Jack Fox won a spirited training camp competition to be the Lions' punter (and holder).
Nick Leverett was signed to the Bucs' practice squad.

Great for them, happy for. them, but I may not watch a down of NFL football this year. I may not watch a down of Rice either.

Myles Adams also made the Panthers practice squad.

(09-06-2020 10:18 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  Great for them, happy for. them, but I may not watch a down of NFL football this year. I may not watch a down of Rice either.

Good game for Jack -

From prideofdetroit.com...

Stats: 4 punts, 49.3 average, 2 inside 20-yard line, no touchbacks

It’s never a good sign when your punter is on the Player of the Game list, but give credit where it’s due. In his first ever NFL action, Fox looked like a natural. He pinned half of his punts inside the 20, averaged an impressive 49.3 yards per punt and, perhaps more importantly, helped hold the Bears to exactly 0 yards of punt return.

(09-06-2020 10:18 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  Great for them, happy for. them, but I may not watch a down of NFL football this year. I may not watch a down of Rice either.

Same here.

(09-06-2020 10:16 PM)OwlSquared Wrote:  Jack Fox won a spirited training camp competition to be the Lions' punter (and holder).
Nick Leverett was signed to the Bucs' practice squad.

Another banner day for Jack Fox, with 4 great punts, including a 67 yarder (61 net).
Can't say the same for the Lions Defense.

"Perhaps it says something about the Lions that their best player has been their new punter. Still, don’t take anything away from Jack Fox. The former undrafted rookie held off Arryn Siposs in a tough training camp battle, then followed up an excellent debut against Chicago with an even better effort in Green Bay. His first attempt went 45 yards right to the sideline at the 10-yard line. Then he boomed a 57-yarder out of his own end zone late in the first half, then opened the second half with a 50-yard moonshot that stopped for a cup of coffee before returning to earth. He averaged 54.2 yards on his five attempts overall. So long, Sam Martin. The Lions seem like they’re in pretty good shape for the foreseeable at punter."

https://www.mlive.com/lions/2020/09/quic...-loss.html

This sounds strangely familiar.

Bad news.
Myles Adams was released from the Panthers' PS on Friday.

Fox continues to impress. Had a big day, managing field position (3 inside 20, 1 touchback, no returns, punt average 55.5 yards).

(09-28-2020 09:33 AM)gsloth Wrote:  Fox continues to impress. Had a big day, managing field position (3 inside 20, 1 touchback, no returns, punt average 55.5 yards).

Here are links to 3 super articles by Detroit media:

> Fox is the best punter in the NFL: https://heavy.com/sports/detroit-lions/j...op-punter/

> Fox is a punting samurai, slaying foes with precision and honor: https://www.prideofdetroit.com/2020/9/28...roit-lions

> Dagger time: 5 late plays that sealed Detroit's win: https://www.prideofdetroit.com/2020/9/27...-cardinals

(09-28-2020 06:19 PM)Almadenmike Wrote:  

(09-28-2020 09:33 AM)gsloth Wrote:  Fox continues to impress. Had a big day, managing field position (3 inside 20, 1 touchback, no returns, punt average 55.5 yards).

Here are links to 3 super articles by Detroit media:

> Fox is the best punter in the NFL: https://heavy.com/sports/detroit-lions/j...op-punter/

> Fox is a punting samurai, slaying foes with precision and honor: https://www.prideofdetroit.com/2020/9/28...roit-lions

> Dagger time: 5 late plays that sealed Detroit's win: https://www.prideofdetroit.com/2020/9/27...-cardinals

Well he did have a lot of in-game practice at Rice.

Very happy and proud for Jack

(09-29-2020 02:57 PM)Hambone10 Wrote:  Very happy and proud for Jack

Same. I hope he is the All-Pro punter for many years.

Jack Fox, NFC Special Teams Player of the Week

A punter garnered NFC Special Teams Player of the Month, with Detroit Lions specialist Jack Fox averaging better than 50 yards a punt. Fox's 53.1 yards per punt is leading the NFL. The average has been bolstered by a long of 67 and of his 13 punts, an impressive seven have found their way inside the 20-yard line.

https://www.nfl.com/news/seahawks-qb-rus...-the-month

(10-01-2020 10:51 AM)OwlSquared Wrote:  Jack Fox, NFC Special Teams Player of the Week

A punter garnered NFC Special Teams Player of the Month, with Detroit Lions specialist Jack Fox averaging better than 50 yards a punt. Fox's 53.1 yards per punt is leading the NFL. The average has been bolstered by a long of 67 and of his 13 punts, an impressive seven have found their way inside the 20-yard line.

https://www.nfl.com/news/seahawks-qb-rus...-the-month

Good to see Jack recognized for a job well done!

He had a lot of experience at Rice good or bad and its paying off.

(10-01-2020 11:41 AM)Tomball Owl Wrote:  

(10-01-2020 10:51 AM)OwlSquared Wrote:  Jack Fox, NFC Special Teams Player of the Week

A punter garnered NFC Special Teams Player of the Month, with Detroit Lions specialist Jack Fox averaging better than 50 yards a punt. Fox's 53.1 yards per punt is leading the NFL. The average has been bolstered by a long of 67 and of his 13 punts, an impressive seven have found their way inside the 20-yard line.

https://www.nfl.com/news/seahawks-qb-rus...-the-month

Good to see Jack recognized for a job well done!

Detroit lost to the Saints today, 35-29, becoming "the first NFL team to lose six straight games in which it led by double digits."

But:

Question for the historians. Seems to me that Rice has a historical number of alums in the NFL Yet, the last 10 years or so could easily be amongst the worse in history (except maybe the 80's?). Why? Perhaps depth? Or lack of development? Horrific playcalling or game mgmt? On playcalling, my oldest and I were talking about the Texans and their insistence on running fast RB's up the middle, which reminded me of McGuffie up the middle, sigh......

(10-04-2020 09:37 PM)texowl2 Wrote:  Question for the historians. Seems to me that Rice has a historical number of alums in the NFL Yet, the last 10 years or so could easily be amongst the worse in history (except maybe the 80's?). Why? Perhaps depth? Or lack of development? Horrific playcalling or game mgmt? On playcalling, my oldest and I were talking about the Texans and their insistence on running fast RB's up the middle, which reminded me of McGuffie up the middle, sigh......

For a couple of things, the NFL has more teams now, and rosters are bigger, so there are many more jobs in the NFL today. With 32 teams and 53 players per roster, there are now 1696 players, whereas in the 1950s, with 12 teams and 33 players per roster, here were 396--more than a fourfold increase.

One other thing, and this is a personal opinion. I always thought Bailiff and his staff did a better job of developing individual skills than of developing team skills. I thought most of his teams underachieved because they managed to be less than the sum of their parts. For example, in 2011-13 we had two corners who started in the NFL--Callahan and Gaines--but overall we were not a good pass defending team. Or another example, we had a couple of truly outstanding punters/kickers--Martens and Boswell--but we were never very good in the kicking game as a whole. To me two classic examples of our kicking game woes were 1) the blocked field goal attempts returned for TDs by SMU, or 2) a game at Tulsa where we scored a TD, got the PAT blocked and returned for 2 points, and then gave up a TD on the ensuing kickoff return, so we scored 6 but gave up 9 and fell 3 points further behind. I just never thought we developed units that played well as teams, even though there were some good individuals.