The Steelers are generally known across the league as a bastion of stability. Things don’t really change that often.

3 head coaches in 47 years.

Relatively few changes in coordinators.

Stable.

Yet, there has definitely been at least one position for several seasons has been anything but stable. See if these names ring a bell: Jeremy Kapinos, Daniel Sepulveda, Drew Butler, Zoltan Mesko, Paul Ernster, Mat McBriar, and Mitch Berger.

Let me throw one more name on that list: Jordan Berry.

Yep, those are punters.

To be more specific, those are the punters the Steelers have employed since 2007 (when they drafted Sepulveda in the 7^th round).

In 9 years we’ve gone through 8 different punters (technically you could say we had 10, because Ben Roethlisberger punted 5 times during that time frame, and Shaun Suisham punted 3 times).

That is not exactly what you would call a model of consistency.

Okay Nation, I know, punters (or kickers in general) are a fickle folk. They come. They go.

They mostly do okay, but apparently punting is much more difficult to stay consistent at than you’d expect!

For the Steelers, their longest tenured punter remains Bobby Walden, who played from 1968 – 1977 (10 seasons).

The next longest? Josh Miller (8 seasons) from 1996 -2003.

Since 2003, only Chris Gardocki was capable of remaining the starting punter for more than 2 seasons (he had 3).

Yes, Daniel Sepulveda was on the team for 5 seasons, but only active for 4 of them. During those 4 seasons he only managed to appear in 52 games (including playoffs). He tore his ACL following his rookie year and missed all of 2008. He also missed time with a knee injury in 2010.

For five seasons, the Steelers had to maintain a second punter for at least part of, if not an entire season.

Let’s face it – punting has been a problem.  At least until recently, as Jordan Berry seems to have come into his own.

So far this season (if you ignore the Miami debacle, where nobody seemed capable of performing up to par) he’s only had a yards-per-punt average less than 46 once (against KC, where his average was 42.20). He had a 79-yard punt last season, and a 63-yarder this season.

Since 2007 the best punting seasons have belonged to Sepulveda (46.1 in 2011 and 45.5 in 2010, albeit both were in injury shortened seasons).

Those numbers only tell part of the story, because they don’t tell you what the net was (in these cases, 39.1 in both years). That’s not that bad, but again, it doesn’t tell the entire tale, because Sepulvada was hurt both years. I think most of us can agree that net yards and the number of punts that get downed inside the 20 are the best indicators of how well a punter is doing.

Below is a chart showing the average yards per punt, and net yards per punt for the past 9 years (2016 is projections based on so far).

What we see from this chart is that over the past 9 seasons there have been a lot of variances in the quality of our punting. What stands out (in an admittedly small sample size) is that the last two years are fairly (dare I say it) consistent.

Look at the ups-and-downs from 2007-14: it’s like a roller coaster (which is an apt description for those of us who suffered through it!)

What I think Jordan Berry may provide, and appears to be able of providing, is what has been missing for a long while: consistency at the punting position.

This is no trivial thing.

Punting is a weapon when you have the right punter.

It can flip field position.

It can pin opposing teams deep in their own end of the field, allowing the defense an opportunity to potentially create a splash play/turnover/score, or at least give the offense excellent field position if they can get a stop.

It can even flip momentum.

Say that we get stopped in our own end of the field, and we needed to put a drive together. The team could be a little down; but if the punter wallops a 70-yard kick, pinning the other team in their own end, and totally flipping the field on them, it can also flip momentum!

Punting is important. It may not be sexy. It may not get the attention that other positions get.

But that doesn’t mean it’s not important; and Jordan Berry is a weapon.

Against the Jets he only punted 3 times, but each time he dropped the ball inside the 20.

Every single time.

Better yet – the Jets totaled exactly 0 yards in returns.

Nada.

That’s like a perfect game for a punter: no return yards and every single punt inside the 20.

If you don’t think that was important, go back and watch that game again. Field position was big, and those punts contributed to a Steelers win.

In every single game, other than Washington, Berry has pinned the opponent deep at least once. It’s not his fault that we weren’t always able to take advantage of that – the man is doing his job.

5 times against the Bengals. 5 times! With only 19 yards in return yardage.

That’s crazy good man!

The point of all this is simple. As Joe Greene once said about Franco Harris – “I think we got one!” (of course in this case I mean a punter, not a running back – that was clear on that fake field goal!).

Berry may not be Ray Guy, but we don’t need him to be that. We need consistency. Dependability.

We need someone who can get us out of a hole if we need it, and who has the ability to pin the other team back.

We haven’t had that kind of weapon in a while, and it really looks like we have it now.

Jordan Berry – punter.

Weapon.

Fear his leg.