Tim Masthay, punter
FOX Sports Wisconsin's Paul Imig gives an in-depth statistical analysis and film study of every Packers player in his annual offseason checkup. You can find every report here.
Season stats (playoffs included): 18 games; 56 punts, 2,431 total yards (43.4 average), 2,132 net yards (38.0 net average), 14 downed inside the 20-yard line, four touchbacks
ProFootballFocus.com season rating: Minus-13.2 (Worst in the NFL among qualified punters)
Best game: Week 5 win over Minnesota; six punts, 304 total yards with 275 net yards (45.8 net average); 1.0 PFF rating
Worst game: Week 15 loss at Buffalo; six punts, 257 total yards with 182 net yards (30.3 net average); minus-3.8 PFF rating
Expectations at the start of the season: Medium
Expectations were . . . Not Met
Looking live: Tim Masthay has never been among the NFL's best punters. Judging by the ProFootballFocus ratings system, Masthay ranked between 17th and 26th in the league rankings among punters between 2011 and 2013. The trend had been going in the wrong direction, too, for Masthay, who went from 17th in 2011 to 21st in 2012 to 26th in 2013.
Masthay hasn't had competition in training camp since winning the job in 2010. I wrote in the special teams training camp preview that, "at 27 years old, it would take a 2012-(Mason)-Crosby-esque season for Masthay's job to be in any danger in the coming seasons." Those words eventually become quite interesting for Masthay.
Masthay struggled a bit punting the ball in preseason, but nothing that raised many red flags at the time. Those red flags would be coming out soon, though.
Upon further review: Masthay's 2014 season was by far the worst of his career. The trend of him falling in the wrong direction of the league rankings continued, and he hit rock bottom. Masthay finished dead last in the ProFootballFocus ratings system, and it wasn't even close in terms of any other punter drawing nearly the same negative assessment. One major part of that was Masthay statistically finishing 30th out of 32 punters in net yards average.
There were a couple memorable moments from Masthay's season, however. The Week 4 game in Chicago created NFL history when neither the Packers nor the Bears punted. It was the first time that had happened since 1992.
"Late in the fourth quarter, I realized it was definitely a possibility," Masthay said after that game. "Mason and I were talking on the sideline; I knew I had never been a part of it. I knew there couldn't be too many. I didn't know there was only one other in NFL history, but I figured it was a rarity."
Against all probability, Masthay was then part of a second no-punt game last season, marking just the third time in league history. The second time was Week 8 in New Orleans, but this was a less ideal circumstance for the Packers, who lost by 21 to the Saints.
Masthay's struggles became most costly for Green Bay during the Week 15 game in Buffalo. One of the most important plays of the game (a game the Packers lost in an upset, 21-13) was when Masthay's short punt was fielded and returned 75 yards for a touchdown by Marcus Thigpen. That loss cost Green Bay the No. 1 seed and home-field advantage in its eventual NFC Championship Game showdown with the Seattle Seahawks.
There were many issues for Green Bay's special teams in 2014, and the sum of those resulted in coordinator Shawn Slocum's firing after the season. Masthay was a significant part of those issues.
Overall 2014 grade: D-minus
Status for 2015: Ninety percent chance of being on the Packers' active roster to begin the 2015 regular season. Remember the "it would take a 2012-Crosby-esque season for Masthay's job to be in any danger in the coming seasons" sentence above? Masthay had that type of year. One week after the season was over, Green Bay signed punter Cody Mandell to give Masthay competition in the upcoming July training camp. It's Crosby circa 2013 all over again, but this time with the punting position. Ted Thompson's strategy of bringing in competition for Crosby worked out extremely well for the Packers and their longtime kicker. Whether it works for Masthay remains to be seen. It still remains likely that Masthay -- who has two years and $2.9 million remaining on his contract -- returns as the punter in 2015, but he'll have to beat out Mandell to do so.
Next: Outside linebacker Clay Matthews
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