Berry spent five seasons as Pittsburgh’s punter as of 2015 but was cut earlier this year. In the preseason, the 29-year-old from Essendon was replaced by the experienced punter Dustin Colquitt in order to achieve a better production in the role of the special team.
However, Colquitt could not perform. In five games he averaged just 37.1 yards, with 11 punts returning for 78 yards and just six inside-20s.
Before this week’s games, the Steelers’ coaching team was moving fast. Colquitt was released and Berry was brought back into the herd.
“I acknowledge that our punting is not up to snuff and that we need to get better at this and are ready to do whatever we can to make it happen,” Pittsburgh trainer Mike Tomlin told the media when he was after the punting of the team was asked about suffering.
The move shocked the Steelers’ faithful, many of whom appeared to have fallen in love with the Victorian in recent years.
“When it was first reported that Colquitt was out, I assumed the Steelers were planning to add Punter Corliss Waitman to the 53-man roster. Waitman has a career average of 42.7 while playing in South Alabama, ”wrote Curt Popejoy of Steelers Wire.
“Instead, the Steelers go with something they know, even when they know things aren’t great.”
Waitman, who is still on the Steelers’ training team, has been overlooked in Berry’s favor.
“They knew a change was coming. Dustin Colquitt was on his way out after only five games and the Steelers wanted to finally look for a player who lived up to expectations. ” Sports illustrated Steelers beatwriter Noah Strackbein said.
“Maybe this punter wasn’t a Pro Bowl player, but better than the third lowest yards per punt average in the NFL wasn’t a high mountain to climb.
“Jordan Berry wasn’t good enough to be on the Steelers list. He was replaced by a veteran who Pittsburgh thought was better. It wasn’t him. And now they’re going back to Berry.
“It makes no sense. Berry’s track record shows nothing to make you believe he’s an upgrade from Colquitt. His yards per punt average is 1.2 yards more than the player who replaced him and he will now replace. All summer he only fought to be replaced and to be excluded from the training team for an uncovered rookie. But now is it the best option?
“Waiter is the best option. Even if he doesn’t do well, it will be hard to be worse than what was out there. If he’s not the answer, you go ahead, but at least you know. And after that after three months you might think he has chemistry [Steelers kicker] Chris Boswell as a placeholder.
“Instead, they revert to the person Steelers fans have been complaining about for five years, as if those fans are overreacting.
“I do not get it. But I’m not the one who makes decisions about an NFL franchise either. It just seems that there are other ways before going backwards. ”
Prior to Week 7 of the 2020 season, Berry’s career stats with the Steelers were a gross average of 44.2 yards and a net average of 39.9 yards with 131 punts within the 20-yard line, 15 touchbacks, and just one block.
Last season he averaged 45.5 yards and a net average of 40.9 yards, which set a Steelers record for a season for the highest net punting average. Against the rest of the league, however, he finished 21st among the 32 NFL teams for the net punt average and 19th place for the indoor 20-year-olds (24).
“It’s not a great look to cut Jordan Berry earlier in the year just to flip five games later and bring him back,” tweeted another Steelers beatwriter, Alex Kozora.
After Colquitt’s departure, Pittsburgh fans actually actively sought to get the team to recruit former NFL punter and current XFL punt yardage leader Marquette King instead.
“Jordan Berry has been largely inconsistent for a number of years, and Colquitt is in the twilight of his career. The Steelers should look elsewhere if they are serious about improving their punting position, ”said Michael Beck of Behind the steel curtain wrote.
“King averaged 46.7 yards per punt during his NFL tenure. The best of these seasons was the 2013 campaign in which he averaged 48.9 yards per punt.
“If you’re wondering whether or not King would be interested in a deal with the Steelers, you’ll quickly find that Marquette took to Twitter to express his interest in Steel City.”
Despite all of the outside noise and criticism that Berry brought on the way, the ProKick Australia product had a very strong return leg for the Steelers on Monday morning (Australian time).
He impressed the Pittsburgh media by being the first player on the team to warm up on the field and did his job in the game when the Steelers managed to find their way to a 27:24 win over the Tennessee Titans to remain undefeated a 6-0 record.
Berry had two punts in the game.
Both punts were within 20, with his longest punt at 51 yards.
He finished the race with a gross average of 50 yards and a net average of 47.5 yards. Judging by the reaction of Steelers fans on the internet, Berry was also able to win back support.
These were the details of the news Jordan Berry makes a successful return to Pittsburgh Steelers after re-signing... for this day. We hope that we have succeeded by giving you the full details and information. To follow all our news, you can subscribe to the alerts system or to one of our different systems to provide you with all that is new.
It is also worth noting that the original news has been published and is available at de24.news and the editorial team at AlKhaleej Today has confirmed it and it has been modified, and it may have been completely transferred or quoted from it and you can read and follow this news from its main source.
