This summer’s heated punter competition is pretty one-sided so far. Actually, it’s completely one-sided and it’s not a competition. Two weeks in to camp, and Adam Podlesh hasn’t put his pads on yet. That leaves former LSU standout Brad Wing all to himself.
Not that Podlesh isn’t out for good reason. His wife is getting ready to deliver a baby, and it’s reportedly a difficult pregnancy. There has been no word on when or if he may arrive to camp, but let’s face it…camp is almost over.
When asked about Podlesh being out, Wing said, “What I try and do is focus on myself. You can’t let the other guy dictate your performance. That’s been easy for me to do because Adam is not here.
“In my mind, it doesn’t matter if there are two or three guys competing, you know what you have to do and what the coaches require, and that’s all I’m worried about.”
The Australian born punter was a rock star at LSU, and that wasn’t just a persona. He was arrested for battery in 2011, though the charges were later dropped. He was suspended from the Chick Fil A bowl in 2012 for allegedly failing a drug test for at least the second time. There was some media hype about him being prone to excessive celebrations, but really that stemmed from this great fake that got reversed due to a somewhat BS taunting call.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xT_TGuoLdmk
LSU ultimately told the punter he wasn’t welcome back even though he had two years of eligibility left. After going undrafted last year, he was signed by the Eagles to see if he could unseat veteran punter Donnie Jones. He failed the team’s conditioning test, but was later cleared to play. After being with the team through training camp, he was let go during their first round of roster cuts.
The Steelers weren’t worried about Wing’s torrid past, though. After signing the left-footed Aussie, Kevin Colbert said he wasn’t worried about his character. “No. Brad got married recently. He has a child,” Colbert said at the national scouting combine. “Players mature as the years go on. If we weren’t comfortable with his character we wouldn’t have signed him.”
Pittsburgh was second to last in net punting yards last year, averaging just 37. While ball placement and positional punting are important, having a big leg that can keep the ball in the air can almost certainly give the team a competitive edge on special teams. Wing was putting on a clinic at camp earlier this week. By some accounts he was putting up impressive 5.5 plus hang times on some punts. “When I signed here, coach Tomlin and (special teams) coach (Danny) Smith both preached to me that hang time was very important,” Wing said. “So, that’s something I’ve spent a lot of time working on.”
A reasonable person may be inclined to argue that having only one punter at camp equates to said punter making the roster- unless of course he’s unhealthy or just plain terrible. The team proved last season that anything can happen at the position, though. Drew Butler beat Brian Moorman in last summer’s punter battle, only to be waived shortly after when the Steelers signed Zoltan Mesko. A couple months later, Mesko was out and McBriar was in.
In the end, it’s anyone’s guess what the team will do next month, but we’ll be able to get a good look at Wing tonight.
