Grading special teams positions for the Atlanta Falcons in 2022
Grading the Atlanta Falcons’ main special teams positions in 2022
Following our grades of the Atlanta Falcons offensive and defensive positions over this past season, we will wrap it up by grading the team’s primary special teams positions.
Read: Grading the Falcons offensive positions | Grading the Falcons defensive positions.
As a whole unit, the Falcons’ special teams were among the best in the NFL. Pro Football Focus actually had them tied with two other teams (Colts & Titans) with the fourth-highest grade at 90.3. The Lions came in first with the Commanders and Titans tying for second. Marquice Williams, the special teams coach, did an excellent job with his unit.
Now let’s get into the grades for the Falcons’ four main special teams positions. We will just stick to grading the four main positions (punter, kicker, kick returner, & punt returner).
Punter
- Bradley Pinion
Bradley Pinion came to the Falcons without much competition and ended up being the team’s punter through the entire season.
It is a pretty straightforward position, so we will just go over some of his stats and where they rank amongst the rest of the NFL (minimum of 10 games played – 31 qualified):
- Punts: 62 (19th)
- Punt yds: 2845 (22nd)
- Yds per punt: 45.9 (T23rd)
- Net Punt yds: 2555 (20th)
- Net yds per punt: 41.2 (T16th)
- Long punt: 73 (T7th)
- Touchbacks: 2 (T4th)
- Touchback %: 3.2% (4th)
- Inside 20: 23 (T19th)
- Inside 20 %: 37.1% (17th)
The stats that are most important are net yards per punt, touchback percentage, and inside 20 percentage. Net yards are a good indication because it has a lot to do with hangtime, in addition to how far you punt it.
As you can see, Pinion’s net yards and inside 20 percentage are not great. The one thing he has going for him is his ability to keep the ball out of the endzone. It was an average year, at best, for the Falcons punter.