http://www.newyorkjets.com/blog/posts/692-kick-it-good-hodges-signed-as-new-punter Kick It Good: Hodges Signed as New Punter Published: Wed, September 17, 2008 - 10:52am EDT Randy Lange By Randy Lange Lange is editor-in-chief of newyorkjets.com. He covered the Jets for 13 years for The Record of Hackensack, N.J. File Under: Eric Mangini, Ben Graham, Reggie Hodges, Waylon Prather change font email article 09/17 ? Reggie Hodges is the Jets' new punter. Head coach Eric Mangini announced the signing of Hodges to replace Ben Graham. Hodges worked out Tuesday and the Jets announced they had waived Graham on Tuesday evening. "With Hodges, we had a high grade on him coming out of college," Mangini said of the former Ball State punter. "We follow those guys based on their college grades to see how they've progressed, we've been to a couple of preseason camps and we've also worked some of these independent kicking clinics. We follow them pretty quickly. "With Reggie, we've been watching his development over time and we've been pretty pleased with it. He came in yesterday and had an outstanding workout. Not that I've been to that many punter workouts, but it was pretty impressive." If Hodges' name has filtered into your subconscious, it's OK. He's been around since he was a sixth-round draft choice of St. Louis in 2005. He had five punts for the Rams and Eagles that season, providing his only pro stats: a 37.4-yard gross and a 32.2 net. But his skills intrigued three more teams before the Jets signed him. He was in the Colts' training camps in 2006 and '07, was with the Seahawks this summer, and was on the Patriots' practice squad from Sept. 4-7. "Reggie gives us some flexibility with kickoffs, PATs and field goals ? he's functional in both those areas," Mangini said. "He has the ability to throw the football, which gives us some opportunities in terms of fakes." Mangini said Hodges will also be the new holder for the Jets placekicker, be he Jay Feely or, when healthy, Mike Nugent. As for Graham, the coach again talked about one of the most excruciating parts of the NFL head-coaching business. "Releasing Ben was extremely difficult for me. It's always the most difficult part of this job," he said. "You develop relations with players over time. I have a strong memory of being in Australia, in a Geelong cow paddock, with Ben's girlfriend at the time who's now his wife, pouring rain, one football. It's amazing what he's done to this point, totally changing sports, having the success he's had. But I just thought at this point it was the best thing to make the change." With one spot open on the practice squad, Mangini announced the signing of another punter ? Waylon Prather, who formerly kicked on the same San Jose State team that rookie CB Dwight Lowery played for in 2006. "That's another situation," Mangini said, "where we've followed this player, monitored this player. He's another really athletic guy who has some potential to develop over time."
^^ Punter's who can pull a Brian Moorman and help out in the FG game if Nuge gets hurt again. Ok cool... all this kid has to do is not punt the ball horizontally.
All this guy has done over the past 3 years is lose his job. Looking forward to more fantastic punting!
That's what I was thinking. Well here's to hoping he's a late bloomer, I guess he can't be any worse. Maybe Graham can give him some pointers on that backward spiral punt that nobody can catch... :smile:
That's pretty much what I'm thinking. We just brought in a guy who hasn't played a single snap in over 2 years, who can't keep a job, and when he did have one, netted less yardage than Graham has this season. Wonderfukingful.
NO FUCKING SHIT. They signed Waylon. I went to school with this guy and one of my best buddies was his roommate for a couple years....crazy! HE looks like a pretty mean punter, big white dude with a shaved dome. Plus, hes a got a pretty big foot to boot.
First post - long time Jet fan here. First, good riddance to Ben Graham. I always felt he was sort of a novelty act or a Tony Meola project who never really understand the fundamentals of punting. I remember watching a couple of Reggie Hodges preseason games when he was with the Rams. Needless to say, we have a reason to be VERY concerned. His problem stems from the fact that he has a very inconsistent drop and his mental game isn't worth a lick. He's an athlete, however. It looks like we'll probably be drafting a punter in April. And isn't Chris Gardocki available? He punted in Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and Chicago during his career - not in the best weather conditions.
I find it hard to believe that there is not one person on the roster that can kick an XP.... We need to get a punter.. not a punter / fg kicker.... This must be more difficult then it seems for some reason.
Well I was saying that Mangini liked the fact that this guy can also kick FGs in case Feeley goes down.
Ouch. Hopefully we won't have to punt too often on Monday... http://weblogs.newsday.com/sports/football/jets/blog/ -From our viewing portion at practice today,newly-acquired punter Reggie Hodges was struggling. First punt we saw, he dropped the snap, and eked out a 40-yarder. Next one went only about 30-35 yards. He managed a couple for 50+ afterwards, but I wonder if the Jets are wondering where Kapinos is these days.
