for it ... he has yet to have a punt blocked.* The good news, as the FanHouse 's JJ Cooper points out, is that now "we won't have to hear about Gardocki's record of punts without a block in each and every Steelers game this year." True that.

* Although during the 2005 regular season loss to the Jaguars, Gardocki had a punt blocked. Because it went past the line of scrimmage, it doesn't "officially" count. But I know the truth.

From the what took so long file, the Steelers cut Chris Gardocki on Wednesday, ending his three-year stint with the Steelers.

The good news is that new punter Daniel Sepulveda had a bigger leg, which should pay off in better hang times and better net averages.

The better news is that, as you probably know by now, Sepulveda is an actual football player--a former walk-on linebacker who enjoys jacking up return men.



But the best news is that this means we won't have to hear about Gardocki's record of punts without a block in each and every Steelers game this year.