With the New England Patriots’ 9th pick (5th round, 163 overall) in the 2019 NFL Draft, the Patriots select Jake Bailey. Punter. Stanford.
College Analysis:
He is a three-time All-Pac-12. He was on the second team in 2017 and 2018 and an honorable mention in 2016. He finished as Stanford’s all-time career leader in punting average with 43.81 average yards per punt. He finished sixth in school history with 185 punts and finished sixth in school history with 8,105 career punt yards. He also recorded the longest punt in school history with an 84-yard punt at Cal on Dec. 1, 2018. His punts are accurate and long.
A key thing to point out is that he is a right-legged punter, the Patriots haven’t seen that in the Bill Belichick era.
Combine Numbers:
Height: 6-foot-1
Weight: 200 pounds
40-yard-dash: 4.72 seconds (unofficial)
Vertical jump: 33.0 inches
Broad jump: 117.0 inches
For a punter, these really don’t matter very much. The true things that do matter for him are placement and distance, which are two of his strengths.
Biggest Strengths on his Scouting Report:
“Possesses plenty of leg with ability to hit it 60 yards in-air without much strain”
“Has NFL hang time that was best in college in 2018”
“Has skill as a directional punter and hits it where he aims it”
“Handles kickoff duties with impressive 82 percent touchback percentage”
I could include more strengths that were on his scouting report, as he can punt extremely well. As his scouting report states, he was kicking like a professional punter in college. He pins the ball deep in his endzone, which allows the defense to have a better chance of getting a stop. Pairing him with the established elite Patriots special teams could be a dynamic duo in the AFC East.
Biggest Weaknesses on his Scouting Report:
“High number of touchbacks as a punter”
“Uses flip-flop technique to pooch, but will put too much sauce on his kick.”
It seems as though he does better with longer kicks, and has a lot of touchbacks with his shorter kicks.
Where does he fit in with this team?
The obvious fit for him is to be a challenger to Ryan Allen. Allen just signed a new one-year contract with the Patriots and is coming off a fantastic season. He also is averaging 45.3 yards-per-punt in his career. Bailey averaged 43.81 yards-per-punt last season, so there’s not too much of a difference between them.
The Patriots traded up to get Bailey, so this may indicate that they have more interest in him than previously thought. For now, I think that they’ll keep him on the practice squad and if he is competing well for the punting position he could possibly beat out Ryan Allen for the position in the coming years. At 29 years old, Allen could be thinking about retiring soon.
The Patriots could have their punter of the future in Jake Bailey.
