There weren’t a ton of positives to take away from the Pittsburgh Steelers’ second preseason game Saturday night against the Buffalo Bills. But if you are looking for reasons to be optimistic this morning, I’ve got a big one for you. Cameron Johnston wasn’t just as advertised – he was better than advertised.
Mike Tomlin called him the “belle of the ball” in the punter free agent market this offseason. Now we all see why.
In the first preseason game, he had an okay performance. He had five punts for 218 yards (43.6 average) with one touchback, one inside the 20, and a long of 50. That wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t great either. He took it to another level last night with five punts for 284 yards (56.8 average) with two punts inside the 20, zero touchbacks, and a long of 65. That included three punts over 60 yards.
To put that into perspective, the yards per punt leader last season was Ryan Stonehouse with 53.1. Pressley Harvin III was the second-worst punter in the league with 43.8 last year. Johnston beat Harvin’s mark by a whopping 13 yards. He also topped Harvin’s long of 63 from 2023 with a 65-yarder.
Below is a clip of the 65-yard punt. Even better than just the raw distance, Johnston placed it in the corner of the field, which significantly limits where the punt returner can attempt to go. In this case, the return man attempted to run all the way across the field. He was very close to being tackled for a safety if Rodney Williams secured the tackle. The Bills started with the ball on the 13.
Even with 63 total return yards by the Bills, Johnston’s net average was an impressive 44.2. The placement and hangtime of his punts will help limit those return yards.
The Steelers were miserable in the field-position battle last season. While the defense allowed very few points, it did allow quite a few yards. Pair that with the poor punting by Harvin, and the Steelers’ offense—which already struggled to accomplish much—barely stood a chance.
The defense has a chance to be a better unit this year, and the punting looks like it could be a real strength for the 2024 Steelers. Not only does that help keep the score down for opposing teams, but they are then forced to punt with worse starting field position to give the offense some short fields from time to time. And with a kicker as good as Chris Boswell, that also means more field goal opportunities. Good punting helps all three phases.
After the game, Mike Tomlin highlighted one area where the Steelers improved from last preseason game, and punting was top of mind.
“An area of improvement I thought was net punting,” Tomlin said in a video posted on the Steelers’ YouTube page. “The field position component of play got flipped this time around. We were much better in this game than we were in the last one.”
Throughout training camp, Johnston seemed to be receiving positive reviews from those in attendance every time he practiced punting. It was nice to see that translate onto the field in the preseason.
