1) Introduction: Signed to a reserve/future contract in January of 2010, Tim Mathsay came to the Packers as a former All-State High School soccer player, who both punted and kicked off for the Kentucky Wildcats. One thing he had never done, however, was punt in an NFL game. He was brought in to compete with another punter who had never had a sniff of the NFL, Chris Bryan, the Australian Rules footballer. To this scenario I, like most Packers fans, could only shake my head and ask, “Really Ted?”
2) Profile
Tim Masthay
Position: P
Height: 6-2 Weight: 198 lbs.
Born: March 16, 1987 in Pittsburgh, PA
College: Kentucky (school history)
3) Expectations coming into the season for that player: The expectations for Masthay were pretty low; be better than Jeremy Kapinos was and don’t cost the Packers any games. The knock on Masthay was that he had a slow get-off and was inconsistant, pretty typical for a young inexperienced punter. After beating out Bryan in a tight pre-season battle, Mathsay had improved his mechanics but still had much work to do on his inconsistancy.
4) Player’s highlights/lowlights: Over the first half of the season, Masthay was meeting his low expectations, doing a pedestrian job without making any glaring mistakes. And then came the Jets game. I was at that game, and really couldn’t believe what I was seeing. The Packers had somehow coaxed Ray Guy out of retirement.
Masthay punted 8 times that game, only one was returned (0 yds.) and five were downed inside the 20 yard line. Mike McCarthy called it the finest punting performance he had ever seen and Masthay was named NFC Special Teams Player of the Week. Masthay had almost as good a game in the NFC Championship against Chicage, once again dropping 5 of 8 punts inside the 20.
While Masthay didn’t have any glaring lowlights, he was in a bit of a funk (as were the rest of the Packers) for the Miami and Washington games. masthay had only a 35yd net average for those games, allowing 5 of his 11 punts to be returned for a total of 70 yards.
5) Player’s contribution to the overall team success: Nobody appreciates the value of a good punter and winning the field position game more than I do. I have been told by many people how it’s a different league and punters don’t matter any more. Bull. Over the second half of the season, Masthay was as important to the Packers as any other special teams player.
6) Player’s contributions during the 6-win end-of-season run: Significant. His perfomance in both games against Chicago insured the Packers would hold on for their two 7-point wins over the Bears. He kept the Bear’s dangerous returners from hurting the Packers, as he did in the Eagles game, as well.
Season Report Card:
(A-) Level of expectations met during the season
(B) Contributions to team’s overall success.
(A-) Contributions to team’s success during the playoff run (last 6 games)
Overall Grade for the year: B+
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Jersey Al Bracco is the founder and editor of AllGreenBayPackers.com, and the co-founder of Packers Talk Radio Network. He can be heard as one of the Co-Hosts on Cheesehead Radio and is the Green Bay Packers Draft Analyst for Drafttek.com.
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I was worried at the beginning of the season that the Packers were going to be saddled with another “Bad” punter. How wrong I was. It didn’t start well, but as the season progressed it was obvious that he was getting better and better. Another position filled by a “Nobody” with a great deal of success.
OK, let’s get some of that mojo going for the Oline. Bulaga was a good start. More please!
Yes, more please indeed…
Masthsay improved every year in college and did the same in the pros. let’s hope it continues…
How much of the decision to keep Masthay was Slocum’s, and how much does it influence in his retainment, despite the remanining catastrophe that ST has been under him?
THAT… is a very good question. My guess would be that McCarthy let him make the final call on which to keep…
the “guy” was part of the collapse in the first bear game, but he outright won three games: jets, bears two times, and was crucial to the win in the eagle game. add in too that the much maligned bush seemed always to down those punts inside the 20.
Hey, someone else who appreciates the effect a punter can have on a game!
Masthay is a perfect example of how fans often have an itchy trigger finger.
No long into the season, Masthay’s performance was being compared to Bryan’s in Tampa Bay, and his numbers were actually not as good. People were questioning whether the right move was made in which punter they kept.
Jump ahead to the rest of the season, and suddenly it’s quite clear the coaches made the right choice. Masthay looks to be the long-term punter Green Bay has been desperately searching for, while Bryan was cut mid-season by the Bucs.