The Pittsburgh Steelers’ first reported signing of the legal tampering period – putting aside the Russell Wilson news that broke the night before – was agreeing to a three-year deal with veteran punter Cameron Johnston. And it is glorious. If there was a move made for me, it’s for all of us to discuss punters.
So let’s talk about Johnston. What he’ll offer this team as it tries to finally find consistency and production at punter.
Johnston’s Background
Quick biography on him. An Aussie, Johnston is from Victoria, Australia, playing in the Australian Rules Football League for a time (here’s a photo of him). A fourth-round selection in the 2011 AFL Draft, he didn’t stick there and signed up for ProKick Australia. Sending out audition tapes, he caught the eye of Ohio State special teams coach Kerry Coombs after losing recruit Johnny Townsend to Florida. Coombs brought him over to America to play for the Buckeyes.
Johnston, now 32, had a great college career with a single-season best 46.9 yards per punt as a senior in 2016. He was a rugby punter, rolling out before booting the ball away on open-air punts but he could also take a more traditional approach and drop like NFL punters do today. He is a right-footed punter.
After going undrafted in 2017, he signed with the Philadelphia Eagles. Failing to make the 53-man roster as a rookie, he signed a Futures Deal after the season and was carried into 2018. There, he replaced the retired Donnie Jones with a great summer, including this wicked 81-yard punt against, you guessed it, the Steelers. It was wiped out by penalty but still, an awesome punt with distance that didn’t roll into the end zone.
He served as the Eagles’ punter from 2018 to 2020 before signing with the Houston Texans ahead of the 2021 season. That year, he led the league in punts (81) and total punting yards (4,108). Not marks you want as a team but records all the same. In 2022, he averaged 48.1 yards per punt and in 2023, he had a career-best 43.7 average yards of net. Monday, he reportedly agreed to a three-year, $9 million deal with Pittsburgh.
The Tape – Punting
Cameron Johnston has a big leg and the ball jumps off his foot. It’s an effortless style that still has some rugby flair. Johnston doesn’t get full leg extension on most of his punts, especially coffin corner/pin-deep ones, using a quicker and shortened stroke to get the ball away. He generates great backspin and is a very accurate punter who rarely outkicks his target. Some examples.
But he can let loose in open-air situations. He flashes a booming leg with a ton of power, none more evident than on these punts against the Carolina Panthers. Tremendous distance on the second one that resulted in a 69-yard net, an absurd number.
Johnston shows good hands and the ability to catch the football from different angles. Probably in part due to his Aussie Rules background. Watch him cleanly snag this low snap and get it away without much issue.
He has not served as a kickoff specialist.
The Tape – Holding
Like every other punter in football, Cameron Johnston serves as his team’s holder. In the tape I watched, his holds were clean and efficient. He didn’t have any particularly poor snaps to deal with in the tape study I did, but he quickly got the ball down with the correct lean and can adjust the laces if needed before the kicker swings through.
The Tape – Trick Plays
Can Johnston execute a trick play? Probably not. Aussie punters aren’t known for their arms. He’s never thrown a pass in the NFL and though he is marked down for an incompletion at Ohio State, it came on a botched field goal that Johnston just dumped away. It came in 2015 against Hawaii, a clip you can see here.
He also had a fake punt attempt in college, an unsuccessful run against Michigan. But as long as he can punt well, you can live without the threat of trickery.
By The Numbers…
– Johnston’s 2023 gross average was 47.7 yards. The Steelers’ franchise record for gross average in a season is 47.0, set by Bobby Joe Green in 1961. Meaning, no Steeler has ever done what Johnston did last year. Pittsburgh’s post-merger high mark is Daniel Sepulevda’s 46.1 in 2011. While it’s fair to note on the whole, punting averages have increased over time, the Steelers’ top two marks came well over a decade and 60 years ago.
– In each of the last three years, Johnston’s ranked in the NFL’s top 10 in “inside the 20” percentage. He’s been over 40 percent each year from 2021 to 2023.
– Over the last two years, Johnston’s also been top 10 in the lowest touchback rates. There’s nothing Mike Tomlin loathes more than touchbacks. Johnston’s sat at exactly 4.5 percent the last three seasons. Pressley Harvin III’s been above seven percent the past two years.
– If you’re into advanced punting analytics, and I hope that you are, Johnston had the seventh-best punting EPA in 2023. That was second-best of any pending free agent punter this year, only trailing Arizona’s Blake Gillikin. Comparatively, Harvin was only better than two punters, putting them on opposite ends of the spectrum.
Yes pic.twitter.com/RT4OIQN28J
— Puntalytics (@ThePuntRunts) March 11, 2024
– If there’s one notable statistical issue in Johnston’s game, it’s his hangtime. It’s consistently one of the lowest in football, something that’s plagued him since college. His rugby style likely has something to do with it and it hasn’t impacted his net average much, but the numbers are the numbers. Per Pro Football Focus, here are his hangtimes and rankings.
2023 – 4.28 seconds (tied 20th)
2022 – 4.23 seconds (tied 25th)
2021 – 4.14 seconds (tied 26th)
2020 – 4.33 seconds (21st)
2019 – 4.22 seconds (28th)
2018 – 4.15 seconds (30th)
Even dating back to college, as Lance Zierlein noted in his scouting report, Johnston never had a season hangtime average of at least four seconds at Ohio State. Never been his strength and even Harvin had consistently better hangtimes, routinely around top 10.
Final Thoughts
Overall, it’s not surprising to see the Steelers target a veteran punter. It was one of my most confident claims in my free agency predictions. Of course, Pittsburgh was going to add a punter someway and somehow, and a proven vet made more sense than a rookie who costs draft capital and comes with more uncertainty. This was a good group of free agent punters and they’re cheap to sign. He’s a top-five punter at $3 million per season.
Cameron Johnston has a strong leg and is hyper-accurate with his placement. He puts the ball where he wants it to go. A lack of hangtime is his biggest drawback but his net numbers have remained strong in spite of it and his rugby style is the reason why. On tape, he was the thing Harvin wasn’t. Consistent. And there’s value in that. A solid signing.
