Pewter Report readers – y’all are a different breed. Sure, you show up to the site to learn about second-round defensive tackles. But you and I both know you stay for the nuanced punter analysis.

And so, being a man of the people, that’s just what I am going to give you! Today we grind the tape on new Buccaneers punter Jake Camarda.

Before we get to the tape, I think it’s best we cover a few things. First, what do you look for when scouting a punter? Well, the way I see it there are four things I am looking for.

Georgia P Jake Camarda – Photo courtesy of Georgia

First, is power. A good punter has to be able to help flip a field when necessary.

The second, is directional placement. There are certain returners you just don’t want to have the ball in their hands, so it is important you can kick away from them.

The third is hang time. Can you hit your distance with the ball in the air long enough for your coverage team to get there on time?

The last, and this may be the most important, is control. It’s all well and good if you can boot it 60 yards, but can you gear down and put up a 28-yarder that pins a team back to its 5-yard line when the situation calls for it?

Meet PINYA

What is PINYA? Glad you asked. PINYA is a brand-new stat I am making up to help us understand what Camarda does really, really well. It is my hope it gives you a better idea of a punter’s value beyond the mundane “net average punt.” Let’s start with what it stands for: “Percent of Ideal Net Yards Achieved.”

Now let me explain it. A punter’s ideal outcome on any given kick is for the opposing team to start their next drive at their own 1-yard line. Therefore, we can determine the “ideal yards” for each individual punt by calculating the number of net yards it would take to the opposition’s 1-yard line. From there we simply divide the number of net yards achieved on the punt into the ideal number of net yards.

For example, if a team is punting from its own 39-yard line the “ideal yards” would be 60. If the punter boots the ball 49 yards with an 8-yard return the net yardage achieved would be 41. So 41/60 is 68.33%, which would be the PINYA for this punt.

Comparing Camarda’s PINYA

At this point let’s address the elephant in the room. Many of you were calling for a punter to be drafted this past weekend. You just didn’t think it would be Camarda.

“How can we select anyone at that position except Punt God Matt Araiza?”

I heard you. That’s part of the reason I created this stat. Looking at the 2021 season Araiza posted a 69.15% PINYA over 80 punts. What was Camarda’s PINYA? He clocked in a bit lower with a 63.47% mark. Why might the Bucs have selected Camarda over Araiza? Let’s dig a little deeper into PINYA to see if we can’t identify why.

Once I charted every punt from each player, I grouped them into three buckets. Bucket one was punts that were generated from behind their own 21-yard. The second bucket was for punts from between their own 21 and their own 40-yard line. Bucket three was for any punt from his own 41-yard line or better. And that’s where we start to see a divergence in skill sets that may be why the Bucs targeted Camarda.

Araiza completely dominates on long punts, out-scoring Camarda by 24%. But look at the short punt area. Here is where Camarda really shines. He beats out Araiza by almost 8.5%. This is where I think the Bucs may really be valuing Camarda’s game.

Control With Short Punts

Here is Camarda showing out in this area during the national championship game against Alabama.  The line of scrimmage is Alabama’s 44. So ideal net yardage in this situation is 43. Camarda gets the ball high without putting too much oomph into the kick and charging it into the end zone for a touchback. Instead, the ball hangs in the air allowing his coverage team to get into position and break down to down the ball at the 7-yard line. That’s 37 of a possible 43 ideal yards achieved creates a PINYA of 86%.

And it’s not just a one-time thing for Camarda. Here is another one from earlier in the season against South Carolina.

The line of scrimmage here is the South Carolina 43. Camarda brings half power and good hang time to drop the ball at the 9-yard line with his coverage unit waiting at the 1-yard line to receive the ball. Georgia recorded a safety on the very next play.

Don’t Discount The Power

Now I can hear you saying, “But Josh, he doesn’t have the field-flipping leg that Punt God does!” And that may be true, but he isn’t very far off.

What you just saw there was a 64-yard punt on the fly with a back spin that allowed Camarda’s coverage team to down the ball at the Alabama 6-yard line. Camarda has plenty of leg that will translate in the NFL. His career average at Georgia was over 45 yards per punt and he logged at least one 60-plus yard punt in each of his four seasons in Athens, including a career long 68-yard punt in 2021. And if you don’t believe me, take it from a former All-Pro punter.

What Does It All Mean?

It is fair and reasonable to debate the value of a punter in the fourth round of a down draft class. What may be premature is deciding thatthe Bucs picked the wrong punter just because you didn’t hear about him in the pre-draft process. Camarda has more control of his punts and has experience holding for field goals (something Araiza does not have) and doing kickoffs. That’s key because he can completely replace Bradley Pinion, who struggled with injuries last year. Pinion is the Bucs’ kickoff specialist and holder, in addition to being the punter.

It all lines up for the quite reasonable conclusion that the Bucs identified a specific skill set with Camarda. They then identified the player that best exemplified that skill set. And finally, they went after that player – even if the player wasn’t the most obvious choice to the masses.