25 May 2021
Our second NFL punter interview was with Lions All-Pro Jack Fox. We enjoyed hearing about his journey to the NFL, and weâre excited to share it with you!
The Punt Runts: What was it like transitioning from small-scale college football at Rice to the NFL, and then becoming sort of a phenom at the beginning of this year?
Jack Fox: It was really hard. So my first year coming out of college, I was signed by the Chiefs. I was competing with Dustin Colquitt, and I just wasnât ready mentally or physically. My operation times werenât fast enough, so the coaches were constantly telling me to hurry up, and I wasnât punting very well. Mentally, I didnât really know if I really belonged. First of all, anywhere in the NFL, itâs hard to play as a rookie, but especially in Kansas City, when you have Travis Kelce, Mahomes, all those guys. Theyâre killing it, and Iâm like, shit, do I really belong in the same locker room as these guys?
So I really struggled my first year, and then after I got cut from Kansas City in the preseason, I just went home and just started punting by myself and whatever, and kind of figured it out mentally. I was punting with more of a mindset of just trying to kick the ball as hard as I can, and like, I donât care if I mess up. You know, if I go down, Iâm gonna go down swinging.
So then I had a workout with the Lions the Monday after Thanksgiving. I went in with that mindset, like, Iâm just going to kick as hard as I can, and I punted really well, and they signed me to the practice squad, and I was on the practice squad for the last four weeks of that season. That made me feel comfortable being in the locker room with the Lions, knowing the coaches, so I think that helped me out a lot.
The Punt Runts: What was it like to then, the next season, win a punting competition in training camp?
Jack Fox: The next step was crazy, with quarantine and everything. I went home to St. Louis in the offseason, and my coach I was working with in St Louis just had a baby, so he was quarantined, and wasnât doing anything outside of his house. So at that time Iâm like, what am I going to do? Iâve got a couple punting friends, [Raiders punter] AJ Cole, [Chargers punter] Ty Long, and [free agent] Tyler Newsome, and they were all in Birmingham, Alabama working together. I saw they posted a story on instagram of them punting together, and I remember being on the practice field in St Louis punting by myself, mad that I donât know what Iâm going to do.
And so I call AJ and Iâm like, dude, can I come down to Birmingham and train with you guys for a little bit? He was like yeah, of course, and I went down there. I slept on the couch for a week, and I realized that was the place I had to be. So I ended up buying an air mattress and living in their living room on an air mattress for like three months last offseason. We just had a small apartment, and I appreciated it, they just made me pay like 200 bucks a month to live in the living room.
And it was really good. We had a jugs machine in the backyard to catch snaps, it was 100% punting all the time during quarantine. We had nothing else to do anyway. Really just competing against other guys that are really good like that, kind of helped me mentally feel like I belong, and I can compete against whoever. So that really helped me win the competition in Detroit.
The Punt Runts: When you say youâre competing against guys like this, obviously itâs not as if you were a wide receiver going against cornerbacks, so what is that competition like?
Jack Fox: Yeah, first of all, when you go out there and punt, even if youâre not directly competing, you can kind of tell whoâs beating who. And we get hang time, distance, all of that.
But we also play games - so like, every day, we play âforty-five four fiveâ. If you hit it 45 yards, 4.5 second hang time, and outside of the numbers, thatâs a point, and itâs maybe first guy to five points. So once you start competing like that, and at the end of the game maybe someone has five, someone has four, and another guy has one, you can really start exposing guys. Like, you donât want to be the guy who has one.
And that was really cool, being around that many good punters, because thereâll be days, most days, Iâd be the third best guy out there. And then Iâd be like, shit, I really got to work on this stuff.
The Punt Runts: What was the biggest improvement for you during that quarantine time?
Jack Fox: I think my hands got a lot better. People donât think about punting using your hands a lot, but just catching the ball and getting the ball from your hands to your feet in the right spot every time, itâs so important. You canât hit a good punt consistently if your hands arenât good, and I donât think my hands were consistently fast enough and smooth enough before the quarantine. But like I said, we had a jugs machine, so Iâd catch jugs every day. I was just more confident, catching the ball and setting it and getting it to my foot every time.
The Punt Runts: What was a punter competition like in camp? Was it different from those competitions among punters?
Jack Fox: Yeah, I think different coaches do it different ways. When I competed against [now Eagles punter] Arryn [Siposs] in Detroit, they would chart all of our punts from practice and then write them out. Weâd get a sheet of paper with all the numbers on it before every practice, saying who had better hang time, distance, operation time, direction. They made it known who was beating who, throughout camp. They were really transparent about that.
The Punt Runts: Tell us a little bit about how many different punts you have, and whatâs on your mind when youâre walking onto the field, what youâre trying to do.
Jack Fox: In the open field, I have a spiral right - last season I mostly went spiral right - or I do a kind of, walk right across my body and try to spiral to the left. Spiral right was probably my most consistent punt, but you canât go one direction every time. So like, if I saw two guys on the right gunner, we would try to go left. My swinging across my body punt is more of an all-or-nothing type punt. Like, if I hit it well, itâs going to go 60+ yards, like five seconds hang time. But if I donât, itâs going to be a tumbler that goes 35 yards.
Which isnât always a bad thing. You obviously want good hang time, good distance, but if you hit it bad enough, the ballâs gonna hit the ground and roll forward. The worst punts in my mind are like, 40-45 yards, 3.5-4.0 seconds hang time, because those, theyâre going to catch the ball, and theyâre gonna have plenty of space to return. But if you hit a 30 yard, like, 3.3, theyâre not gonna touch it ⌠itâs just too shitty of a punt. I donât think coaches want to hear that, but thatâs just kinda what it is.
The Punt Runts: Do you have a favorite punt from last season?
Jack Fox: My second punt, in my second game, against Green Bay, it was the end of the first half, and we were sacked or something inside our five yard line. At this point, I was still⌠I was nervous every game, but I was super nervous in the second game. Especially without a preseason, I felt like I had to prove myself a little more.
Going into the punt, I wanted to go right, but they had two guys in the right, and I hadnât hit a crossfield punt, a walk right hit left, to this point. And I was like, screw it, Iâm gonna do it. And I did it, and it was a good punt, fair catch. It was the biggest sigh of relief punt Iâve had, so thatâs probably my favorite one. I had a few favorites, and a few that I wanted back.
Note: That punt was, in fact, excellent. It was especially good on account of being a fair catch; it had a SHARP (Gross-based) of 107, e.g. 7% longer than average, but had a whopping SHARPnet of 137! It also clocked in with a Punt Runts EPA of 1.04, which is insane, though it was actually only Foxâs 4th best punt by EPA. Watch the punt here or read more about our metrics here
The Punt Runts: One of our big things in making our metrics is trying to âexonerateâ punters for long returns. What are your thoughts about that? Do you ever have a returner rip off a long return and youâre like, man, I did everything I could there, that wasnât my fault.
Jack Fox: Yeah, absolutely. Like, part of itâs your fault, it can be the punterâs fault, but it also might not be.
Statistically, my best punt of the season was against the Saints, and they have Deonte Harris, heâs a beast. I hit like a 57 yard, 5.4 second hang time, like, my best punt of the season, and it was like two yards from the sideline. And he shook the first guy, our gunner missed a tackle right away, and he ran like 25 yards up the sideline. That was my longest return of the yearâŚon my best punt of the year. I mean, obviously if you kick a ball right down the middle, like, thatâs on the punter.
Note: This punt had a SHARPnet of 79.8 (way below average!), but a SHARP-RERUN (adjusting for return) of 104.4. This is a superb example of the kind of punt that inspired our RERUN metric. Watch it here.
The Punt Runts: Whatâs a misconception people have about punters?
Jack Fox: I want people to realize that weâre not really the weirdest position on the field. Like, personality-wise weâre not the weirdest person on the fieldâŚthatâs the long snapper. Theyâre the weirdest by far. Weâre not like the coolest out there, but weâre not the weirdest. So thatâs what I want people to know.
I think the coolest thing about punters, especially in the NFL, is like, we all, for the most part, root for each other. We say we donât pray on other peopleâs downfallsâŚthat sounds super corny, but I never root against somebody. First of all, I think thatâs bad Karma, and second of all, I donât want anybody rooting against me. Everybodyâs been there, weâve all had a bad punt.
So even the guys that I donât necessarily hang out with, I never root against them and like, thatâs I think my biggest thing. And I think a lot of us are like that, we all root for each other. We compete against each other, but we all root for each other, and we all know each other.
The Punt Runts: Do you watch football games for the punts?
Jack Fox: Yeah, I do, and thatâs why RedZone sucks
The Punt Runts: BlueZone forever!
Jack Fox: We need a BlueZone. Maybe you guys should do that.
The Punt Runts: Itâs definitely ruined watching football for us, because youâre hoping that every drive stalls out around midfield.
Jack Fox: Yeah, it sucks. And not even around midfield, I wanna see like, long punts. I like the pin-inside-the-five punts too, but I want to see the long punts. Those are more fun to me.
The Punt Runts: Do you have any punter role models?
Jack Fox: Johnny Hekker was my favorite. Iâm from St Louis, and I think he got picked up by the Rams when I was a sophomore in high school, and thatâs right when I got into punting.
He played quarterback in high school, I played quarterback in high school, they ran a bunch of fakes, I havenât run fakes yet, but hopefully one day we do.
The Punt Runts: We have to ask you about the Drunk Jack Fox account, who said recently:
The only thing Iâve been doing this off-season is throwing back beer and single leg squatting on my punting leg so expect big things from me @ThePuntRunts
— Drunk Jack Fox (@DrunkJackyF) May 21, 2021
Can you confirm or deny that?
Jack Fox: I canât confirm or deny, but I have done both. Iâve done more than just those two things, but I have done both of them.
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