New England Patriots: 5 observations from heavyweight bout in Philly
4. Jake Bailey for MVP
If you yelled at the TV screen when Bill Belichick selected Stanford punter Jake Bailey with the No. 163 pick in the 2019 NFL Draft, you may be taking those words back.
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While it’s hard to justify taking a punter in the middle round of the draft, Bailey is making a pretty good case with the way he has been kicking the ball this season. With an AFC Special Teams Player of the Week award under his belt, the rookie kicker continues to impress with his ability to pin back opponents.
On Sunday, that continued as Bailey pinned the Philadelphia Eagles inside their 20 six times with an average of 47.6 yards a punt. With the weather conditions, it was a remarkable performance and great situational football as lauded by Belichick following the game.
"“This year there have been days out there where it’s been cold, rainy, windy and I think he learned something every day,” Belichick said, via Patriots.com. “There’s cross winds and there’s winds in your face and it’s kicking with the wind and all that. There’s challenges in every one of them. If you’re kicking with the wind, that’s an advantage to the punter, but handling the snap, which is coming back into the wind, wobbles and things like that. It’s a little tougher snap for the snapper. So anyway, he’s done a good job of, I would say, adapting to the conditions. He’s still got a long way to go. I’m sure he’ll learn a lot more as the season goes along, but between the holding, the kick-offs and the punting in various conditions and certainly situational football, which came up today. You know, the end-of-the-game punts and backed-up punts and plus 50-punts and the kickoffs and so forth. There were a lot of situations. But he’s a great kid. He works hard. He’s really played well for us this entire season and he’s been so valuable to this team and he proved it out there today.”"
The only thing Jake Bailey could’ve did better in the game was actually recover a Philadelphia Eagles fumble on a kickoff return.
Otherwise, Bailey has been a great addition for the New England Patriots.