December 24, 2025 • 44 mins
Team insiders Ryan Mink and Clifton Brown sit down with Ravens punter Jordan Stout to talk about making his first Pro Bowl, how developing a new punt made his career take off, the drive he showed to reach the NFL, and the pressures he faced once he got there.
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome into lounge presented by DraftKings.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
I'm Ryan Mink here with Clifton Brown and we are
thrilled to sit down with punter Jordan's Stout.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Fresh off of Pro Bowl. No, congratulations, man, thank you
so much. I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
That is awesome your first Pro Bowl. So take us
through how you found out? He called first all how
it went down?
Speaker 3 (00:22):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I found out yesterday around six somebody
called me. I'm not gonna I'm not gonna put their
name out there.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Oh okay, yeah, keeping this serious.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
Yeah, they called me. I was getting massage. My massage
there was like do you want me to leave? Like no, no, No,
it's fine, Like you're part of the reason I'm here,
Like stay. So got the news. My fiance was right
there with me. She found out with me. After that,
you know, we we were like happy, smiling. Yeah, and
then massage happened for another thirty minutes.
Speaker 4 (00:51):
Yeah, kind of just like sat there and thought about it.
Speaker 5 (00:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (00:55):
It's crazy feeling.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
I think this is a first time in my career
that it's really sunk in, like right away, like high school,
you want to make All State and you do it,
and then you have another goal, and then you go
to college and you want to be put on scholarship,
and then you get put on scholarship, and then you
go you get drafted, and then you want to make
Pro Bowl.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
So like, really, what's next? Yeah, this is.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
The goal, Like, this is like the peak of what
I can do as an athlete, and it's just a
crazy feeling that all that hard work is paid off.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Yeah, yeah, that's really awesome.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
I guess the next is you know, a masterful punt
goes out of bounds at the one in the Super Bowl, right,
that's yeah, yeah, that's the next goal.
Speaker 4 (01:35):
Then I was saying, like the main goal is like
Super Bowl of course.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Like individually, right, Pro Bowl.
Speaker 4 (01:42):
Like that's I mean, that's the.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Pens right right right, but that's also.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Who Right after the massage, I call my family, of course.
First off, my parents. My dad had just woken up
from an app. I said, I have some good news,
and he said pro Bowl. I said, yeah, you're right,
you got it. My mom, of course, threw her hands
up in the air and was happy crying. It's really
cool because without them I wouldn't I wouldn't be here. Yeah,
(02:08):
back to the what we're talking about prior to getting
on air. I played soccer my whole childhood and I
played club, Like I said, my dad drove me an
hour and like thirty minutes every Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.
Speaker 5 (02:25):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
Like while I was in elementary school, middle school, nice
up to the party of high played soccer.
Speaker 4 (02:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
And then also like when I started kicking, I had
a coach in Uva. His name is Jimmy Hall. That's
who I trained with. It went to a Uva camp
my after my ninth grade year of high school. He's like,
I see potential in him, Like I would like to
work with him. And he convinced my dad and so
we drove every other Sunday five hours, oh where I'm
from in Virginia to Uva, and he drove me every
(02:53):
other Sunday and I laid in.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
The back and slept. Wow, five guys after every time,
it was great.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
That's incredible.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
I have to arrange a pick up for my kid
from basketball practice five minutes away from my.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
House, yeah, five hours.
Speaker 5 (03:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
They sacrifice so much and so I appreciate them and
to share that moment with them was really cool.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
That is very cool.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
So I quickly want to go back to a moment
this season when we were talking after the Jets game,
when you had an awesome game, and you told me
that Randy Brown has told you this season that if
you do poorly, we're going to cut you. If you
do okay, we'll resign you. And if you do too well,
what's the future. It's a contract year for you, probo
(03:36):
year and a contract year.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
So what does this mean, Jordan, for the future.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
Here being said, there's no place I would rather play
than here. I want to play my whole career here.
You know, they're gonna have to pay me.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
I think that we all know what happen, you know.
Speaker 4 (03:56):
I mean, I love it here. I really don't want
to be anywhere else.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Like, yeah, it's pretty cool.
Speaker 4 (04:03):
Yeah, that's about the extent of it.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
And like.
Speaker 4 (04:06):
I say, God, I don't want to get into it.
I don't want to get into the logistics of it.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Yeah, but playing AFC nor is hard.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
Yeah, And like to my own horn a little bit,
like having the numbers I had this year, and of
course that's fifty percent me, that's fifty percent the punt team,
like KeAndre Jackson, Kean Martin, Tylan Wallace, like Nick Moore,
like delivering me seeds every single play, Like without those guys, like,
there's no chance that this could possibly happen.
Speaker 6 (04:32):
So yeah, for all those reasons you just talked about,
we all kind of knew this was a make or
break year for you. So you made it? What made
it for you? Why why did it come together this year?
Speaker 3 (04:44):
No, it's it's it's funny because as a punter, a
lot of the time you can't go into games with
goals because like I might have zero punts, I might
have ten punts, like you're never gonna know. And sometimes
when the offense does worse, that means I'm in a
better opportunity to have more more field to play with.
So it's it's real funny. It's like I don't want
(05:05):
to punt. I don't want to be out on the field.
I want the offense to score touchdowns. I want to
go hold extra points. That's that's what I want. So, like,
you know, like creating goals in your head of like
what you want to do is really difficult, right right.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Take us through your off season preparation and how you
trained for this season, maybe differently than you did in
years past.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
I started punting a little earlier. Yeah, Aj is a
guy who always did that. He said, if you don't
lose it, you don't have to get it back. So
in years past, you know, after my rookie year, I'm like,
everyone told me to relax, Like I don't have to
punt right now. I can go enjoy time with family,
go to the beach, just do what I want to do, decompress.
I had a long year. After second year, I went
and I'm like, I want to get better. I want
(05:46):
to like see what's going to make me better. So
I did speed training for like two months, and you know,
I was the best athletically I've ever been.
Speaker 4 (05:55):
I was.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
I was really really athletic, but that's timing for punting
was off when I came back. So it took me
like a full month to like figure out contact, like
when I need to drop the ball with my leg
swing because it was faster, stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
And can you tell, listen, why did you want to
do speed training? Like you wouldn't think of that obviously
for a punter.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Why do you want to get faster?
Speaker 3 (06:18):
Yeah, it's hard to play in AFC North and I like,
hangtime is king? How can I get better? Hangtime without
trying its hard. So like if I can make my
seventy percent punt a ball that is fifty five yards
like five zero plus hangtime, then that would make my
job a lot easier. But you know, it doesn't always
work out that way. And like I said, you never
(06:40):
know what's going to happen on the field. Like I
could be hitting pooch punts all year and after my
or my third year, primarily I was hitting pooch punts.
I on it from inside the forties snap from inside
the forties. I think it was forty eight percent of
my punts and.
Speaker 4 (06:57):
This year I had five pooch punts.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
Right, So I was in that area of the field
like five times, right, opposed to forty eight or whatever
percent of my punts being there in past years.
Speaker 4 (07:10):
And that's like part of it.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
It's like circumstance this year, like I was able to
take advantage of the field position that was given to me.
But right, you know, like I said, I would have
loved it if you squared all those touchdown yeah, I
was holding fresh points instead.
Speaker 4 (07:21):
I'm glad I was able to take advantage of it.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
I'm glad the guys out on the field did a
great job and and helped make me look good. I'm
glad I could help make them look good.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
So you said you did the speed training that didn't
really work out because your timing was all thrown off
going into year that was three.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Yeah, that was going into three. So now going into
year four.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
I know we talked about this before, but share with
listeners and viewers about you know, you went to the beach.
Speaker 4 (07:46):
And how that went back to you went to San Diego.
I started punting earlier. Yeah, that's the point.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
I guess I should have gotten to Aya started punting
a little earlier, punted a lot. I did the beach
a lot, And I said play because like we're I'm
an adult, but I still like to play in the water.
Speaker 4 (08:04):
And I think, no matter how old you get, you
still got to play.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
Yeah, and that was his body surfing.
Speaker 4 (08:09):
What are we doing?
Speaker 1 (08:09):
He body surfing surfing? Oh real?
Speaker 4 (08:12):
The front office about that.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
I don't think that'll be a sound bite, right, but yeah,
just like enjoying myself. You know, I love San Diego,
like the community here is there. My fiance loves the sun,
so she loves it there. It doesn't rain there much. Yeah,
just getting away to a place where I enjoy my
time there and I'm around like minded people. I'm Aj
Coles there, Jack Fox, Daniel Wheeling. Like a bunch of
(08:35):
guys that I look at is like the best punters
in the game. And you know, everyone has the same headspace,
Like they like playing in the water, they like surfing,
they like going out punting and working out, and it's
like it's a lifestyle and it almost feels like a hobby. Yeah,
it's like I enjoy what I'm doing, especially in the
off season.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
Yeah, So did it feel like, like what did that
do for you? Mentally?
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Did it feel like you just came into the year
like in the right headspace you're talking about did it
easy of the pressure and you're just feeling the beach vibes.
You're this Virginia kid. You're like, yes, I just feel great.
Like what did that do?
Speaker 1 (09:06):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (09:06):
I think it's really important.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
Like my rookie, that's what they told me, they get away,
get away from football, you don't need it. But it
turns out like I want to be around football.
Speaker 4 (09:13):
I love punting. It's like it's my favorite thing in
the world.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Get away, but also do football. Yeah, So combine the two.
Speaker 4 (09:19):
Yeah, and that's the thing. You got to know yourself.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
And over the years, I'm learning myself and I know
that I like punting, So I'm going to keep punting
in the off season. I'm going to do the things
I love at the same time. They don't interfere with
each other, right, I only punt two hours a day,
that's the max, right right.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
Right.
Speaker 6 (09:33):
When you came back from you know, having a great
off season, knowing it was a contract year, when did
you really start thinking, Hey, you know I'm going to
have my best season. Was as early as training camp?
Was it early in the season. Just I mean, obviously
you found your groove and kept it. Kind of curious
when that happened.
Speaker 4 (09:50):
Yeah, you know, I wish I could tell you.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
I feel like I've went into every year with with
the largest amount of confidence I possibly could. I think
confidence is the most important thing in my job. I
feel like if you go into a game of confidence,
then you're golden. So yeah, I really like I don't
I don't have a specific time that it clicked or anything.
I feel like this year was no different than other
(10:12):
years outside of we added in that boomerang punt, which
is the one that like goes up and then drifts
off to the right. I think that that it's definitely
a large part. And I got to give Logan Cook
some credit for that, because that's, uh, He's a punter
for the Jags. He's been doing that for years now,
and I just kind of made it my own, shifted
a few things around. I feel like, I mean, he
(10:34):
congratulated me today and I text him's like, hey, like,
I just want to let you know, like you you
paved the way for me like this, like I got it,
I got it from you, like I appreciate you. And
so that for him to reach out to me and
told me good jobs pretty cool too.
Speaker 5 (10:46):
Yeah, that is I'm curious too.
Speaker 6 (10:48):
You kind of touched on it seems to me like
Kickers Pawners kind of like fraternity. Like obviously your opponents,
but it seems like the bond between what you guys
do is kind of something that connects you all.
Speaker 5 (11:00):
Is that true? And how much do other punters kind
of help each other?
Speaker 3 (11:03):
Yeah, I mean it is a community, and I feel
like in the off season, the reason we all do
get together is because we are like minded, and part
of it's like we want to see where we're at.
Like I named two proble punters, Jack Fox, AJ Cole,
and then Daniel Willen is good enough to be a
pro bow punter. He's probably the most consistent I've ever
been around in sunny San Diego. But like being around
those guys and competing, I think on its own is
(11:26):
like helping each of us get better.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
How did they How did you kind of learn that
boomrang punt?
Speaker 4 (11:32):
Is that?
Speaker 1 (11:32):
Like literally standing next to them on the beach, Like,
take it, take me.
Speaker 4 (11:36):
Through that sponsored by Smart Water.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
I'll show you with this.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
So a normal turnover punt. Yeah, I'll show the camera. Yeah,
it's like this, Okay, that's how you hold the football.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
Okay, all right, here we go. We're going it's like
this right here. You want to make contact right like that? Okay,
So then the ball comes off your foot and spirals
up and out. Yeah, So a boomrang is held this way.
Interesting traditional boom rangs like almost sideways. You swing up
through the left side of the ball, rotations off to
the right, so it goes up and it spins to
(12:07):
the right.
Speaker 4 (12:09):
So I just like I was like, it's like a
forty yard punt.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
Normal boom rangs, Like I want more than that, So
I played around with like turning the ball more here. Yeah,
and if you swing up through the middle of the ball,
it's it's it's rough because there's mishits and I've had
mishits in the games, but the mishit is so hard to.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
Catch and it's usually like they see it.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
They know I'm doing a boom rang. I'm lined up
in the middle of the field like the other team knows.
A lot of the mishits go left. Boom raing is
supposed to go right. So there was probably like seven
or eight punts this year, maybe nine where I was
lined up for a boomerang and I mishit it, but
it went the opposite way, got on the ground and
rolled forward. So wow, Yeah, it's it's just one of
(12:52):
those punts like Randy Brown like gave me the go
ahead to just go down the middle of the lineup middle,
just swing middle, swing hard, hit the a ball. It's
like fifty five yards, can't catch it. Yeah, returner lets
it hit and roll and yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
And how did that differ because Sam Cook, I know,
you know he hit the boomerang punt as well and
was really known for a long time in the punting
world as kind of an innovator. You know, he changed
the game of punting where it was always that kind
of you know, just try to hit along, turnover punt
and all that stuff. And then he's kind of brought
in more directional punting and then adding more clubs to
(13:32):
the bag and having this huge arsenal and all that.
Like how did his influence and the boomerang also kind
of rub off on you?
Speaker 3 (13:39):
Yeah, you know, Sam is a huge part and like
I think Sam pushed the game forward ten years when
he was playing, Like the things he was doing on
the field was something that no one else was doing.
And some of the punts he does the guys still
don't do because they can't. So yeah, I mean Sam
has a huge part in it, and I'm sure Logan
(13:59):
learned from so I should maybe be giving Sam credit.
And it is the thing for me is like my
rookie year. I don't think anyone thought I was ready
for all of that. It's like hit a turnover, like
hit like do focus on like two things that like
you can get really good at.
Speaker 4 (14:17):
So that's what we did.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
We had turnovers, We had pooch punts and pooch punts
and endover and punt you had going in wanted to
land inside of ten? Yeah, and then it gets it.
Kind of what happened the last three years is the
same thing. Like no one really introduced new punts to me.
Then this past offseason, I just started playing around with
a little bit, and I mean it took months, and
(14:38):
it's because, like I didn't have a.
Speaker 4 (14:42):
A book that told me what I need to do.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
I kind of had to figure it out myself because
I mean, I don't think anyone's ever hit the boomerang
like I am. And I'm not trying to toot my own horne.
It's just like something that I found out through trial
and error, like for months, and then when I finally
did it and it finally clicked, I'm like, oh, this
could be this could be like the difference I could
do this year what Sam Cook did his whole career,
(15:04):
where he changes the game m M. And that's what
I told Randy at the beginning of the year. I'm like,
I want to find a way where I can change
the game. I want to I want to push the
game forward, like I want to create new punts ownA
and it's kind of what happened, kind of not because
the boomerang has been around, but.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
It's you changed different, there's a variation to it. So yeah, right,
that's cool.
Speaker 6 (15:24):
So may I ask is there more in the arsenal
to come? And do you already have thoughts in mind
about what else is next with you?
Speaker 5 (15:31):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (15:31):
I refuse to believe that there aren't more punts to come.
Do I have any idea of what they're going to
be right now? Absolutely not. That's what the off season's for.
And I promise you, maybe not next year, maybe not
the year after that, but there will be more punts
that like either I create or someone else creates that
I get good at and and it'll be a weapon.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
Yeah, I'm interested in You know, we talk about Sam
and you, and like I look at you two guys,
and you're like.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
So different from each other, right.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
I mean, like Sam was this guy who like did
not have a really big leg.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
He's super serious.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
He probably was telling dad jokes when he was twenty
years old.
Speaker 4 (16:11):
His oldest son is older than me.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
There you go.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
Yeah, then he had the licensees dad jokes at twenty
and then you're you're this kid who comes in with like.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
This big leg and the long hair, and.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
You're smiling all the time and you're super outgoing like Sam.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
Sam was just like in a jug way, like grumble
will be like, nah, I'm not talking to you, mink.
You know what I mean that when he was.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
A player, he was very stern and very serious, very
serious about his degree. But that's what made him great, exactly.
And everyone's different, right exactly, and it's worked for both
of you. So like how did that marriage work?
Speaker 2 (16:46):
And like I don't know, and you know, following in
his footsteps after he punted here for.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
What was it sixteen seasons and was he's a legend
here around here?
Speaker 2 (16:55):
Like following that being so different, I don't know, Just
how did that all work?
Speaker 4 (17:00):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (17:00):
You know, it's something I tried not to think about
much of course, Like him being a coacher was such
a blessing, Like having him like give me this mental
cues if anything, because he wasn't super hands on with punning.
Speaker 4 (17:11):
That was mainly Randy's job.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
Yeah, but you know, and it's all about verbiage, and
it's like Sam was telling me something my rookie year,
over and over again, he said, get the ball out,
get the ball out, Get the ball out. To me,
get the ball out was get it out farther. Oh,
Like what Hold meant was get the ball outside of
my quad. So the whole year we were we weren't
(17:34):
communicating properly. And I'm like, Sam, I'm getting the ball out.
He's like, no, you're not.
Speaker 4 (17:39):
And it it really it was.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
It was like that for a while, and you know, Sam,
it helped me so much. And like I said about
with the with the mental game, I like, I struggled
last year the last five games. Yeah, and like the
first time in my life I was seeing like a
sports psychologist because like the weather was so bad, I
felt like I couldn't control what was going to happen.
So even if I felt like I did hit a
good punt in the game a lot of the times
(18:02):
towards his last five games, it was still bad. I
mean I had a few bad punts last five games.
And you know, I just sat down with Sam and
we talked through it, and he told me his process,
and it was pretty much, you know, you can't worry
about what happens once the ball leaves your foot. Worry
about your process. Like you can't worry about the external factors.
And that helped me so much, just just like rewiring
(18:24):
my brain to where, yeah, the weather's bad and yeah,
who knows what's going to happen in the air, But
if I do my job surface level, then then I'll
be okay, right, And now I have to taken that
through this whole year, and it's helped me a ton
less pressure really because now Renny knows harbes nose, Chris knows.
I'm like, hey, I'm going to do my job. What
happens in the air, like, can't help it right right right?
Speaker 6 (18:47):
You said you didn't know you know exactly when it
clicked or you know the moment. But the Jets game
is something a lot of people are going to talk
about with this Pro Bowl season.
Speaker 7 (18:56):
With you, you have.
Speaker 6 (18:57):
Seventy four yard punt, yeah six if you're on average
for the game. How much did a game like that
you talked about helping the team win the game when
offense wasn't cooken for you to come through in a
moment like that, how much did that play into maybe
what happened the rest.
Speaker 5 (19:14):
Of the way.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
Yeah, you know, I'd say that's one of my favorite
games of my career, it's like, how often am I
able to like noticeably make a game changing impact. It's
not too often as a punter, because I can hit
a punt ninety nine yards down on the one and
they can drive all the way down the field and
right it does. Sometimes it doesn't matter, but for it
to be at the end of the game down like
a touchdown or three points, I can't remember exactly what
(19:36):
it was, but to hit that punt in that moment,
in the fourth quarter when it means the most, And
that's what the coaches always talk about, is like, can
you do it in the fourth quarter?
Speaker 5 (19:44):
Though?
Speaker 3 (19:45):
Can you do it when the pressure is the highest?
And to do that, man, it's really rewarding, more rewarding
than any other punts that you can have because it
means the most. And you kind of felt like I
sealed the game. And of course there's fifty three guys
who stilled that game, but yeah, I mean I had
a larger impact than usual. And you know that was
that was one of the windiest games of the year.
(20:05):
And I was sitting back there before that seventy three
yard punter sixty eight whatever it.
Speaker 4 (20:09):
Was, and I was like, oh no, this could be bad.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
And I tried not to get that negative headpace much,
but it was so windy back there in the end
zone where I was punting that I was like like
gone to play, looking over the sideline, like go for it,
go for it. And then you know, sometimes I say,
it's God. It's like I hit the ball, it gets
up in the air. It's like there's no wind at all,
and there's a wind pocket up top that right in
my back just catches it and it just it looked
(20:35):
like it went forever, like it didn't feel any different
off my foot than any normal like forty five yard
fifty five yards and over, but it just it just sailed.
And it happened twice that game, right right, that's awesome.
And that was like a huge ovation from the crowd.
It's not often that you see the punter get the
ovation in the stadium.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
That was cool. Yeah, it does.
Speaker 4 (20:54):
It's so cool.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
And you know, I said, after I lost control of
my body, I just I just threw my arms out
and started yelling because you don't it's just like an
out of body experience, like everyone is on their feet
yelling for the punter like that doesn't happen.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Yeah, it's cool to me, Like I feel like watching
you so far in your career, Like there you talk
about the confidence of punting, and for me, it felt
like sometimes you like cared so much about it and
sometimes it felt like the mental side of the game,
like you were thinking so much about it right and
(21:27):
and correct me if I'm wrong or stop me. But
it felt like sometimes the mishits like felt like, oh man,
he's in his head. Like you felt that pressure because
there is a ton of pressure when you're a punter
and everybody's looking at you. It's like a kicker, you know,
same way on a field goal attemp. Like it's a
lot of pressure. And it felt like this year maybe
because of the off season. Maybe it's because you know,
you got off to a good start and you hit
(21:48):
some great punts and things were going well, and it
felt like momentum was picking up that that pressure just
kind of and you were just like playing your game.
Is that an accurate description or how would you describe it?
Speaker 1 (22:01):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (22:01):
You know, sometimes you get overwhelmed on the field, and
I feel like that is because I care so much,
like genuinely, like I I this is like I my
why is I want to provide for my future family
and I want to be the best punter to ever
play the game, like playing and simple. So like the
stress of that that I put on myself is is
(22:21):
rough at times. And you know the boomerang I said,
is it's a great ballout punt. You just hold it
out there and you just swing as hard as you
can and then they get like I said, like if
it goes left, great, if it goes right great, if
it goes middle great.
Speaker 4 (22:32):
Because they're not going to catch it. You're gonna have
a hard time catching it.
Speaker 3 (22:35):
So I think testament to the boomerang a little bit,
it did, like it eased up the stress. There wasn't
really any expectation for it that you.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
Couldn't have to be so pinpoint like directional punting. It
has to be on that yard line, yeah.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
Because it's like as they should, but like they hold
me to such a high standard, like they want the
ball turn over outside the numbers or not even that
on the red line or out of bounds.
Speaker 4 (22:58):
And again AFC nor it's windy.
Speaker 3 (23:01):
If I hit a perfect ball like right to the
out of bounds mark, if something happens up top where
the wind catches it and it pushes it out of
bounds and it's a twenty yard chink that could be
a perfectly hit ball.
Speaker 4 (23:11):
So it's like stuff like that.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
It's it's tough, but I mean they know how good
I can be, and that's why they put that. That's
why the expectations so high, right, and then it's finally
paid off this year and the boomerang help with that.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
That's awesome.
Speaker 6 (23:25):
You've mentioned the AFC Nord a couple of times of
plenty in it. Do you think that has made you
a better punner plunning in the conditions that you have
to pun in and do you think that maybe you
know there's some punners if they had to do it,
wouldn't be able to handle as well as some of
the guys we had to do it.
Speaker 3 (23:42):
Yeah, I feel like I can't really speak on if
anyone else could or couldn't do it. It's not my place
to say. I think if like AJ he plays in
a dome at the Raiders, but I promise you if
he was in the FC North, he'd be doing just
as well. It's like some guys have that mentality, and
I feel like that's what it is. It is it's
just a mentality and you just have to learn It's
(24:03):
it's different playing playing in cold weather. I mean, Green
Bays Punter has done a really really good job this
here and and he's playing and it seems like the
last eight weeks it's been under twenty degrees. So yeah,
I mean it feels harder. But also when you're in
a dome, like the expectation you have to do it right,
there's no misses, like, there's no excuses, right, and then
(24:27):
in windy conditions at least I can be like, hey,
I hit that ball perfect, but something happened up top right,
it can't help it.
Speaker 4 (24:33):
Like mentally you have that.
Speaker 3 (24:34):
Excuse if you if you will an excuse. I don't
like using excuses right right, But yeah, I mean you
could look at it both ways. It's like it's it's
more stressful to play a dome because the expectation is
what you have to do. And then and they have
seen north maybe you don't have to necessarily do it
every time and you'll they'll give you some leeway. So hard,
hard answer, hard question to answer, but that's that's how
(24:57):
I feel about it.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
And how did you know?
Speaker 2 (25:00):
Following up, Sam impact your conversations and the way you
mentored Tyler Loop this year, who followed up Justin Tucker.
Speaker 4 (25:07):
Yeah, you gotta know rookies are stubborn.
Speaker 3 (25:10):
I was stubborn, Randy in my air, justin Sam, Chris Nick,
everyone telling me what I need to do.
Speaker 4 (25:20):
When I didn't think that's what I needed to do.
So it's that's tough.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
And they were right about most of it, but they
were wrong about some of it too, And so you know,
I kind of give Tyler his space. I let him
do his thing. He knows more about kicking than I
did than I do, even though I did it, and
he's here for a reason. Randy is a very good
kicking coach, like probably, I mean probably the best in
the world. I mean, look at his track record. So
(25:46):
I technical stay away from it. I don't give him
any tips or anything like that, but the mental side
of the game, of course, when he has questions, when
he wants information, I always am the first one to
be like, yeah, man, this is how I feel about it.
This is my experience. I wish someone would have told
me this. In reality, they did, I just didn't listen.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
So it's yeah, Tyler was the first kicker the Ravens
ever drafted. You were a fourth round pick here, which
did come with those expectations. You talk about high expectations
from coaches.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
And all that about where they want that punt.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
I mean expectations were high for the moment you were drafted,
being a fourth round pick here. Sure, how much did
that impact you early in your career here?
Speaker 3 (26:28):
You know, I'd love to say I did and think
about it, but and maybe maybe I didn't, But it
was always in the back of my head.
Speaker 4 (26:33):
I guess it is.
Speaker 3 (26:34):
It's like your fourth round draft pick, you're the highest
drafted punter since Brian Inger in two thousand and nine,
twenty eleven, whatever. It was right, like you're going to
be perfect, right, right, Like you're not going to mess up,
like you can't your fourth round right, so right.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
I certainly understand how that would go through your head.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
It's not like coming as an undrafted guy who like
there are no expectations and when you do well, it's like,
oh wow, yeah, he's good for me. It was like
when I I did well, it's like, okay, you did it,
Like that's.
Speaker 4 (27:02):
What you were supposed to do.
Speaker 3 (27:03):
Right, So first three years it's kind of how it
felt this year, It's like it's a little different.
Speaker 5 (27:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
Well and now making the probole, I mean, is there
a feeling do you does your head go to any
space of like, all right, I justified it fourth round.
I'm a pro bowl, I'm a prople punter.
Speaker 5 (27:19):
Now.
Speaker 3 (27:19):
Yeah, I mean I said, this just feels like it
hit me instantly, like as soon as they got the information.
Speaker 4 (27:25):
I'm like, wow, I did it right right.
Speaker 3 (27:28):
And I look back to all the hard work and
all the down times, all the bad punts, all the
good punts, just like it was all for a reason.
It all happened to put me here so I could
be on your podcast.
Speaker 7 (27:39):
And.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
This is what I've been working.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
Take us back a little bit to your You were
saying before we started taping that that you were a
soccer player growing up and and you grew up in
Let me get this hand honkers.
Speaker 3 (27:56):
It's actually honaker. I understand why people wouldn't want to
say that. It sounds crazy, but like everyone when we
were growing up, they would call it honeker the news,
it's not what it's called. How they saying it like that.
I would like to talk about my hometown a little
bit ye, it's Heath Miller went there off Steelers.
Speaker 4 (28:18):
For eleven years in the league.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
Other than him, I'm the only other person ever out
of that high school to even play Division one football.
Oh wow, so it's just me and him. Well, it's
a very small town in like southwestern Virginia kind of
border like close to Tennessee, West Virginia and North Carolina area.
Like really is it's the Boonies. It's the middle of nowhere.
That's why my dad had to drive me an I
(28:41):
would have to go to a soccer practice because we
didn't really have soccer there.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (28:45):
Yeah, we did high school youth, but it's like if
I wanted to play at a high level in the future,
we had to go elsewhere to to to where the
talent's hire right right.
Speaker 4 (28:57):
It's it's an amazing little town, great pace.
Speaker 3 (29:00):
People like uh, it's like Appalachia as a whole is
like they're misunderstood because people think they they're dumb, but
in reality, they're just simple people who are really happy
because there's no stress there. It's like you farm, like
you have like you work at the local convenience store.
You have your own little like chiropractor, practicers like one
(29:20):
of them, like of everything. There's no competition. It's just
like a good life and everyone's happy. But it's an
amazing area. I'm so happy to have been raised there.
I love my people back home.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
Yeah, I saw that. They're like you're in the head.
They're in the newspaper there all the time. Like every
time you do something well, it's like local guy, local
puns are still doing great stuff. Like that's that's kind
of the perks of the small town life for sure. And
you said that you were really a soccer player and
had the fat head, the David Beckham fat head, And
(29:50):
so how did you come to be a football player
when you were so invested in soccer's kid?
Speaker 3 (29:54):
Yeah, So, like I said, I had Osgod slaughter at
my knees. It's where I grew too fast from what
was it, I said, ninth grade. The being in my
ninth grade year, I was start at five to five
and then I ended up at sixth three at the
end of that that that summer the next summer after
the school year, so I was having issues. So I
was out at soccer practice at the high school ninth
(30:15):
grade year. The quarterback who's a stud's the coolest guy
in the school. You know, he comes up, he's like, hey, man,
can you hit a Can you hit me a field goal?
I'm like, yeah, of course, I'm a little ninth grader,
a quarterback talking to me right now.
Speaker 4 (30:28):
And so I hit a field goal.
Speaker 3 (30:29):
I think it was like forty yard field goal off
the ground, first time I'd ever even tried.
Speaker 4 (30:34):
Yeah. He's like, I would like you to play for
us next year. I'm like, all right, sure.
Speaker 3 (30:38):
Then after that, you know, my dad very hands on
with was sports my entire life. I told him, or
he was probably at the practice and probably heard, It's
like do you.
Speaker 4 (30:47):
Want to do it? But you want to try it?
I'm like yeah.
Speaker 3 (30:49):
He's like all right, well, let's let's find you someone
that can train you. That's where we ended up going
to that camp in ninth grade year at Uva and
the time I was still five five, and the coach
at the camp the Uva camp was like, I see
potential in Jordan.
Speaker 4 (31:05):
I would I'd like to coach him.
Speaker 3 (31:06):
Uva is five hours from where I'm from, so every Sunday,
every other Sunday, my dad drove me five hours to
Uva to to go kick and punt even in season,
Like it's like all year, that's great. Got to give
a lot of credit to Pop for that one.
Speaker 2 (31:23):
And the punting coach to seeing you shoot up. But
you're like two inches taller every time you see him,
he's like, what is this the same kid? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (31:29):
Right, it did. It definitely helped.
Speaker 3 (31:32):
The taller I got, the more he's like, oh, this
kid could actually do it right, right, Like punting is
about leverage. And honestly, when I first started, it was
like I was a kicker. I was a kicker who
could punt. He was a punter at UVA and coach,
and so I was taught to be a combo guy
coming up. Ended up getting a walk on spot at
Virginia Tech. Right, I ended up kicking off there after
(31:53):
my red shirt year. Okay, Like that's not enough. I
want more than that. I felt like I was I
was competing with the starting kicker and punter, and statistically
in practice I was doing better. But I don't know
if they thought I was too mature or I wasn't
ready physically what it was, because like I said, like
I shot up from five to five to six three.
(32:14):
So my freshman year of college, I was still.
Speaker 4 (32:18):
Bones the bones.
Speaker 3 (32:20):
I couldn't bench one thirty five. So I felt like
Virginia Tech was like a hard nose, like lunch pel defense,
gritty team who like really respected.
Speaker 4 (32:32):
Guys who were like physical and big and mean and tough,
and you know me.
Speaker 1 (32:36):
You know my personality.
Speaker 3 (32:40):
I'm taller now, I'm more muscular now, but like early on,
like I didn't, I couldn't gain that respect. So you know,
there was one meeting where I met with a special
teams coordinator after it was an off seasons, after spring game,
I went what was it, two for two on field
goals and the starter went one for three, And after
that there was a press conference. They said that the
(33:03):
other kicker was still their guy. So I went to
my spect team square. I'm like, hey, I want more
for myself. I can do this. I want to be
the guy. I've proved it time and time again. And
he's like, he's like, you can't do that. You you
can't be the star here. I told her, I want
to play in the NFL. That's why I wanted to
be the guy.
Speaker 4 (33:21):
And he's like, he's like, NFL, that's not it's not reasonable. There.
Speaker 3 (33:27):
Wow, I don't even I don't even feel bad like
talking about it. I'm he's not a light a fire
out there anymore. And you know, so I'm like, I
want to enter the portal. Yeah, I can't reach my
goal if i'm if I'm here and I'm not. If
i'm I'm not playing. And I've never quit anything in
my life. So I was the biggest decision I'd ever
had to make is leaving there and Virginia Texas the
(33:47):
team I grew up liking to my my grandfather liked
that was his favorite team, my dad and my all
my friends, you know. Bet On myself got a scholarship
at Penn State.
Speaker 4 (33:56):
Went there.
Speaker 3 (33:56):
First year, I I did long I did kickoffs, and
I did long field goal.
Speaker 4 (34:00):
Step in the right direction.
Speaker 3 (34:02):
Next year, I kicked off and I kicked it was
the line had moved in, so I was kicking more
field goals. The punter ahead of me was Blake Gilligan.
He's the punter at Arizona. He got her earlier in
the year, but he's doing really well. He's a great punter.
So I wasn't punting. It wasn't really like I thought
after he graduated that I maybe would be the punter.
Speaker 4 (34:21):
I could be the punter.
Speaker 3 (34:23):
But that year went well, kicked off, kicked longer field goals,
the line went in a little bit, so I was
a step in the right direction. Then my senior year finally,
or is the next year, Yeah, I got the punning job.
Blake Gilligan graduated, Yep, he's gone, so then I'm punning.
I ended up holding that year for the kicker and
I was kicking off, so step in the right direction.
(34:43):
After that, I had a terrible junior By the way,
it was, it was COVID year and we played later
in the season and it was in Penn State.
Speaker 4 (34:51):
It was freezing cold.
Speaker 3 (34:53):
The football we used is it was the worst football
you could possibly use as a specialist. Yeah, so that
was that was Yeah, was really tough. Then finally senior year,
I talked to quarterback.
Speaker 4 (35:03):
He switched footballs. I got him to switch football. Sean Clifford,
he's quarterback, switched footballs.
Speaker 5 (35:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (35:09):
That's my argument was the ball we used before was
so narrow. I'm like, hey, man, like, you want to
go to the NFL too, right, He's like yeah. I
was like, well, you can't, like with this football, They're
going to say you're hand small or something like, you
wouln't want to use this football because when the NFL,
like is scouting you, they don't want to be like, oh,
well he uses this football. The NFL football is way big, right,
He's not gonna be able.
Speaker 1 (35:28):
To show he switched for me. And there you go.
Speaker 4 (35:30):
I owe him.
Speaker 3 (35:31):
I owe him a lot because that football made a
big difference. My junior year, I was eleventh out of
twelve teams in the Big Ten. Yeah and punting yeah.
And then my senior year I was first with the
changes to the ball. Of course, hard work as well,
and I'd matured and I got bigger, stronger.
Speaker 1 (35:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (35:47):
Yeah, like that's our path through college. Well I didn't
ask me a.
Speaker 7 (35:50):
Question about it, but no, I just kind of well,
you were meant to be a Raven because you know,
when I was looking up your hometown, I noticed that
you grew up fifteen minutes from a town called Raven.
Speaker 1 (36:02):
Yeah, Raven, there you go.
Speaker 3 (36:03):
Yeah, my uh, my grandparents live close to Raven, really
close to Raven.
Speaker 1 (36:07):
It was all meant to be. Never know the whole story.
You never thought about that, that the whole story. It
led you here, man, And then to the Pro Bowl.
Speaker 3 (36:15):
So the whole point, like what I was saying, I
started with my hometown, got into college, had some hardships,
but it's bet on yourself.
Speaker 4 (36:21):
It's that That's the that's the message I wanted to
get out there.
Speaker 3 (36:25):
It's like it's not supposed to be able to happen
from there, but like if you put your mind to it,
like you can do it, and if you set the
goal you can't achieve it.
Speaker 1 (36:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (36:32):
Yeah, I truly believe that, like especially now today because
it finally happened.
Speaker 2 (36:36):
Yeah yeah, totally living testament. Well, congratulations Jordan, thanks for
joining us.
Speaker 6 (36:41):
Thank you guys, thanks.
Speaker 1 (36:44):
For listening to Lounge.
Speaker 2 (36:44):
We're coming to you from the Seat Geek Studio and
we want our listeners to know that this week, the
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Baltimore Ravens, has a limited time offer you won't want
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(37:05):
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Gambler must be twenty one or order to play so well,
big thanks to Jordan, and he's having an awesome season.
I mean, he's number one in the NFL in punting
average at forty four point nine yards. He's number three
in gross average at fifty point five yards, So I
(37:28):
mean he's right up there. He's at the top, and
it's good to see a guy who you know, it
was kind of a roller coaster first three years, as
he described, and for him to really take off this year,
it was great for the Ravens and great for him
personally and his his pocketbook eventually.
Speaker 5 (37:44):
Yeah, very likable guy.
Speaker 6 (37:45):
Yeah, we saw his personality and yes, he cares deeply
about what he does. I mean, he says he wants
to be the greatest punter ever. I mean, when you
have that type of motivation, you're not going to stop
just making your first Pro Bowl yep.
Speaker 5 (37:58):
And sometimes when you.
Speaker 6 (37:59):
Get an accolae like that, it actually frees you to
go on and be your best. I mean, he's really
wanted to for a long time show that. Hey, they
spent a fourth round pick on me, I'm worthy of that,
I'm gonna be a great punter. Well this year he
has been a great punter, the best in the NFL, YEP.
And he's got that type of talent and motivation where
(38:20):
from this point on he could really take off.
Speaker 2 (38:23):
Yeah, and it's just incredible. The story of like, you know,
it really didn't come together until senior year of college.
You know, in high school he was really more interested
in you know, he's playing soccer really growing up. So
it really is a testament to man, like, if you
want to chase it, like you said, just go chase it,
and you're gonna have struggles and it's not gonna come together,
(38:43):
and then sometimes it it'll click and and just keep
going after it.
Speaker 1 (38:48):
So pretty awesome.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
The Ravens, uh, you know, their fourth round investment paid off,
and hopefully he's here for a long time. He's I'm
sure gonna have some suitors, but the Ravens kept Sam
Cook here for a long time, got numerous extensions done
with him.
Speaker 1 (39:03):
Hopefully the same thing happens to Jordan Stout.
Speaker 6 (39:05):
Well, right, he said he wants to finish his career here,
doesn't want to kick anywhere else. Certainly, the Ravens want
to keep him. So usually when both sides wanted to
happen that badly, it does. And either way, though he's
obviously taken advantage of being in his contract year, it's
a great story for him.
Speaker 5 (39:24):
I love the story about, you.
Speaker 6 (39:26):
Know, the Virginia Tech coach who told him he wasn't
going to make it in the NFL. He wasn't a
realistic dream. Sometimes that's exactly what you need to hear,
someone telling you you can't do something, and he did it,
so kudos to him.
Speaker 2 (39:40):
Hey, sure, a quick story. This is my college editor
told me the same thing. College newspaper after freshman year said, no,
you were not advancing you, buddy. You're covering the same
cross country beat you covered last year. I don't know, Cliff,
you ever cover cross country. It is not an especially
sexy beat.
Speaker 6 (39:58):
No, my BRIEFIX it was I want to do something.
Speaker 1 (40:03):
Covering the NFL is a lot more exciting. I'll tell
you the cover a little bit.
Speaker 2 (40:05):
You know, hate to the cross country runners out there,
but you know, and hey, that little fire under me
in my career and yeah, when somebody says you can't, man,
all right, I'm going to show you.
Speaker 1 (40:15):
I'm going to show you I.
Speaker 2 (40:16):
Can, and so kudos to Jordan Stout for doing exactly that.
And Jordan's one of six Pro bowlers for the Ravens.
It's tied for the most in the NFL with the
Seattle Seahawks, the forty nine ers, and the Temver Broncos.
So the Ravens other Pro bowlers along with Jordan's Stout,
it's wide receivers A Flowers, It's fullback Patrick Ricard, inside
linebacker Rokwan Smith, safety Kyle Hamilton, and then the last
(40:41):
one is center Tyler Linderbaum. And so congrats to all
six of those guys, very well deserved.
Speaker 1 (40:48):
Cliff. Did you have any other takeaways from the Ravens
Pro Bowlers.
Speaker 6 (40:51):
Well, that's just that, Yeah, I mean, the Ravens have
a nucleus of players who you have to we are
Jordan was his fir, but the rest of them, you know,
they've done this before, and yeah, they have a high
standard for themselves. And yeah, it's just part of a
nucleus of Ravens that you know are keeping them I think,
(41:13):
you know, for years to come in that kind of
Ravens culture of you look at the Ravens roster Pro
bowlers from their inception. You know, we've got Hall of Famers,
got peopled every position. So yeah, I mean again, even
though the phase of the Ravens haven't had the kind
of season they've won it, they've definitely had some players
(41:33):
who've excelled.
Speaker 2 (41:34):
Yeah, I think that's kind of the thing. You love
to see it. You love it for those guys. It
reinforces that. Man, the Ravens had one of the most
talented rosters in the NFL this season, you know, and
the guys that were alternates, you know, Lamar Jackson, Derrick Henry,
Mark Andrews. I mean, absolutely superstars, some of the best
in their games. So that's not even among the six, right,
(41:55):
Ronnie Stanley, Right, Like they the list goes on beyond
those six stars that the Ravens have had, and to
your point, obviously they haven't had as a team. It
just hasn't come together for a variety of reasons that
we've talked about many times on this podcast. So like,
you know, it's a little bit of you're like, man,
(42:15):
all those other teams that had six Pro bowlers to
go into the playoffs. The Ravens are on the brink
and it's not over maybe they still get in, but
it kind of does reinforce this. This was a very
good team, and yeah, it's kind of just a shame
that it didn't come all together as much as they hoped.
Speaker 1 (42:33):
Maybe it still will if they get into the playoffs.
Speaker 6 (42:35):
You never know, I mean at this point, yeah, try
and when obviously sat and then see what happens. But
certainly again that nucleus of town as long as it
keeps coming in.
Speaker 1 (42:46):
Well, and it's young.
Speaker 2 (42:47):
I mean, you look at all those guys, Rokwan and
Ricarder really the only kind of thirty year old you know,
they're vets right right, and but those other guys are
all very young players, and the Ravens are going to
have some contract decisions on some of them. Jordan Stout.
I mean, you have Tyler Linderbaums in a contract year.
(43:08):
You have Zay Flowers just finished year three. He's gonna
be eligible for an extension. They got to decide on
the fifth year option with him, which is not gonna
be cheap for a wide receiver. And so like this
is always the it's great you have great young talent,
now you gotta pay it right, And so it's kind
of the catch twenty two.
Speaker 5 (43:27):
Yeah, I mean that's what I want to say.
Speaker 6 (43:29):
I mean, better to have that problem than having guys
and I can't.
Speaker 5 (43:32):
Wait to give it to this guy.
Speaker 6 (43:34):
It's better to have too many players who well, let's
pace a No team can keep every player that they
want to.
Speaker 5 (43:41):
That's the salary capriality. Yep.
Speaker 6 (43:43):
But yes, when you keep bringing in talent, even when
you lose one or two, when you talk about six
Pro Bowlers more alternates, you know, when you get up
to almost sometimes ten eleven guys going to the Pro
Bowl one way or another, you can keep on having
good teams.
Speaker 2 (44:00):
That twenty two draft class was pretty great, speaking of
I mean you talk about Kyle Hamilton, Tyler Lindenbaum, now
multi year Pro Bowls for both of those guys, and
now also Jordan Stout. Oh and plus Travis Jones, who
you just gave a big contractor session two like that
twenty two draft class just keeps looking better and better.
(44:22):
So big thanks to Jordan Stout, Big thanks for our
listeners and viewers for watching.
Speaker 1 (44:26):
To make sure you are subscribed.
Speaker 2 (44:28):
As always, you can reach us at the lounge at
Ravens NFL dot net.
Speaker 1 (44:32):
We'll be back later.
Speaker 2 (44:33):
This week to get you ready for that big Ravens
Packers game.
Welcome into lounge presented by DraftKings.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
I'm Ryan Mink here with Clifton Brown and we are
thrilled to sit down with punter Jordan's Stout.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Fresh off of Pro Bowl. No, congratulations, man, thank you
so much. I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
That is awesome your first Pro Bowl. So take us
through how you found out? He called first all how
it went down?
Speaker 3 (00:22):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I found out yesterday around six somebody
called me. I'm not gonna I'm not gonna put their
name out there.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Oh okay, yeah, keeping this serious.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
Yeah, they called me. I was getting massage. My massage
there was like do you want me to leave? Like no, no, No,
it's fine, Like you're part of the reason I'm here,
Like stay. So got the news. My fiance was right
there with me. She found out with me. After that,
you know, we we were like happy, smiling. Yeah, and
then massage happened for another thirty minutes.
Speaker 4 (00:51):
Yeah, kind of just like sat there and thought about it.
Speaker 5 (00:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (00:55):
It's crazy feeling.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
I think this is a first time in my career
that it's really sunk in, like right away, like high school,
you want to make All State and you do it,
and then you have another goal, and then you go
to college and you want to be put on scholarship,
and then you get put on scholarship, and then you
go you get drafted, and then you want to make
Pro Bowl.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
So like, really, what's next? Yeah, this is.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
The goal, Like, this is like the peak of what
I can do as an athlete, and it's just a
crazy feeling that all that hard work is paid off.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Yeah, yeah, that's really awesome.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
I guess the next is you know, a masterful punt
goes out of bounds at the one in the Super Bowl, right,
that's yeah, yeah, that's the next goal.
Speaker 4 (01:35):
Then I was saying, like the main goal is like
Super Bowl of course.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Like individually, right, Pro Bowl.
Speaker 4 (01:42):
Like that's I mean, that's the.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Pens right right right, but that's also.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Who Right after the massage, I call my family, of course.
First off, my parents. My dad had just woken up
from an app. I said, I have some good news,
and he said pro Bowl. I said, yeah, you're right,
you got it. My mom, of course, threw her hands
up in the air and was happy crying. It's really
cool because without them I wouldn't I wouldn't be here. Yeah,
(02:08):
back to the what we're talking about prior to getting
on air. I played soccer my whole childhood and I
played club, Like I said, my dad drove me an
hour and like thirty minutes every Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.
Speaker 5 (02:25):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
Like while I was in elementary school, middle school, nice
up to the party of high played soccer.
Speaker 4 (02:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
And then also like when I started kicking, I had
a coach in Uva. His name is Jimmy Hall. That's
who I trained with. It went to a Uva camp
my after my ninth grade year of high school. He's like,
I see potential in him, Like I would like to
work with him. And he convinced my dad and so
we drove every other Sunday five hours, oh where I'm
from in Virginia to Uva, and he drove me every
(02:53):
other Sunday and I laid in.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
The back and slept. Wow, five guys after every time,
it was great.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
That's incredible.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
I have to arrange a pick up for my kid
from basketball practice five minutes away from my.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
House, yeah, five hours.
Speaker 5 (03:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
They sacrifice so much and so I appreciate them and
to share that moment with them was really cool.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
That is very cool.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
So I quickly want to go back to a moment
this season when we were talking after the Jets game,
when you had an awesome game, and you told me
that Randy Brown has told you this season that if
you do poorly, we're going to cut you. If you
do okay, we'll resign you. And if you do too well,
what's the future. It's a contract year for you, probo
(03:36):
year and a contract year.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
So what does this mean, Jordan, for the future.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
Here being said, there's no place I would rather play
than here. I want to play my whole career here.
You know, they're gonna have to pay me.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
I think that we all know what happen, you know.
Speaker 4 (03:56):
I mean, I love it here. I really don't want
to be anywhere else.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Like, yeah, it's pretty cool.
Speaker 4 (04:03):
Yeah, that's about the extent of it.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
And like.
Speaker 4 (04:06):
I say, God, I don't want to get into it.
I don't want to get into the logistics of it.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Yeah, but playing AFC nor is hard.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
Yeah, And like to my own horn a little bit,
like having the numbers I had this year, and of
course that's fifty percent me, that's fifty percent the punt team,
like KeAndre Jackson, Kean Martin, Tylan Wallace, like Nick Moore,
like delivering me seeds every single play, Like without those guys, like,
there's no chance that this could possibly happen.
Speaker 6 (04:32):
So yeah, for all those reasons you just talked about,
we all kind of knew this was a make or
break year for you. So you made it? What made
it for you? Why why did it come together this year?
Speaker 3 (04:44):
No, it's it's it's funny because as a punter, a
lot of the time you can't go into games with
goals because like I might have zero punts, I might
have ten punts, like you're never gonna know. And sometimes
when the offense does worse, that means I'm in a
better opportunity to have more more field to play with.
So it's it's real funny. It's like I don't want
(05:05):
to punt. I don't want to be out on the field.
I want the offense to score touchdowns. I want to
go hold extra points. That's that's what I want. So, like,
you know, like creating goals in your head of like
what you want to do is really difficult, right right.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Take us through your off season preparation and how you
trained for this season, maybe differently than you did in
years past.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
I started punting a little earlier. Yeah, Aj is a
guy who always did that. He said, if you don't
lose it, you don't have to get it back. So
in years past, you know, after my rookie year, I'm like,
everyone told me to relax, Like I don't have to
punt right now. I can go enjoy time with family,
go to the beach, just do what I want to do, decompress.
I had a long year. After second year, I went
and I'm like, I want to get better. I want
(05:46):
to like see what's going to make me better. So
I did speed training for like two months, and you know,
I was the best athletically I've ever been.
Speaker 4 (05:55):
I was.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
I was really really athletic, but that's timing for punting
was off when I came back. So it took me
like a full month to like figure out contact, like
when I need to drop the ball with my leg
swing because it was faster, stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
And can you tell, listen, why did you want to
do speed training? Like you wouldn't think of that obviously
for a punter.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Why do you want to get faster?
Speaker 3 (06:18):
Yeah, it's hard to play in AFC North and I like,
hangtime is king? How can I get better? Hangtime without
trying its hard. So like if I can make my
seventy percent punt a ball that is fifty five yards
like five zero plus hangtime, then that would make my
job a lot easier. But you know, it doesn't always
work out that way. And like I said, you never
(06:40):
know what's going to happen on the field. Like I
could be hitting pooch punts all year and after my
or my third year, primarily I was hitting pooch punts.
I on it from inside the forties snap from inside
the forties. I think it was forty eight percent of
my punts and.
Speaker 4 (06:57):
This year I had five pooch punts.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
Right, So I was in that area of the field
like five times, right, opposed to forty eight or whatever
percent of my punts being there in past years.
Speaker 4 (07:10):
And that's like part of it.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
It's like circumstance this year, like I was able to
take advantage of the field position that was given to me.
But right, you know, like I said, I would have
loved it if you squared all those touchdown yeah, I
was holding fresh points instead.
Speaker 4 (07:21):
I'm glad I was able to take advantage of it.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
I'm glad the guys out on the field did a
great job and and helped make me look good. I'm
glad I could help make them look good.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
So you said you did the speed training that didn't
really work out because your timing was all thrown off
going into year that was three.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Yeah, that was going into three. So now going into
year four.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
I know we talked about this before, but share with
listeners and viewers about you know, you went to the beach.
Speaker 4 (07:46):
And how that went back to you went to San Diego.
I started punting earlier. Yeah, that's the point.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
I guess I should have gotten to Aya started punting
a little earlier, punted a lot. I did the beach
a lot, And I said play because like we're I'm
an adult, but I still like to play in the water.
Speaker 4 (08:04):
And I think, no matter how old you get, you
still got to play.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
Yeah, and that was his body surfing.
Speaker 4 (08:09):
What are we doing?
Speaker 1 (08:09):
He body surfing surfing? Oh real?
Speaker 4 (08:12):
The front office about that.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
I don't think that'll be a sound bite, right, but yeah,
just like enjoying myself. You know, I love San Diego,
like the community here is there. My fiance loves the sun,
so she loves it there. It doesn't rain there much. Yeah,
just getting away to a place where I enjoy my
time there and I'm around like minded people. I'm Aj
Coles there, Jack Fox, Daniel Wheeling. Like a bunch of
(08:35):
guys that I look at is like the best punters
in the game. And you know, everyone has the same headspace,
Like they like playing in the water, they like surfing,
they like going out punting and working out, and it's
like it's a lifestyle and it almost feels like a hobby. Yeah,
it's like I enjoy what I'm doing, especially in the
off season.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
Yeah, So did it feel like, like what did that
do for you? Mentally?
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Did it feel like you just came into the year
like in the right headspace you're talking about did it
easy of the pressure and you're just feeling the beach vibes.
You're this Virginia kid. You're like, yes, I just feel great.
Like what did that do?
Speaker 1 (09:06):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (09:06):
I think it's really important.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
Like my rookie, that's what they told me, they get away,
get away from football, you don't need it. But it
turns out like I want to be around football.
Speaker 4 (09:13):
I love punting. It's like it's my favorite thing in
the world.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Get away, but also do football. Yeah, So combine the two.
Speaker 4 (09:19):
Yeah, and that's the thing. You got to know yourself.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
And over the years, I'm learning myself and I know
that I like punting, So I'm going to keep punting
in the off season. I'm going to do the things
I love at the same time. They don't interfere with
each other, right, I only punt two hours a day,
that's the max, right right.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
Right.
Speaker 6 (09:33):
When you came back from you know, having a great
off season, knowing it was a contract year, when did
you really start thinking, Hey, you know I'm going to
have my best season. Was as early as training camp?
Was it early in the season. Just I mean, obviously
you found your groove and kept it. Kind of curious
when that happened.
Speaker 4 (09:50):
Yeah, you know, I wish I could tell you.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
I feel like I've went into every year with with
the largest amount of confidence I possibly could. I think
confidence is the most important thing in my job. I
feel like if you go into a game of confidence,
then you're golden. So yeah, I really like I don't
I don't have a specific time that it clicked or anything.
I feel like this year was no different than other
(10:12):
years outside of we added in that boomerang punt, which
is the one that like goes up and then drifts
off to the right. I think that that it's definitely
a large part. And I got to give Logan Cook
some credit for that, because that's, uh, He's a punter
for the Jags. He's been doing that for years now,
and I just kind of made it my own, shifted
a few things around. I feel like, I mean, he
(10:34):
congratulated me today and I text him's like, hey, like,
I just want to let you know, like you you
paved the way for me like this, like I got it,
I got it from you, like I appreciate you. And
so that for him to reach out to me and
told me good jobs pretty cool too.
Speaker 5 (10:46):
Yeah, that is I'm curious too.
Speaker 6 (10:48):
You kind of touched on it seems to me like
Kickers Pawners kind of like fraternity. Like obviously your opponents,
but it seems like the bond between what you guys
do is kind of something that connects you all.
Speaker 5 (11:00):
Is that true? And how much do other punters kind
of help each other?
Speaker 3 (11:03):
Yeah, I mean it is a community, and I feel
like in the off season, the reason we all do
get together is because we are like minded, and part
of it's like we want to see where we're at.
Like I named two proble punters, Jack Fox, AJ Cole,
and then Daniel Willen is good enough to be a
pro bow punter. He's probably the most consistent I've ever
been around in sunny San Diego. But like being around
those guys and competing, I think on its own is
(11:26):
like helping each of us get better.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
How did they How did you kind of learn that
boomrang punt?
Speaker 4 (11:32):
Is that?
Speaker 1 (11:32):
Like literally standing next to them on the beach, Like,
take it, take me.
Speaker 4 (11:36):
Through that sponsored by Smart Water.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
I'll show you with this.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
So a normal turnover punt. Yeah, I'll show the camera. Yeah,
it's like this, Okay, that's how you hold the football.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
Okay, all right, here we go. We're going it's like
this right here. You want to make contact right like that? Okay,
So then the ball comes off your foot and spirals
up and out. Yeah, So a boomrang is held this way.
Interesting traditional boom rangs like almost sideways. You swing up
through the left side of the ball, rotations off to
the right, so it goes up and it spins to
(12:07):
the right.
Speaker 4 (12:09):
So I just like I was like, it's like a
forty yard punt.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
Normal boom rangs, Like I want more than that, So
I played around with like turning the ball more here. Yeah,
and if you swing up through the middle of the ball,
it's it's it's rough because there's mishits and I've had
mishits in the games, but the mishit is so hard to.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
Catch and it's usually like they see it.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
They know I'm doing a boom rang. I'm lined up
in the middle of the field like the other team knows.
A lot of the mishits go left. Boom raing is
supposed to go right. So there was probably like seven
or eight punts this year, maybe nine where I was
lined up for a boomerang and I mishit it, but
it went the opposite way, got on the ground and
rolled forward. So wow, Yeah, it's it's just one of
(12:52):
those punts like Randy Brown like gave me the go
ahead to just go down the middle of the lineup middle,
just swing middle, swing hard, hit the a ball. It's
like fifty five yards, can't catch it. Yeah, returner lets
it hit and roll and yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
And how did that differ because Sam Cook, I know,
you know he hit the boomerang punt as well and
was really known for a long time in the punting
world as kind of an innovator. You know, he changed
the game of punting where it was always that kind
of you know, just try to hit along, turnover punt
and all that stuff. And then he's kind of brought
in more directional punting and then adding more clubs to
(13:32):
the bag and having this huge arsenal and all that.
Like how did his influence and the boomerang also kind
of rub off on you?
Speaker 3 (13:39):
Yeah, you know, Sam is a huge part and like
I think Sam pushed the game forward ten years when
he was playing, Like the things he was doing on
the field was something that no one else was doing.
And some of the punts he does the guys still
don't do because they can't. So yeah, I mean Sam
has a huge part in it, and I'm sure Logan
(13:59):
learned from so I should maybe be giving Sam credit.
And it is the thing for me is like my
rookie year. I don't think anyone thought I was ready
for all of that. It's like hit a turnover, like
hit like do focus on like two things that like
you can get really good at.
Speaker 4 (14:17):
So that's what we did.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
We had turnovers, We had pooch punts and pooch punts
and endover and punt you had going in wanted to
land inside of ten? Yeah, and then it gets it.
Kind of what happened the last three years is the
same thing. Like no one really introduced new punts to me.
Then this past offseason, I just started playing around with
a little bit, and I mean it took months, and
(14:38):
it's because, like I didn't have a.
Speaker 4 (14:42):
A book that told me what I need to do.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
I kind of had to figure it out myself because
I mean, I don't think anyone's ever hit the boomerang
like I am. And I'm not trying to toot my own horne.
It's just like something that I found out through trial
and error, like for months, and then when I finally
did it and it finally clicked, I'm like, oh, this
could be this could be like the difference I could
do this year what Sam Cook did his whole career,
(15:04):
where he changes the game m M. And that's what
I told Randy at the beginning of the year. I'm like,
I want to find a way where I can change
the game. I want to I want to push the
game forward, like I want to create new punts ownA
and it's kind of what happened, kind of not because
the boomerang has been around, but.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
It's you changed different, there's a variation to it. So yeah, right,
that's cool.
Speaker 6 (15:24):
So may I ask is there more in the arsenal
to come? And do you already have thoughts in mind
about what else is next with you?
Speaker 5 (15:31):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (15:31):
I refuse to believe that there aren't more punts to come.
Do I have any idea of what they're going to
be right now? Absolutely not. That's what the off season's for.
And I promise you, maybe not next year, maybe not
the year after that, but there will be more punts
that like either I create or someone else creates that
I get good at and and it'll be a weapon.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
Yeah, I'm interested in You know, we talk about Sam
and you, and like I look at you two guys,
and you're like.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
So different from each other, right.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
I mean, like Sam was this guy who like did
not have a really big leg.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
He's super serious.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
He probably was telling dad jokes when he was twenty
years old.
Speaker 4 (16:11):
His oldest son is older than me.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
There you go.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
Yeah, then he had the licensees dad jokes at twenty
and then you're you're this kid who comes in with like.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
This big leg and the long hair, and.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
You're smiling all the time and you're super outgoing like Sam.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
Sam was just like in a jug way, like grumble
will be like, nah, I'm not talking to you, mink.
You know what I mean that when he was.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
A player, he was very stern and very serious, very
serious about his degree. But that's what made him great, exactly.
And everyone's different, right exactly, and it's worked for both
of you. So like how did that marriage work?
Speaker 2 (16:46):
And like I don't know, and you know, following in
his footsteps after he punted here for.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
What was it sixteen seasons and was he's a legend
here around here?
Speaker 2 (16:55):
Like following that being so different, I don't know, Just
how did that all work?
Speaker 4 (17:00):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (17:00):
You know, it's something I tried not to think about
much of course, Like him being a coacher was such
a blessing, Like having him like give me this mental
cues if anything, because he wasn't super hands on with punning.
Speaker 4 (17:11):
That was mainly Randy's job.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
Yeah, but you know, and it's all about verbiage, and
it's like Sam was telling me something my rookie year,
over and over again, he said, get the ball out,
get the ball out, Get the ball out. To me,
get the ball out was get it out farther. Oh,
Like what Hold meant was get the ball outside of
my quad. So the whole year we were we weren't
(17:34):
communicating properly. And I'm like, Sam, I'm getting the ball out.
He's like, no, you're not.
Speaker 4 (17:39):
And it it really it was.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
It was like that for a while, and you know, Sam,
it helped me so much. And like I said about
with the with the mental game, I like, I struggled
last year the last five games. Yeah, and like the
first time in my life I was seeing like a
sports psychologist because like the weather was so bad, I
felt like I couldn't control what was going to happen.
So even if I felt like I did hit a
good punt in the game a lot of the times
(18:02):
towards his last five games, it was still bad. I
mean I had a few bad punts last five games.
And you know, I just sat down with Sam and
we talked through it, and he told me his process,
and it was pretty much, you know, you can't worry
about what happens once the ball leaves your foot. Worry
about your process. Like you can't worry about the external factors.
And that helped me so much, just just like rewiring
(18:24):
my brain to where, yeah, the weather's bad and yeah,
who knows what's going to happen in the air, But
if I do my job surface level, then then I'll
be okay, right, And now I have to taken that
through this whole year, and it's helped me a ton
less pressure really because now Renny knows harbes nose, Chris knows.
I'm like, hey, I'm going to do my job. What
happens in the air, like, can't help it right right right?
Speaker 6 (18:47):
You said you didn't know you know exactly when it
clicked or you know the moment. But the Jets game
is something a lot of people are going to talk
about with this Pro Bowl season.
Speaker 7 (18:56):
With you, you have.
Speaker 6 (18:57):
Seventy four yard punt, yeah six if you're on average
for the game. How much did a game like that
you talked about helping the team win the game when
offense wasn't cooken for you to come through in a
moment like that, how much did that play into maybe
what happened the rest.
Speaker 5 (19:14):
Of the way.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
Yeah, you know, I'd say that's one of my favorite
games of my career, it's like, how often am I
able to like noticeably make a game changing impact. It's
not too often as a punter, because I can hit
a punt ninety nine yards down on the one and
they can drive all the way down the field and
right it does. Sometimes it doesn't matter, but for it
to be at the end of the game down like
a touchdown or three points, I can't remember exactly what
(19:36):
it was, but to hit that punt in that moment,
in the fourth quarter when it means the most, And
that's what the coaches always talk about, is like, can
you do it in the fourth quarter?
Speaker 5 (19:44):
Though?
Speaker 3 (19:45):
Can you do it when the pressure is the highest?
And to do that, man, it's really rewarding, more rewarding
than any other punts that you can have because it
means the most. And you kind of felt like I
sealed the game. And of course there's fifty three guys
who stilled that game, but yeah, I mean I had
a larger impact than usual. And you know that was
that was one of the windiest games of the year.
(20:05):
And I was sitting back there before that seventy three
yard punter sixty eight whatever it.
Speaker 4 (20:09):
Was, and I was like, oh no, this could be bad.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
And I tried not to get that negative headpace much,
but it was so windy back there in the end
zone where I was punting that I was like like
gone to play, looking over the sideline, like go for it,
go for it. And then you know, sometimes I say,
it's God. It's like I hit the ball, it gets
up in the air. It's like there's no wind at all,
and there's a wind pocket up top that right in
my back just catches it and it just it looked
(20:35):
like it went forever, like it didn't feel any different
off my foot than any normal like forty five yard
fifty five yards and over, but it just it just sailed.
And it happened twice that game, right right, that's awesome.
And that was like a huge ovation from the crowd.
It's not often that you see the punter get the
ovation in the stadium.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
That was cool. Yeah, it does.
Speaker 4 (20:54):
It's so cool.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
And you know, I said, after I lost control of
my body, I just I just threw my arms out
and started yelling because you don't it's just like an
out of body experience, like everyone is on their feet
yelling for the punter like that doesn't happen.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Yeah, it's cool to me, Like I feel like watching
you so far in your career, Like there you talk
about the confidence of punting, and for me, it felt
like sometimes you like cared so much about it and
sometimes it felt like the mental side of the game,
like you were thinking so much about it right and
(21:27):
and correct me if I'm wrong or stop me. But
it felt like sometimes the mishits like felt like, oh man,
he's in his head. Like you felt that pressure because
there is a ton of pressure when you're a punter
and everybody's looking at you. It's like a kicker, you know,
same way on a field goal attemp. Like it's a
lot of pressure. And it felt like this year maybe
because of the off season. Maybe it's because you know,
you got off to a good start and you hit
(21:48):
some great punts and things were going well, and it
felt like momentum was picking up that that pressure just
kind of and you were just like playing your game.
Is that an accurate description or how would you describe it?
Speaker 1 (22:01):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (22:01):
You know, sometimes you get overwhelmed on the field, and
I feel like that is because I care so much,
like genuinely, like I I this is like I my
why is I want to provide for my future family
and I want to be the best punter to ever
play the game, like playing and simple. So like the
stress of that that I put on myself is is
(22:21):
rough at times. And you know the boomerang I said,
is it's a great ballout punt. You just hold it
out there and you just swing as hard as you
can and then they get like I said, like if
it goes left, great, if it goes right great, if
it goes middle great.
Speaker 4 (22:32):
Because they're not going to catch it. You're gonna have
a hard time catching it.
Speaker 3 (22:35):
So I think testament to the boomerang a little bit,
it did, like it eased up the stress. There wasn't
really any expectation for it that you.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
Couldn't have to be so pinpoint like directional punting. It
has to be on that yard line, yeah.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
Because it's like as they should, but like they hold
me to such a high standard, like they want the
ball turn over outside the numbers or not even that
on the red line or out of bounds.
Speaker 4 (22:58):
And again AFC nor it's windy.
Speaker 3 (23:01):
If I hit a perfect ball like right to the
out of bounds mark, if something happens up top where
the wind catches it and it pushes it out of
bounds and it's a twenty yard chink that could be
a perfectly hit ball.
Speaker 4 (23:11):
So it's like stuff like that.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
It's it's tough, but I mean they know how good
I can be, and that's why they put that. That's
why the expectations so high, right, and then it's finally
paid off this year and the boomerang help with that.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
That's awesome.
Speaker 6 (23:25):
You've mentioned the AFC Nord a couple of times of
plenty in it. Do you think that has made you
a better punner plunning in the conditions that you have
to pun in and do you think that maybe you
know there's some punners if they had to do it,
wouldn't be able to handle as well as some of
the guys we had to do it.
Speaker 3 (23:42):
Yeah, I feel like I can't really speak on if
anyone else could or couldn't do it. It's not my place
to say. I think if like AJ he plays in
a dome at the Raiders, but I promise you if
he was in the FC North, he'd be doing just
as well. It's like some guys have that mentality, and
I feel like that's what it is. It is it's
just a mentality and you just have to learn It's
(24:03):
it's different playing playing in cold weather. I mean, Green
Bays Punter has done a really really good job this
here and and he's playing and it seems like the
last eight weeks it's been under twenty degrees. So yeah,
I mean it feels harder. But also when you're in
a dome, like the expectation you have to do it right,
there's no misses, like, there's no excuses, right, and then
(24:27):
in windy conditions at least I can be like, hey,
I hit that ball perfect, but something happened up top right,
it can't help it.
Speaker 4 (24:33):
Like mentally you have that.
Speaker 3 (24:34):
Excuse if you if you will an excuse. I don't
like using excuses right right, But yeah, I mean you
could look at it both ways. It's like it's it's
more stressful to play a dome because the expectation is
what you have to do. And then and they have
seen north maybe you don't have to necessarily do it
every time and you'll they'll give you some leeway. So hard,
hard answer, hard question to answer, but that's that's how
(24:57):
I feel about it.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
And how did you know?
Speaker 2 (25:00):
Following up, Sam impact your conversations and the way you
mentored Tyler Loop this year, who followed up Justin Tucker.
Speaker 4 (25:07):
Yeah, you gotta know rookies are stubborn.
Speaker 3 (25:10):
I was stubborn, Randy in my air, justin Sam, Chris Nick,
everyone telling me what I need to do.
Speaker 4 (25:20):
When I didn't think that's what I needed to do.
So it's that's tough.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
And they were right about most of it, but they
were wrong about some of it too, And so you know,
I kind of give Tyler his space. I let him
do his thing. He knows more about kicking than I
did than I do, even though I did it, and
he's here for a reason. Randy is a very good
kicking coach, like probably, I mean probably the best in
the world. I mean, look at his track record. So
(25:46):
I technical stay away from it. I don't give him
any tips or anything like that, but the mental side
of the game, of course, when he has questions, when
he wants information, I always am the first one to
be like, yeah, man, this is how I feel about it.
This is my experience. I wish someone would have told
me this. In reality, they did, I just didn't listen.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
So it's yeah, Tyler was the first kicker the Ravens
ever drafted. You were a fourth round pick here, which
did come with those expectations. You talk about high expectations
from coaches.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
And all that about where they want that punt.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
I mean expectations were high for the moment you were drafted,
being a fourth round pick here. Sure, how much did
that impact you early in your career here?
Speaker 3 (26:28):
You know, I'd love to say I did and think
about it, but and maybe maybe I didn't, But it
was always in the back of my head.
Speaker 4 (26:33):
I guess it is.
Speaker 3 (26:34):
It's like your fourth round draft pick, you're the highest
drafted punter since Brian Inger in two thousand and nine,
twenty eleven, whatever. It was right, like you're going to
be perfect, right, right, Like you're not going to mess up,
like you can't your fourth round right, so right.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
I certainly understand how that would go through your head.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
It's not like coming as an undrafted guy who like
there are no expectations and when you do well, it's like,
oh wow, yeah, he's good for me. It was like
when I I did well, it's like, okay, you did it,
Like that's.
Speaker 4 (27:02):
What you were supposed to do.
Speaker 3 (27:03):
Right, So first three years it's kind of how it
felt this year, It's like it's a little different.
Speaker 5 (27:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
Well and now making the probole, I mean, is there
a feeling do you does your head go to any
space of like, all right, I justified it fourth round.
I'm a pro bowl, I'm a prople punter.
Speaker 5 (27:19):
Now.
Speaker 3 (27:19):
Yeah, I mean I said, this just feels like it
hit me instantly, like as soon as they got the information.
Speaker 4 (27:25):
I'm like, wow, I did it right right.
Speaker 3 (27:28):
And I look back to all the hard work and
all the down times, all the bad punts, all the
good punts, just like it was all for a reason.
It all happened to put me here so I could
be on your podcast.
Speaker 7 (27:39):
And.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
This is what I've been working.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
Take us back a little bit to your You were
saying before we started taping that that you were a
soccer player growing up and and you grew up in
Let me get this hand honkers.
Speaker 3 (27:56):
It's actually honaker. I understand why people wouldn't want to
say that. It sounds crazy, but like everyone when we
were growing up, they would call it honeker the news,
it's not what it's called. How they saying it like that.
I would like to talk about my hometown a little
bit ye, it's Heath Miller went there off Steelers.
Speaker 4 (28:18):
For eleven years in the league.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
Other than him, I'm the only other person ever out
of that high school to even play Division one football.
Oh wow, so it's just me and him. Well, it's
a very small town in like southwestern Virginia kind of
border like close to Tennessee, West Virginia and North Carolina area.
Like really is it's the Boonies. It's the middle of nowhere.
That's why my dad had to drive me an I
(28:41):
would have to go to a soccer practice because we
didn't really have soccer there.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (28:45):
Yeah, we did high school youth, but it's like if
I wanted to play at a high level in the future,
we had to go elsewhere to to to where the
talent's hire right right.
Speaker 4 (28:57):
It's it's an amazing little town, great pace.
Speaker 3 (29:00):
People like uh, it's like Appalachia as a whole is
like they're misunderstood because people think they they're dumb, but
in reality, they're just simple people who are really happy
because there's no stress there. It's like you farm, like
you have like you work at the local convenience store.
You have your own little like chiropractor, practicers like one
(29:20):
of them, like of everything. There's no competition. It's just
like a good life and everyone's happy. But it's an
amazing area. I'm so happy to have been raised there.
I love my people back home.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
Yeah, I saw that. They're like you're in the head.
They're in the newspaper there all the time. Like every
time you do something well, it's like local guy, local
puns are still doing great stuff. Like that's that's kind
of the perks of the small town life for sure. And
you said that you were really a soccer player and
had the fat head, the David Beckham fat head, And
(29:50):
so how did you come to be a football player
when you were so invested in soccer's kid?
Speaker 3 (29:54):
Yeah, So, like I said, I had Osgod slaughter at
my knees. It's where I grew too fast from what
was it, I said, ninth grade. The being in my
ninth grade year, I was start at five to five
and then I ended up at sixth three at the
end of that that that summer the next summer after
the school year, so I was having issues. So I
was out at soccer practice at the high school ninth
(30:15):
grade year. The quarterback who's a stud's the coolest guy
in the school. You know, he comes up, he's like, hey, man,
can you hit a Can you hit me a field goal?
I'm like, yeah, of course, I'm a little ninth grader,
a quarterback talking to me right now.
Speaker 4 (30:28):
And so I hit a field goal.
Speaker 3 (30:29):
I think it was like forty yard field goal off
the ground, first time I'd ever even tried.
Speaker 4 (30:34):
Yeah. He's like, I would like you to play for
us next year. I'm like, all right, sure.
Speaker 3 (30:38):
Then after that, you know, my dad very hands on
with was sports my entire life. I told him, or
he was probably at the practice and probably heard, It's
like do you.
Speaker 4 (30:47):
Want to do it? But you want to try it?
I'm like yeah.
Speaker 3 (30:49):
He's like all right, well, let's let's find you someone
that can train you. That's where we ended up going
to that camp in ninth grade year at Uva and
the time I was still five five, and the coach
at the camp the Uva camp was like, I see
potential in Jordan.
Speaker 4 (31:05):
I would I'd like to coach him.
Speaker 3 (31:06):
Uva is five hours from where I'm from, so every Sunday,
every other Sunday, my dad drove me five hours to
Uva to to go kick and punt even in season,
Like it's like all year, that's great. Got to give
a lot of credit to Pop for that one.
Speaker 2 (31:23):
And the punting coach to seeing you shoot up. But
you're like two inches taller every time you see him,
he's like, what is this the same kid? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (31:29):
Right, it did. It definitely helped.
Speaker 3 (31:32):
The taller I got, the more he's like, oh, this
kid could actually do it right, right, Like punting is
about leverage. And honestly, when I first started, it was
like I was a kicker. I was a kicker who
could punt. He was a punter at UVA and coach,
and so I was taught to be a combo guy
coming up. Ended up getting a walk on spot at
Virginia Tech. Right, I ended up kicking off there after
(31:53):
my red shirt year. Okay, Like that's not enough. I
want more than that. I felt like I was I
was competing with the starting kicker and punter, and statistically
in practice I was doing better. But I don't know
if they thought I was too mature or I wasn't
ready physically what it was, because like I said, like
I shot up from five to five to six three.
(32:14):
So my freshman year of college, I was still.
Speaker 4 (32:18):
Bones the bones.
Speaker 3 (32:20):
I couldn't bench one thirty five. So I felt like
Virginia Tech was like a hard nose, like lunch pel defense,
gritty team who like really respected.
Speaker 4 (32:32):
Guys who were like physical and big and mean and tough,
and you know me.
Speaker 1 (32:36):
You know my personality.
Speaker 3 (32:40):
I'm taller now, I'm more muscular now, but like early on,
like I didn't, I couldn't gain that respect. So you know,
there was one meeting where I met with a special
teams coordinator after it was an off seasons, after spring game,
I went what was it, two for two on field
goals and the starter went one for three, And after
that there was a press conference. They said that the
(33:03):
other kicker was still their guy. So I went to
my spect team square. I'm like, hey, I want more
for myself. I can do this. I want to be
the guy. I've proved it time and time again. And
he's like, he's like, you can't do that. You you
can't be the star here. I told her, I want
to play in the NFL. That's why I wanted to
be the guy.
Speaker 4 (33:21):
And he's like, he's like, NFL, that's not it's not reasonable. There.
Speaker 3 (33:27):
Wow, I don't even I don't even feel bad like
talking about it. I'm he's not a light a fire
out there anymore. And you know, so I'm like, I
want to enter the portal. Yeah, I can't reach my
goal if i'm if I'm here and I'm not. If
i'm I'm not playing. And I've never quit anything in
my life. So I was the biggest decision I'd ever
had to make is leaving there and Virginia Texas the
(33:47):
team I grew up liking to my my grandfather liked
that was his favorite team, my dad and my all
my friends, you know. Bet On myself got a scholarship
at Penn State.
Speaker 4 (33:56):
Went there.
Speaker 3 (33:56):
First year, I I did long I did kickoffs, and
I did long field goal.
Speaker 4 (34:00):
Step in the right direction.
Speaker 3 (34:02):
Next year, I kicked off and I kicked it was
the line had moved in, so I was kicking more
field goals. The punter ahead of me was Blake Gilligan.
He's the punter at Arizona. He got her earlier in
the year, but he's doing really well. He's a great punter.
So I wasn't punting. It wasn't really like I thought
after he graduated that I maybe would be the punter.
Speaker 4 (34:21):
I could be the punter.
Speaker 3 (34:23):
But that year went well, kicked off, kicked longer field goals,
the line went in a little bit, so I was
a step in the right direction. Then my senior year finally,
or is the next year, Yeah, I got the punning job.
Blake Gilligan graduated, Yep, he's gone, so then I'm punning.
I ended up holding that year for the kicker and
I was kicking off, so step in the right direction.
(34:43):
After that, I had a terrible junior By the way,
it was, it was COVID year and we played later
in the season and it was in Penn State.
Speaker 4 (34:51):
It was freezing cold.
Speaker 3 (34:53):
The football we used is it was the worst football
you could possibly use as a specialist. Yeah, so that
was that was Yeah, was really tough. Then finally senior year,
I talked to quarterback.
Speaker 4 (35:03):
He switched footballs. I got him to switch football. Sean Clifford,
he's quarterback, switched footballs.
Speaker 5 (35:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (35:09):
That's my argument was the ball we used before was
so narrow. I'm like, hey, man, like, you want to
go to the NFL too, right, He's like yeah. I
was like, well, you can't, like with this football, They're
going to say you're hand small or something like, you
wouln't want to use this football because when the NFL,
like is scouting you, they don't want to be like, oh,
well he uses this football. The NFL football is way big, right,
He's not gonna be able.
Speaker 1 (35:28):
To show he switched for me. And there you go.
Speaker 4 (35:30):
I owe him.
Speaker 3 (35:31):
I owe him a lot because that football made a
big difference. My junior year, I was eleventh out of
twelve teams in the Big Ten. Yeah and punting yeah.
And then my senior year I was first with the
changes to the ball. Of course, hard work as well,
and I'd matured and I got bigger, stronger.
Speaker 1 (35:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (35:47):
Yeah, like that's our path through college. Well I didn't
ask me a.
Speaker 7 (35:50):
Question about it, but no, I just kind of well,
you were meant to be a Raven because you know,
when I was looking up your hometown, I noticed that
you grew up fifteen minutes from a town called Raven.
Speaker 1 (36:02):
Yeah, Raven, there you go.
Speaker 3 (36:03):
Yeah, my uh, my grandparents live close to Raven, really
close to Raven.
Speaker 1 (36:07):
It was all meant to be. Never know the whole story.
You never thought about that, that the whole story. It
led you here, man, And then to the Pro Bowl.
Speaker 3 (36:15):
So the whole point, like what I was saying, I
started with my hometown, got into college, had some hardships,
but it's bet on yourself.
Speaker 4 (36:21):
It's that That's the that's the message I wanted to
get out there.
Speaker 3 (36:25):
It's like it's not supposed to be able to happen
from there, but like if you put your mind to it,
like you can do it, and if you set the
goal you can't achieve it.
Speaker 1 (36:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (36:32):
Yeah, I truly believe that, like especially now today because
it finally happened.
Speaker 2 (36:36):
Yeah yeah, totally living testament. Well, congratulations Jordan, thanks for
joining us.
Speaker 6 (36:41):
Thank you guys, thanks.
Speaker 1 (36:44):
For listening to Lounge.
Speaker 2 (36:44):
We're coming to you from the Seat Geek Studio and
we want our listeners to know that this week, the
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(37:05):
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Gambler must be twenty one or order to play so well,
big thanks to Jordan, and he's having an awesome season.
I mean, he's number one in the NFL in punting
average at forty four point nine yards. He's number three
in gross average at fifty point five yards, So I
(37:28):
mean he's right up there. He's at the top, and
it's good to see a guy who you know, it
was kind of a roller coaster first three years, as
he described, and for him to really take off this year,
it was great for the Ravens and great for him
personally and his his pocketbook eventually.
Speaker 5 (37:44):
Yeah, very likable guy.
Speaker 6 (37:45):
Yeah, we saw his personality and yes, he cares deeply
about what he does. I mean, he says he wants
to be the greatest punter ever. I mean, when you
have that type of motivation, you're not going to stop
just making your first Pro Bowl yep.
Speaker 5 (37:58):
And sometimes when you.
Speaker 6 (37:59):
Get an accolae like that, it actually frees you to
go on and be your best. I mean, he's really
wanted to for a long time show that. Hey, they
spent a fourth round pick on me, I'm worthy of that,
I'm gonna be a great punter. Well this year he
has been a great punter, the best in the NFL, YEP.
And he's got that type of talent and motivation where
(38:20):
from this point on he could really take off.
Speaker 2 (38:23):
Yeah, and it's just incredible. The story of like, you know,
it really didn't come together until senior year of college.
You know, in high school he was really more interested
in you know, he's playing soccer really growing up. So
it really is a testament to man, like, if you
want to chase it, like you said, just go chase it,
and you're gonna have struggles and it's not gonna come together,
(38:43):
and then sometimes it it'll click and and just keep
going after it.
Speaker 1 (38:48):
So pretty awesome.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
The Ravens, uh, you know, their fourth round investment paid off,
and hopefully he's here for a long time. He's I'm
sure gonna have some suitors, but the Ravens kept Sam
Cook here for a long time, got numerous extensions done
with him.
Speaker 1 (39:03):
Hopefully the same thing happens to Jordan Stout.
Speaker 6 (39:05):
Well, right, he said he wants to finish his career here,
doesn't want to kick anywhere else. Certainly, the Ravens want
to keep him. So usually when both sides wanted to
happen that badly, it does. And either way, though he's
obviously taken advantage of being in his contract year, it's
a great story for him.
Speaker 5 (39:24):
I love the story about, you.
Speaker 6 (39:26):
Know, the Virginia Tech coach who told him he wasn't
going to make it in the NFL. He wasn't a
realistic dream. Sometimes that's exactly what you need to hear,
someone telling you you can't do something, and he did it,
so kudos to him.
Speaker 2 (39:40):
Hey, sure, a quick story. This is my college editor
told me the same thing. College newspaper after freshman year said, no,
you were not advancing you, buddy. You're covering the same
cross country beat you covered last year. I don't know, Cliff,
you ever cover cross country. It is not an especially
sexy beat.
Speaker 6 (39:58):
No, my BRIEFIX it was I want to do something.
Speaker 1 (40:03):
Covering the NFL is a lot more exciting. I'll tell
you the cover a little bit.
Speaker 2 (40:05):
You know, hate to the cross country runners out there,
but you know, and hey, that little fire under me
in my career and yeah, when somebody says you can't, man,
all right, I'm going to show you.
Speaker 1 (40:15):
I'm going to show you I.
Speaker 2 (40:16):
Can, and so kudos to Jordan Stout for doing exactly that.
And Jordan's one of six Pro bowlers for the Ravens.
It's tied for the most in the NFL with the
Seattle Seahawks, the forty nine ers, and the Temver Broncos.
So the Ravens other Pro bowlers along with Jordan's Stout,
it's wide receivers A Flowers, It's fullback Patrick Ricard, inside
linebacker Rokwan Smith, safety Kyle Hamilton, and then the last
(40:41):
one is center Tyler Linderbaum. And so congrats to all
six of those guys, very well deserved.
Speaker 1 (40:48):
Cliff. Did you have any other takeaways from the Ravens
Pro Bowlers.
Speaker 6 (40:51):
Well, that's just that, Yeah, I mean, the Ravens have
a nucleus of players who you have to we are
Jordan was his fir, but the rest of them, you know,
they've done this before, and yeah, they have a high
standard for themselves. And yeah, it's just part of a
nucleus of Ravens that you know are keeping them I think,
(41:13):
you know, for years to come in that kind of
Ravens culture of you look at the Ravens roster Pro
bowlers from their inception. You know, we've got Hall of Famers,
got peopled every position. So yeah, I mean again, even
though the phase of the Ravens haven't had the kind
of season they've won it, they've definitely had some players
(41:33):
who've excelled.
Speaker 2 (41:34):
Yeah, I think that's kind of the thing. You love
to see it. You love it for those guys. It
reinforces that. Man, the Ravens had one of the most
talented rosters in the NFL this season, you know, and
the guys that were alternates, you know, Lamar Jackson, Derrick Henry,
Mark Andrews. I mean, absolutely superstars, some of the best
in their games. So that's not even among the six, right,
(41:55):
Ronnie Stanley, Right, Like they the list goes on beyond
those six stars that the Ravens have had, and to
your point, obviously they haven't had as a team. It
just hasn't come together for a variety of reasons that
we've talked about many times on this podcast. So like,
you know, it's a little bit of you're like, man,
(42:15):
all those other teams that had six Pro bowlers to
go into the playoffs. The Ravens are on the brink
and it's not over maybe they still get in, but
it kind of does reinforce this. This was a very
good team, and yeah, it's kind of just a shame
that it didn't come all together as much as they hoped.
Speaker 1 (42:33):
Maybe it still will if they get into the playoffs.
Speaker 6 (42:35):
You never know, I mean at this point, yeah, try
and when obviously sat and then see what happens. But
certainly again that nucleus of town as long as it
keeps coming in.
Speaker 1 (42:46):
Well, and it's young.
Speaker 2 (42:47):
I mean, you look at all those guys, Rokwan and
Ricarder really the only kind of thirty year old you know,
they're vets right right, and but those other guys are
all very young players, and the Ravens are going to
have some contract decisions on some of them. Jordan Stout.
I mean, you have Tyler Linderbaums in a contract year.
(43:08):
You have Zay Flowers just finished year three. He's gonna
be eligible for an extension. They got to decide on
the fifth year option with him, which is not gonna
be cheap for a wide receiver. And so like this
is always the it's great you have great young talent,
now you gotta pay it right, And so it's kind
of the catch twenty two.
Speaker 5 (43:27):
Yeah, I mean that's what I want to say.
Speaker 6 (43:29):
I mean, better to have that problem than having guys
and I can't.
Speaker 5 (43:32):
Wait to give it to this guy.
Speaker 6 (43:34):
It's better to have too many players who well, let's
pace a No team can keep every player that they
want to.
Speaker 5 (43:41):
That's the salary capriality. Yep.
Speaker 6 (43:43):
But yes, when you keep bringing in talent, even when
you lose one or two, when you talk about six
Pro Bowlers more alternates, you know, when you get up
to almost sometimes ten eleven guys going to the Pro
Bowl one way or another, you can keep on having
good teams.
Speaker 2 (44:00):
That twenty two draft class was pretty great, speaking of
I mean you talk about Kyle Hamilton, Tyler Lindenbaum, now
multi year Pro Bowls for both of those guys, and
now also Jordan Stout. Oh and plus Travis Jones, who
you just gave a big contractor session two like that
twenty two draft class just keeps looking better and better.
(44:22):
So big thanks to Jordan Stout, Big thanks for our
listeners and viewers for watching.
Speaker 1 (44:26):
To make sure you are subscribed.
Speaker 2 (44:28):
As always, you can reach us at the lounge at
Ravens NFL dot net.
Speaker 1 (44:32):
We'll be back later.
Speaker 2 (44:33):
This week to get you ready for that big Ravens
Packers game.
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