The Pittsburgh Steelers debuted Corliss Waitman Sunday, their second punter of the season, due to the unfortunate season-ending injury to their starter, Cameron Johnston. They gave Johnston a three-year, $9 million contract to make them forget about their punting problems, which didn’t last long. So how did Waitman make out in his first game of the season with the Steelers?
Well, not great, at least not overall. As had been an issue, he put too many punts into the end zone for touchbacks. Actually, his three touchbacks on Sunday on eight punts are already tied for the most in the NFL. but Waitman still got a coveted shoutout from one source this week for his final punt.
With the Steelers trying to close out a 13-6 win, Waitman punted from his own 36, reaching the Broncos’ 10. Following a nine-yard return, Denver took over at its own 19 for a net punt of 45 yards. He successfully angled the kick toward the sideline to minimize return lanes as well.
“Corliss Waitman, new punter for the Steelers, hits a NUKE”, Pat McAfee said on his show yesterday. “[A] 55-yard ball in the corner. Commentators say, ‘Need it out of bounds!’. Okay. About 55 yards, two yards off the sideline, flip the field, they have eight seconds now to do a little annexation of Puerto Rico. Probably not gonna work out”.
“Massive ball from Waitman in the fourth quarter”, he added. “I think you’re gonna learn about big ol’ punts here as we go forward”.
Waitman did give the Steelers what they needed on his most significant punt of the day; I grant him that. But on the whole, he clearly needs to do better, particularly in keeping the ball out of the end zone. For his career, he has a nine-percent touchback percentage, which is not good at all. Compare that to Johnston, who had a 4.5-percent touchback rate last year.
Now, Waitman still grossed 53 yards per punt with a net of 41.9, so overall, he could have done worse. But you don’t want to keep spotting your opponent the 20-yard line when you’re not trying to. And that is an issue that has followed him throughout his career.
The Steelers originally signed Corliss Waitman as a college free agent in 2020. He ended up playing two games for them late in the 2021 season due to starting punter Pressley Harvin III’s personal tragedies. A year later, he parlayed that into a starting job with the Denver Broncos, posting a largely solid season.
But nobody kept Waitman as their starting punter last season, nor was he on a roster in Week 1 this year. While he has a big leg, he can still use some fine-tuning. Provided that he does a decent enough job, though, he should now have a full season to work on that. Still, assuming that Cameron Johnston is healthy in 2025, Waitman will be auditioning for other teams in the next 16 weeks.
