Dodged a bullet!

I was really scared they'd sign back the fat punter because they're familiar with him and the coaches are afraid of meeting new people.

I'm soooo glad they went with a super skinny punter who's already done more in one game than the fat one did his entire 4 year career.

 

some will said he had 3 touchback in this game and he need to correct it but I prefer that than the 20 yards punt of Harvin

 

Me too. Ravens kicker did a Harvin on their last drive and gave the game away.

 

Waitman definitely has a solid leg. Directionally he's what you'd expect from someone sitting on a couch week 1, but he will be a fine enough replacement. I'm glad we don't have to stomach the "will he shank it?" coin flip we had to endure every time Harvin had to kick something that wasn't a coffin corner.

 

Waitman is a big upgrade over Harvin, he was always better than him. Seems like the only reason why Harvin beat him out for the job was that he was a 7th round pick. Pretty dumb reason if you ask me. Anyway, I thought Waitman was pretty solid for somebody coming off his couch, and will get a better feel for things as the season wears on

 

Oh, I don't know?? Felt that we're comfortably ahead most of the game. Kind of like facing a comfortable birdie try on the 5th hole, and all of a sudden your round is over.

 

got a feeling this may trigger some, lol

 

Harvin had a cannon for a leg but he was just far too inconsistent. I’m glad that they decided to move on

Johnston was one of the best in the game by all accounts. Awful pity what happened to him

 

I don't necessarily agree that the draft pick was the reason. I think the reason was that Harvin, despite his obvious flaws, was an excellent punter at kicking our opponents inside the 20. We felt that if we just stuck with him long enough that he would gain some consistency and be an average leg on kicks that had to go far, but a high end coffin corner punter. Unfortunately for us, he never gained the consistency and was liable to shank a punt he had to boom at any point in time. Waitman has a nice leg, but he launched directional punts into the endzone and should have kicked it out of bounds on the last punt of the game, but directionally failed. We saw the Eagles beat the Giants a number of years ago because a punter couldn't kick one out of bounds and DeSean Jackson made them pay.

I am pretty sure that's the reason why we stuck with Harvin for so long.

 

That was quite the shank. I think it was like 4th and 20 and he didn't even punt it past the first down marker.

 

That sounds plausible to me, field position is the most important thing for a punter, and Harvin was pretty good pinning teams inside the 20. However, when they really needed a long punt from deep in their own field, they'd be lucky to go 40 yards, and of course there were always those inevitable 25 yard shanks. That's were I'm a lot more comfortable with Waitman, because he punts the ball further more consistently.

Anyway, that's how I remember it

 

That's how I remember it too. If we were pinning the opposition deep in their territory, Harvin did well. When we were backed up in our own territory and needed to flip the field, Harvin didn't do well (and really had a good number of inexplicable shanks). Waitman appears to hit a lot more quality punts than Harvin in terms of distance and hangtime, and is probably going to be better if we need to flip the field. Hopefully his directional punting improves as the year goes on. He's got a great opportunity ahead of him to earn a spot back in the league.

 

Evidently, the Steelers thought Waitman brings more things to the table now, because he's their starting punter, and Harvin is sitting at home eating ham sandwiches.