Below is the PFF draft profile for Utah punter Tom Hackett, which incorporates PFF’s college grades and scouting intel from our team of analysts. To see all of PFF’s 2016 scouting reports, click here.
Position fit: Punter
Stats to know: At +1.6, he was the highest-graded punter in this draft class over the course of this season.
What he does best:
–Averaged 47.9 yards per punt in 2015 to lead this draft class. Long of 76 yards, so distance is definitely not an issue.
–Solid directional kicker who can limit returns, with just 18 percent of his punts in 2015 being returned.
–Tied for ninth among all punters in this draft class with 28 of his 61 punts seeing the oppositions following drive start inside the 20-yard line.
–Can find the sideline when he needs to, with seven punts going out of bounds, 12th most amongst punters in this draft class.
–Led this draft class with a net yard average of 44.2 yards.
Biggest concerns:
–Utilized rugby-style punts on most of his kicks, with just 20 traditional punts over the course of the year. Had plenty of success on the rugby-style kicks, but with rule differences in the NFL it's not something he'll be able to do at the next level, in all likelihood.
–Hang-time wasn't a strong part of his game. Max hang-time all season was 4.64 seconds, tied for 39th among punters in this draft class.
–Not a huge issue, but kicked off just four times in the past two years at Utah, so isn't an NFL ready kickoff specialist.
Bottom line:
Hackett might be the highest-graded punter in this draft class, but his style of punting doesn't translate to the NFL as things stand. He did have a lot of success as a punter at the collegiate level, though, so it won't be surprising to see a team draft him if a special teams coach believes he can develop him into a successful NFL punter.
© 2024 PFF - all rights reserved.