Just because a player’s season is ended by an injury, doesn’t mean they still can’t be of use to the team. They are still getting paid millions of dollars, after all. It would appear P Cameron Johnston takes that very seriously as he still helps the special teams unit in a big way from the training room. He provides detailed reports of opposing teams’ punters each week.
“Cam Johnston, gives me — he got this whole report,” Calvin Austin III said Thursday via The Christian Kuntz Podcast. “It’s detailed. So first I go talk to Cam. He usually gives me like the beginning of the week, the rundown of what the punter does, what type of guy he is, all that stuff. So I can kind of know his tendencies and stuff like that.”
It isn’t unusual for a backup quarterback to be helping throughout the week with the game plan, or even assisting during the game in certain ways, but I have never heard of a punter providing in-depth reports on the opposing team’s punter.
“Cam’s a different cat,” Kuntz said, with Austin adding, “He’s elite.”
“He’ll study the shit outta these guys,” Kuntz said. “Technique, where they’re going, what the ball [does], how they’re lined up, what direction they’re going, how many steps snap time. Everything.”
Johnston was one of the Steelers’ great additions during free agency. A punter usually doesn’t receive the airtime that other positions do in free agency, but punting had been a large issue for the Steelers for a long time and Johnston was the “belle of the ball” for free agents at the position, as Mike Tomlin put it.
He got off to a tremendous start before suffering an injury after a player collided with his plant leg on a punt in Week 1. He only punted twice in that game, but they were both excellent. It was a real shame what happened, but P Corliss Waitman has stepped in and provided excellent punting in Johnston’s absence.
It’s great to hear Cameron Johnston is still helping the team win in any way he can. He doesn’t have to do that, and nobody would blame him for focusing on his rehab from a devastating knee injury. Austin, who just had his first career punt-return touchdown and is currently third in the league with 12.9 yards per return, clearly finds Johnston’s reports helpful.
