Since being selected in the seventh round of the 2021 NFL Draft by the Pittsburgh Steelers, P Pressley Harvin III has been largely disappointing. His up-and-down season has mostly been down as of late, and the punting unit has contributed to the Pittsburgh Steelers getting crushed in the field position battle all year. He is currently the fourth-worst punter in the NFL with a 39.2-yard net punting average. Net punting is the punting yardage minus the return yardage. This measures multiple aspects of a punter’s performance, such as his hang time and placement influence the number by limiting return opportunities.
His 39.2 net punting average this season is down from 41.1 in 2022 and up from 38.0 his rookie season in 2021. He has never finished in the top half of the league and is on his way to a second bottom-five punting performance for a full season. Still, with all of that in mind, Harvin is actually the second-best punter for that metric in Steelers history with a 39.4 career net punting average.
The best was P Jordan Berry, who was with the team from 2015-20. His net average was 39.9. Still not a great number, but the best in franchise history. For comparison, Braden Mann, whom the Steelers had in training camp to compete with Harvin, is boasting a 42.8 net average this season with the Philadelphia Eagles.
There are a few more stats that matter to punting other than net average. Sometimes punters are asked to punt on a short field to pin the opposition deep in its own territory. Harvin does that at a league-average rate. This season, he has pinned teams inside their own 20-yard line 39.4 percent of the time. He is also slightly above the league average for punts that result in a touchback. Of his 66 punts this season, five have resulted in a touchback, or 7.6 percent of the time. Harvin is trailing Berry in all three of those major stat categories for their careers.
Punters have generally seen an increase in performance over the years. This era has some of the best punting of all time. Of the top 50 punters in net average in league history, 16 are active players. The Steelers have not had a top-tier punter relative to the rest of the league in a very long time. Following a season of regression for Harvin and given that the Steelers already brought in competition last offseason, it will be interesting to see if the team moves on this upcoming offseason. At the very least, there will be more competition brought in.
