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Johnny Hekker...Boss
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Steve808
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Johnny Hekker saved this game for us. The fake field goal propped us up at our darkest moment. We fail that fake put and the Avalanche is on.
Also, the game winning FG was a bad snap that Hekker saved and got the ball down in time for what I consider one of the most clutch kicks in NFL history.
Oh, and the's Hekker's incredible punting skills.
Also, the game winning FG was a bad snap that Hekker saved and got the ball down in time for what I consider one of the most clutch kicks in NFL history.
Oh, and the's Hekker's incredible punting skills.
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Went with 200 other Rams fans to greet the team home at about midnight on Sunday night! Jake Mcquaide was driving and Hekker was the passenger. They stopped and Johnny rolled down the window and sat on the window ledge and shouted "Who's House?" 3 time and we were all freaking out and mobbing the SUV! It was awesome! This was in Thousand Oaks and a TV crew was there.
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https://theramswire.usatoday.com/20...ll-belichick-johnny-hekker-weapon-super-bowl/
Bill Belichick can't stop raving about Rams 'weapon' Johnny Hekker
By: Cameron DaSilva
No one loves Johnny Hekker more than Bill Belichick. No one.
John Fassel and Sean McVay might have something to say about that, but very few people heap praise on the Rams punter the way Belichick does. He rattled off compliment after compliment back in 2016, and he did it again on Thursday during his press conference at Gillette Stadium.
For whatever reason – maybe it’s because Hekker’s a four-time All-Pro – the coach simply can’t help himself from heaping praise on the punter.
“Hekker’s a tremendous player, great athlete. He’s a weapon,” Belichick said in his opening statement, also adding that “every kicking play is an explosive play, potentially for the Rams.”
There’s no denying Hekker’s talent. There may not be a punter in the league with his skill set, be it power punting or pinning teams deep in their own territory with coffin-corner kicks. He makes it all look so easy, too.
And that’s without even getting into his other skills. This season alone, he attempted 43 punts, made an extra point and a field goal, completed two passes and had a rushing attempt, picking up 3 yards on the play. He’s the only player since 1980 to check all of those boxes in a single season, showing off his wide range of talent and versatility.
That could be why Belichick is so enamored by Hekker’s game, knowing how dangerous he can be as both a punter and on fakes, like the one he pulled off last week against the Saints.
“Yeah, again, he’s a weapon on the field,” Belichick said. “He can change field position. He’s a good situational punter and obviously, he’s very athletic and you have to respect his ability to handle the ball. I think the main thing when you send your punt return team out there is you want to make sure you get the ball back at the end of the play. That’s not always that difficult, but with these guys, it’s pretty challenging. They’re, as I said, they’re all weapons. Zuerlein’s a weapon, Hekker’s a weapon and they do a good job in the return game.”
There’s that word again: weapon. Punters aren’t always viewed as “weapons,” but clearly Hekker has struck some fear in Belichick – not that his face would ever show it. Belichick’s kind words echo what he said two years ago before the Rams and Patriots squared off.
Then, he also called Hekker a weapon, saying it multiple times and even saying “he’s like a quarterback.”
“Hekker is a tremendous weapon,” Belichick said in 2016, via NBC Sports Boston. “I mean, this guy is as good a player as I’ve ever seen at that position. He’s a tremendous weapon in his ability to punt the ball, punt it inside the 20, directional kick it, involved in fakes, can throw, can run, very athletic. … He’s dangerous. Absolutely. He’s like a quarterback. He can throw. He can run. You gotta defend him like you defend one of those guys.”
Hekker is a fan favorite in L.A., but he also has a clear supporter across the country in Belichick. It would only be fitting for Hekker to pull off a perfectly executed fake punt in Super Bowl LIII to beat the Patriots.
Bill Belichick can't stop raving about Rams 'weapon' Johnny Hekker
By: Cameron DaSilva
No one loves Johnny Hekker more than Bill Belichick. No one.
John Fassel and Sean McVay might have something to say about that, but very few people heap praise on the Rams punter the way Belichick does. He rattled off compliment after compliment back in 2016, and he did it again on Thursday during his press conference at Gillette Stadium.
For whatever reason – maybe it’s because Hekker’s a four-time All-Pro – the coach simply can’t help himself from heaping praise on the punter.
“Hekker’s a tremendous player, great athlete. He’s a weapon,” Belichick said in his opening statement, also adding that “every kicking play is an explosive play, potentially for the Rams.”
There’s no denying Hekker’s talent. There may not be a punter in the league with his skill set, be it power punting or pinning teams deep in their own territory with coffin-corner kicks. He makes it all look so easy, too.
And that’s without even getting into his other skills. This season alone, he attempted 43 punts, made an extra point and a field goal, completed two passes and had a rushing attempt, picking up 3 yards on the play. He’s the only player since 1980 to check all of those boxes in a single season, showing off his wide range of talent and versatility.
That could be why Belichick is so enamored by Hekker’s game, knowing how dangerous he can be as both a punter and on fakes, like the one he pulled off last week against the Saints.
“Yeah, again, he’s a weapon on the field,” Belichick said. “He can change field position. He’s a good situational punter and obviously, he’s very athletic and you have to respect his ability to handle the ball. I think the main thing when you send your punt return team out there is you want to make sure you get the ball back at the end of the play. That’s not always that difficult, but with these guys, it’s pretty challenging. They’re, as I said, they’re all weapons. Zuerlein’s a weapon, Hekker’s a weapon and they do a good job in the return game.”
There’s that word again: weapon. Punters aren’t always viewed as “weapons,” but clearly Hekker has struck some fear in Belichick – not that his face would ever show it. Belichick’s kind words echo what he said two years ago before the Rams and Patriots squared off.
Then, he also called Hekker a weapon, saying it multiple times and even saying “he’s like a quarterback.”
“Hekker is a tremendous weapon,” Belichick said in 2016, via NBC Sports Boston. “I mean, this guy is as good a player as I’ve ever seen at that position. He’s a tremendous weapon in his ability to punt the ball, punt it inside the 20, directional kick it, involved in fakes, can throw, can run, very athletic. … He’s dangerous. Absolutely. He’s like a quarterback. He can throw. He can run. You gotta defend him like you defend one of those guys.”
Hekker is a fan favorite in L.A., but he also has a clear supporter across the country in Belichick. It would only be fitting for Hekker to pull off a perfectly executed fake punt in Super Bowl LIII to beat the Patriots.
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Rams punter Johnny Hekker someone to fear (don't laugh) in Super Bowl
THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. -- More than six years ago, the high school football coach of punter Johnny Hekker gave Rams special teams coordinator John Fassel a heads-up.
"He can compete at the quarterback spot, too," Tom Bainter, who coached Hekker at Bothell High School, just north of Seattle, recalled telling Fassel when he made a trip to see Hekker and the Rams in St. Louis. "We were all joking. But a part of me was more serious."
Fassel already had an inkling about Hekker's multifaceted skill set when the Rams signed him as an undrafted free agent from Oregon State in 2012. "That was a huge bonus knowing that he's a big, strong, long athlete," Fassel said. "As well as his punting."
As a quarterback, Hekker led Bothell High to a state championship appearance in his senior season. That was the last time Hekker completed a pass on a championship stage.
Until last Sunday.
The Los Angeles Rams trailed the New Orleans Saints 13-0 and needed a spark. The offense stalled in Rams territory and Hekker trotted onto the field with the special-teams unit, presumably to punt. But instead of booting the ball away, the 6-foot-5, 240-pound Hekker completed a 12-yard pass to defensive back Sam Shields for a first down.
"We felt like if the look presented itself, we were going to take it," Rams coach Sean McVay said. "Sam Shields did a good job running an excellent route. Johnny delivered a ball right on the money."
After Hekker's completion, the momentum shifted. The Rams took the fourth-down conversion and eventually turned it into a field goal to trim the deficit to 13-3, then eventually pulled off a come-from-behind overtime victory inside a raucous Superdome to clinch the NFC.
"It was a great deal," Hekker said.
Though film and recency will make it more difficult, it wouldn't be shocking if Hekker's trick-play mastery is called upon when the Rams play the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LIII at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta on Feb. 3.
"He can make big-time plays," McVay said of Hekker, who has 20 pass attempts since 2012, including playoffs, the most of any non-quarterback during that span, according to ESPN Stats & Information. "He can do a variety of different things with that athleticism, not exclusive to throwing it, but also being able to run."
When the Rams returned to L.A. from St. Louis in 2016, Hekker was among the most recognizable players on the roster, not just because of his tall stature, red hair and goatee, but because he was constantly on the field as he boomed punts for a team that was inept at moving the ball on offense. That season, Hekker punted 98 times for an average of 47.8 yards and was selected to his third Pro Bowl.
But since McVay took over as coach in 2017, Hekker often has been relegated to the sideline, or to holding for kicker Greg Zuerlein, as the offense rarely stalls outside of field goal territory. Hekker punted only 43 times during the regular season. Yet the sixth-year pro, who signed a two-year extension through 2022 worth nearly $10 million, has continued to prove himself instrumental when his punting prowess is needed, and also when the offense sometimes needs a boost.
"We are an aggressive team by nature. I think that's our mindset, that's our mentality, but you don't want to be reckless," McVay said, when asked about the timing of trick plays. "We feel real confident in our players' ability to execute and we're going to play not fearing failure."
In Week 8, the Green Bay Packers led the Rams 10-0 in the second quarter when Hekker came on in punt formation. But instead of punting, Hekker completed a 12-yard pass to Shields. The drive eventually stalled, but the Rams came from behind to defeat the Packers 29-27. And the ensuing week, with the Rams and Saints tied at 14, McVay elected for a fake field goal attempt in an eventual 45-35 loss. With Hekker on to hold, he took the snap, then sprang to his feet and sprinted toward the first-down marker. Officials ruled him short.
And the ensuing week, with the Rams and Saints tied at 14, McVay elected for a fake field goal attempt in an eventual 45-35 loss. With Hekker on to hold, he took the snap, then sprang to his feet and sprinted toward the first-down marker. Officials ruled him short.
"Every player, every true competitor's desire is to be able to help a team out in any capacity that they can," said Hekker, who also kicked a field goal in Week 3 when Zuerlein was unexpectedly sidelined during pregame warm-ups. "To have Coach McVay, Coach Fassel, guys that are creative and like to find mismatches all over the field, not just on offense and defense, but let special teams be that attacking factor as well ... we just take pride in it and practice our butts off."
The installation of trick plays happens during the practice week, said Fassel, whom McVay retained from former coach Jeff Fisher's staff. So does a discussion with McVay about whether they'll use it. "We talk about all those things going into the game because in the game you literally have three seconds to make a decision," Fassel said. "If you find yourself in the right situation during the game, it's, 'What do you think?' And it's, 'OK, here we go.'"
Fassel is under no false impressions about how difficult it will be to execute a trick play against the Patriots.
What Bainter, the high school coach, and Fassel knew years ago, is now readily available on the scouting report.
"I think everybody is aware," Fassel said, "Johnny can throw."
http://www.espn.com/blog/los-angele...kker-someone-to-fear-dont-laugh-in-super-bowl
THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. -- More than six years ago, the high school football coach of punter Johnny Hekker gave Rams special teams coordinator John Fassel a heads-up.
"He can compete at the quarterback spot, too," Tom Bainter, who coached Hekker at Bothell High School, just north of Seattle, recalled telling Fassel when he made a trip to see Hekker and the Rams in St. Louis. "We were all joking. But a part of me was more serious."
Fassel already had an inkling about Hekker's multifaceted skill set when the Rams signed him as an undrafted free agent from Oregon State in 2012. "That was a huge bonus knowing that he's a big, strong, long athlete," Fassel said. "As well as his punting."
As a quarterback, Hekker led Bothell High to a state championship appearance in his senior season. That was the last time Hekker completed a pass on a championship stage.
Until last Sunday.
The Los Angeles Rams trailed the New Orleans Saints 13-0 and needed a spark. The offense stalled in Rams territory and Hekker trotted onto the field with the special-teams unit, presumably to punt. But instead of booting the ball away, the 6-foot-5, 240-pound Hekker completed a 12-yard pass to defensive back Sam Shields for a first down.
"We felt like if the look presented itself, we were going to take it," Rams coach Sean McVay said. "Sam Shields did a good job running an excellent route. Johnny delivered a ball right on the money."
After Hekker's completion, the momentum shifted. The Rams took the fourth-down conversion and eventually turned it into a field goal to trim the deficit to 13-3, then eventually pulled off a come-from-behind overtime victory inside a raucous Superdome to clinch the NFC.
"It was a great deal," Hekker said.
Though film and recency will make it more difficult, it wouldn't be shocking if Hekker's trick-play mastery is called upon when the Rams play the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LIII at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta on Feb. 3.
"He can make big-time plays," McVay said of Hekker, who has 20 pass attempts since 2012, including playoffs, the most of any non-quarterback during that span, according to ESPN Stats & Information. "He can do a variety of different things with that athleticism, not exclusive to throwing it, but also being able to run."
When the Rams returned to L.A. from St. Louis in 2016, Hekker was among the most recognizable players on the roster, not just because of his tall stature, red hair and goatee, but because he was constantly on the field as he boomed punts for a team that was inept at moving the ball on offense. That season, Hekker punted 98 times for an average of 47.8 yards and was selected to his third Pro Bowl.
But since McVay took over as coach in 2017, Hekker often has been relegated to the sideline, or to holding for kicker Greg Zuerlein, as the offense rarely stalls outside of field goal territory. Hekker punted only 43 times during the regular season. Yet the sixth-year pro, who signed a two-year extension through 2022 worth nearly $10 million, has continued to prove himself instrumental when his punting prowess is needed, and also when the offense sometimes needs a boost.
"We are an aggressive team by nature. I think that's our mindset, that's our mentality, but you don't want to be reckless," McVay said, when asked about the timing of trick plays. "We feel real confident in our players' ability to execute and we're going to play not fearing failure."
In Week 8, the Green Bay Packers led the Rams 10-0 in the second quarter when Hekker came on in punt formation. But instead of punting, Hekker completed a 12-yard pass to Shields. The drive eventually stalled, but the Rams came from behind to defeat the Packers 29-27. And the ensuing week, with the Rams and Saints tied at 14, McVay elected for a fake field goal attempt in an eventual 45-35 loss. With Hekker on to hold, he took the snap, then sprang to his feet and sprinted toward the first-down marker. Officials ruled him short.
And the ensuing week, with the Rams and Saints tied at 14, McVay elected for a fake field goal attempt in an eventual 45-35 loss. With Hekker on to hold, he took the snap, then sprang to his feet and sprinted toward the first-down marker. Officials ruled him short.
"Every player, every true competitor's desire is to be able to help a team out in any capacity that they can," said Hekker, who also kicked a field goal in Week 3 when Zuerlein was unexpectedly sidelined during pregame warm-ups. "To have Coach McVay, Coach Fassel, guys that are creative and like to find mismatches all over the field, not just on offense and defense, but let special teams be that attacking factor as well ... we just take pride in it and practice our butts off."
The installation of trick plays happens during the practice week, said Fassel, whom McVay retained from former coach Jeff Fisher's staff. So does a discussion with McVay about whether they'll use it. "We talk about all those things going into the game because in the game you literally have three seconds to make a decision," Fassel said. "If you find yourself in the right situation during the game, it's, 'What do you think?' And it's, 'OK, here we go.'"
Fassel is under no false impressions about how difficult it will be to execute a trick play against the Patriots.
What Bainter, the high school coach, and Fassel knew years ago, is now readily available on the scouting report.
"I think everybody is aware," Fassel said, "Johnny can throw."
http://www.espn.com/blog/los-angele...kker-someone-to-fear-dont-laugh-in-super-bowl
LesBaker
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This could/should be it's own thread and topic. And it may be the difference a week from tomorrow. It was last Sunday.
Unique and special is the way I would describe the units, because that's really what they are.
And with NFL games so often being decided late and with FG's it's a luxury to have Zuerlien. And in defensive battles too I should add. That kick in overtime was ginourmous.
Hekker is otherwordly too. So many times he has buried an offense and ended up improving the Rams offense's field position when the Rams defense clamps down on the other team. It's like he is a mutated form of a first down when a drive stalls then he booms one 65 yards and the opposing team is forced to be conservative because they are pinned deep and the Rams end up getting the ball back in better field position. And it's happened several times in the last two years.
1maGoh
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https://www.theringer.com/nfl/2019/1/31/18205417/johnny-hekker-rams-super-bowl-liii-fake-punts
Johnny Hekker Is a Punting Legend
The Rams specialist could go down as the most accomplished punter in football history. He enters Super Bowl LIII as a fascination for another reason: Hekker is the best fake punt weapon to ever play the game.
By Rodger Sherman
:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/62974275/rodger_jhekker_getty_ringer.0.gif)
Getty Images/Ringer illustration
Imagine what it would feel like to be the best in the world at something. I can’t do it. A few years ago I won my fantasy football league, and felt that I was some sort of galaxy-level mastermind. Then I thought about it and remembered that, among a group of 12 people, I had merely won a game based on the achievements of other individuals. Being the best in the world at something—fantasy football, writing, playing the French horn, sex, making chili, impersonating Christopher Walken—is a level of scale I simply cannot imagine.
Now imagine being the best in the world at something that’s highly valuable, a skill that tens of thousands of people attempt in hopes of one day earning millions of dollars. That’s the reality for Johnny Hekker, the Rams’ 28-year-old punter who has been named first-team All-Pro four times and second-team All-Pro twice over his seven NFL seasons.
He holds the single-season record for net punting average—and three of the top four spots on the all-time leaderboard. In 2016 he turned in the greatest punting season in NFL history, booming 51 punts inside the opposing 20-yard line while recording just one touchback. He not only punts the ball deep—he’s second in league history in career yards per punt—but he also punts in a way that’s incredibly difficult to return.
Twice he’s led the league in fewest average yards per return. Other punters marvel at the technical difficulty of Hekker’s punts. The foot is probably the clumsiest part of the human body—it’s this hand-like, stubby club that traded all its dexterity for the durability to support our weight—and yet Hekker has turned his into an instrument of precision, with power and accuracy that are unmatched in the history of his sport.
Hekker’s punting mastery is a hot topic heading into Super Bowl LIII because his Rams will play the Patriots, who are led by Bill Belichick—the greatest coach of all time and a noted punting enthusiast. Belichick will not shut up about how great Hekker is.
“This guy is a weapon,”he told reporters in 2016. (“[Belichick] went on for an hour about our punter because there wasn’t much else we were doing well,” Rams long snapper Jacob McQuaide remembered.) This week Belichick said Hekker is “as good a player as I’ve ever seen at that position.” Thanks to Belichick, the football universe might finally come to understand what’s been plain to anyone who pays attention to special teams for some time: Hekker is the best there is.
So now I need you to imagine one more thing. Think about how incredible it is that Hekker is as good as he is at punting—and then think about the fact it’s his second-favorite thing to do on the football field. Johnny Hekker is the King of Punting.
Deep down inside, all punters want to throw,” Rams special teams coach John Fassel says of Hekker this week. “He just can.” While Hekker denies that he prefers throwing to kicking—“Punting is where I earn my income,” he says—his coach remains unconvinced. “He’d much rather throw than punt,” Fassel says.
As a senior in high school, Hekker (with an absolutely hideous haircut) quarterbacked his team to the Washington state Class 4A championship game. He sent out his highlight tape to colleges—six minutes of QB play, and then about a minute of punting tucked away at the end. Much to his dismay, college coaches only wanted to talk to him about the final minute. (“I remember thinking, this is kinda weird … why would the special teams coach be calling me?” Hekker wrote for The Players’ Tribune.) Hekker went to Oregon State, where he somehow got an even worse haircut.
Oregon State brought in two walk-on punters in 2008: Hekker and Ryan Allen. They were given the opportunity to compete for a single scholarship spot. Allen was more technically sound, having spent his high school career primarily as a punter during the period when Hekker still saw himself as a future quarterback. But Hekker clearly had talent, and ultimately won the gig.
It looked like Oregon State had made the wrong decision when Allen transferred to Louisiana Tech and became the first punter to win the Ray Guy Award (given to the nation’s best punter) in back-to-back seasons. But now that Allen is on the Pats and Hekker is on the Rams, and the two are about to trade punts in the Super Bowl, it’s clear that Oregon State’s coaches faced a unique dilemma back in 2008. They were witness to the most talented punting competition in college football history.
But what turned the most heads at Oregon State wasn’t Hekker’s punting. It was his ability to dunk all over people on the basketball court.
View: https://twitter.com/DoctorBrumski/status/1090609775128195072?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1090609775128195072&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theringer.com%2Fnfl%2F2019%2F1%2F31%2F18205417%2Fjohnny-hekker-rams-super-bowl-liii-fake-punts
I wanted to ask Sean Mannion—Oregon State’s starting quarterback from 2011 to 2014, and the Rams’ backup from 2015 through now—about the above tweet. He brought up Hekker’s intramural hoops dominance before I could. “He was by far the best basketball player at Oregon State that wasn’t on the basketball team,” Mannion says. “Dunking on people, shooting 3s, everything.” Sure, Mannion had the quarterback job that Hekker wanted, but Mannion was blown away by how good Hekker was at, well, pretty much everything.
“He’s one of those guys where everything he touches turns to gold,” Mannion says. “He’s good at everything he does. He’ll play in a golf tournament and hit a hole-in-one and win a free car.” (Apparently, this really happened.) This quality is now most evident on fake punts.
A punter does not have to be particularly good at throwing to complete a pass on a fake punt. Here’s a 2017 clip of Bears punter Pat O’Donnell lofting a slow, off-target mallard that went for 38 yards and a touchdown against the Vikings, because the defense had no plan to stop a fake. In this 2017 clip, the Jaguars literally didn’t defend the Jets player being thrown to, and punter Lac Edwards still almost missed the pass. But Hekker can throw.
“I’ve got a good release for a punter,” Hekker says. “He’s got a good release, period,” says Mannion. Sam Shields, who has been the receiver on two of Hekker’s three completed passes this season, goes a step further. “I always tell him,” Shields says, “‘You’re a quarterback.’”
Hekker is a smidge ahead of the rest of the league in punting stats, which makes him incredible at his job. When it comes to fake punts, though, he is in a league of his own.
Most teams run fake punts once in a blue moon. Since Hekker entered the NFL in 2012, the punters for the 31 other franchises have combined to go just 25-of-39 passing, meaning in an average season they’ll attempt about five passes and complete three. (Some of these pass attempts presumably came on fake field goals, and there are myriad other ways to execute a fake punt besides having the punter throw.)
The Ravens’ Sam Koch has thrown four passes (4-for-4 for 56 yards) over the past seven years; former Seahawks’ punter Jon Ryan has thrown three (2-for-3 for 15 yards and a touchdown). Every other punter has thrown two passes or fewer.
Hekker alone is 12-for-20 passing for 168 yards and a touchdown. (He also completed a pass on a two-point conversion, which doesn’t factor into his official statistics.) He’s responsible for 32 percent of the total completions thrown by punters, and 33 percent of the total attempts. “I don’t think we’re catching anybody by surprise,” Fassel says.
In Hekker’s rookie season, all three of his throws were to wiiiiiiiide-open players. His first throw came when the 49ers assumed he’d never throw a pass out of his own end zone and failed to defend one of the Rams’ gunners. His second came in the same game, on what might have been the first run-pass option called for a punter.
His third came on a fake field goal attempt, a trick play during which the Rams pretended to sub wide receiver Danny Amendola out of the game and instead had him park about a yard from the sideline. There wasn’t a defender within 10 yards of any of Hekker’s 2012 targets. These are the type of throws you’d expect that a punter or mailman could reasonably make.
Now that defenses expect Hekker to throw, he has to make more difficult passes—but he’s still able to complete them. In September 2017 against Washington, Hekker took the field with the defense covering receiver Josh Reynolds like it was a passing down. Hekker zipped a pass in to Reynolds anyway.
Both of Hekker’s passes to Shields this season—the 11th and 12th completions of his career, respectively—were on the same design: Shields essentially ran a comeback route, pretending to dart downfield to get to the punt returner but returning to the ball to create separation. These are the types of throws you’d think a team would need a quarterback to make.
Surprisingly, the Rams haven’t attempted more fake punts since the team changed coaches from Jeff Fisher to Sean McVay before the 2017 campaign. That seems odd considering Fisher has a reputation as a hyperconservative punt aficionado, while McVay holds a reputation as a risk-taking football futurist. But Hekker threw four passes in 2015 under Fisher, and four passes this regular season under McVay.
Yet given how dramatically the offense has improved under McVay, Hekker now takes the field far less than he used to. Hekker attempted a league-high 96 punts in 2015, because those Rams recorded fewer first downs than any other team. Hekker attempted 43 punts this season, tied for the fewest in the league, because these Rams recorded more first downs than anyone else. “We don’t have a lot of punts this year, because we’re an explosive offense,” McQuaide says. “If you’re punting the ball a lot and turning the ball over a lot, that’s what we were doing previously when we were bad.”
So while Hekker throws about as often as he always has, he’s actually much more likely to throw than he used to be. In 2015, Hekker threw a pass 4 percent of the time he came onto the field. In 2018, that figure has more than doubled, to 8.5 percent. When Hekker entered the league under Fisher, the fakes he threw on came on exotic looks designed to get players wide open. Under McVay, Hekker’s throws are essentially regular passing plays that come out of punting sets. With Hekker at punter, the Rams offense is always on the field.
By the time Hekker retires, he’ll probably be considered the greatest punter ever to play the game. But perhaps that role’s just been a means to an end, allowing him to be what he’s wanted to be all along: a quarterback playing in the Super Bowl.
Johnny Hekker Is a Punting Legend
The Rams specialist could go down as the most accomplished punter in football history. He enters Super Bowl LIII as a fascination for another reason: Hekker is the best fake punt weapon to ever play the game.
By Rodger Sherman
Getty Images/Ringer illustration
Imagine what it would feel like to be the best in the world at something. I can’t do it. A few years ago I won my fantasy football league, and felt that I was some sort of galaxy-level mastermind. Then I thought about it and remembered that, among a group of 12 people, I had merely won a game based on the achievements of other individuals. Being the best in the world at something—fantasy football, writing, playing the French horn, sex, making chili, impersonating Christopher Walken—is a level of scale I simply cannot imagine.
Now imagine being the best in the world at something that’s highly valuable, a skill that tens of thousands of people attempt in hopes of one day earning millions of dollars. That’s the reality for Johnny Hekker, the Rams’ 28-year-old punter who has been named first-team All-Pro four times and second-team All-Pro twice over his seven NFL seasons.
He holds the single-season record for net punting average—and three of the top four spots on the all-time leaderboard. In 2016 he turned in the greatest punting season in NFL history, booming 51 punts inside the opposing 20-yard line while recording just one touchback. He not only punts the ball deep—he’s second in league history in career yards per punt—but he also punts in a way that’s incredibly difficult to return.
Twice he’s led the league in fewest average yards per return. Other punters marvel at the technical difficulty of Hekker’s punts. The foot is probably the clumsiest part of the human body—it’s this hand-like, stubby club that traded all its dexterity for the durability to support our weight—and yet Hekker has turned his into an instrument of precision, with power and accuracy that are unmatched in the history of his sport.
Hekker’s punting mastery is a hot topic heading into Super Bowl LIII because his Rams will play the Patriots, who are led by Bill Belichick—the greatest coach of all time and a noted punting enthusiast. Belichick will not shut up about how great Hekker is.
“This guy is a weapon,”he told reporters in 2016. (“[Belichick] went on for an hour about our punter because there wasn’t much else we were doing well,” Rams long snapper Jacob McQuaide remembered.) This week Belichick said Hekker is “as good a player as I’ve ever seen at that position.” Thanks to Belichick, the football universe might finally come to understand what’s been plain to anyone who pays attention to special teams for some time: Hekker is the best there is.
So now I need you to imagine one more thing. Think about how incredible it is that Hekker is as good as he is at punting—and then think about the fact it’s his second-favorite thing to do on the football field. Johnny Hekker is the King of Punting.
Deep down inside, all punters want to throw,” Rams special teams coach John Fassel says of Hekker this week. “He just can.” While Hekker denies that he prefers throwing to kicking—“Punting is where I earn my income,” he says—his coach remains unconvinced. “He’d much rather throw than punt,” Fassel says.
As a senior in high school, Hekker (with an absolutely hideous haircut) quarterbacked his team to the Washington state Class 4A championship game. He sent out his highlight tape to colleges—six minutes of QB play, and then about a minute of punting tucked away at the end. Much to his dismay, college coaches only wanted to talk to him about the final minute. (“I remember thinking, this is kinda weird … why would the special teams coach be calling me?” Hekker wrote for The Players’ Tribune.) Hekker went to Oregon State, where he somehow got an even worse haircut.
Oregon State brought in two walk-on punters in 2008: Hekker and Ryan Allen. They were given the opportunity to compete for a single scholarship spot. Allen was more technically sound, having spent his high school career primarily as a punter during the period when Hekker still saw himself as a future quarterback. But Hekker clearly had talent, and ultimately won the gig.
It looked like Oregon State had made the wrong decision when Allen transferred to Louisiana Tech and became the first punter to win the Ray Guy Award (given to the nation’s best punter) in back-to-back seasons. But now that Allen is on the Pats and Hekker is on the Rams, and the two are about to trade punts in the Super Bowl, it’s clear that Oregon State’s coaches faced a unique dilemma back in 2008. They were witness to the most talented punting competition in college football history.
But what turned the most heads at Oregon State wasn’t Hekker’s punting. It was his ability to dunk all over people on the basketball court.
View: https://twitter.com/DoctorBrumski/status/1090609775128195072?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1090609775128195072&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theringer.com%2Fnfl%2F2019%2F1%2F31%2F18205417%2Fjohnny-hekker-rams-super-bowl-liii-fake-punts
I wanted to ask Sean Mannion—Oregon State’s starting quarterback from 2011 to 2014, and the Rams’ backup from 2015 through now—about the above tweet. He brought up Hekker’s intramural hoops dominance before I could. “He was by far the best basketball player at Oregon State that wasn’t on the basketball team,” Mannion says. “Dunking on people, shooting 3s, everything.” Sure, Mannion had the quarterback job that Hekker wanted, but Mannion was blown away by how good Hekker was at, well, pretty much everything.
“He’s one of those guys where everything he touches turns to gold,” Mannion says. “He’s good at everything he does. He’ll play in a golf tournament and hit a hole-in-one and win a free car.” (Apparently, this really happened.) This quality is now most evident on fake punts.
A punter does not have to be particularly good at throwing to complete a pass on a fake punt. Here’s a 2017 clip of Bears punter Pat O’Donnell lofting a slow, off-target mallard that went for 38 yards and a touchdown against the Vikings, because the defense had no plan to stop a fake. In this 2017 clip, the Jaguars literally didn’t defend the Jets player being thrown to, and punter Lac Edwards still almost missed the pass. But Hekker can throw.
“I’ve got a good release for a punter,” Hekker says. “He’s got a good release, period,” says Mannion. Sam Shields, who has been the receiver on two of Hekker’s three completed passes this season, goes a step further. “I always tell him,” Shields says, “‘You’re a quarterback.’”
Hekker is a smidge ahead of the rest of the league in punting stats, which makes him incredible at his job. When it comes to fake punts, though, he is in a league of his own.
Most teams run fake punts once in a blue moon. Since Hekker entered the NFL in 2012, the punters for the 31 other franchises have combined to go just 25-of-39 passing, meaning in an average season they’ll attempt about five passes and complete three. (Some of these pass attempts presumably came on fake field goals, and there are myriad other ways to execute a fake punt besides having the punter throw.)
The Ravens’ Sam Koch has thrown four passes (4-for-4 for 56 yards) over the past seven years; former Seahawks’ punter Jon Ryan has thrown three (2-for-3 for 15 yards and a touchdown). Every other punter has thrown two passes or fewer.
Hekker alone is 12-for-20 passing for 168 yards and a touchdown. (He also completed a pass on a two-point conversion, which doesn’t factor into his official statistics.) He’s responsible for 32 percent of the total completions thrown by punters, and 33 percent of the total attempts. “I don’t think we’re catching anybody by surprise,” Fassel says.
In Hekker’s rookie season, all three of his throws were to wiiiiiiiide-open players. His first throw came when the 49ers assumed he’d never throw a pass out of his own end zone and failed to defend one of the Rams’ gunners. His second came in the same game, on what might have been the first run-pass option called for a punter.
His third came on a fake field goal attempt, a trick play during which the Rams pretended to sub wide receiver Danny Amendola out of the game and instead had him park about a yard from the sideline. There wasn’t a defender within 10 yards of any of Hekker’s 2012 targets. These are the type of throws you’d expect that a punter or mailman could reasonably make.
Now that defenses expect Hekker to throw, he has to make more difficult passes—but he’s still able to complete them. In September 2017 against Washington, Hekker took the field with the defense covering receiver Josh Reynolds like it was a passing down. Hekker zipped a pass in to Reynolds anyway.
Both of Hekker’s passes to Shields this season—the 11th and 12th completions of his career, respectively—were on the same design: Shields essentially ran a comeback route, pretending to dart downfield to get to the punt returner but returning to the ball to create separation. These are the types of throws you’d think a team would need a quarterback to make.
Surprisingly, the Rams haven’t attempted more fake punts since the team changed coaches from Jeff Fisher to Sean McVay before the 2017 campaign. That seems odd considering Fisher has a reputation as a hyperconservative punt aficionado, while McVay holds a reputation as a risk-taking football futurist. But Hekker threw four passes in 2015 under Fisher, and four passes this regular season under McVay.
Yet given how dramatically the offense has improved under McVay, Hekker now takes the field far less than he used to. Hekker attempted a league-high 96 punts in 2015, because those Rams recorded fewer first downs than any other team. Hekker attempted 43 punts this season, tied for the fewest in the league, because these Rams recorded more first downs than anyone else. “We don’t have a lot of punts this year, because we’re an explosive offense,” McQuaide says. “If you’re punting the ball a lot and turning the ball over a lot, that’s what we were doing previously when we were bad.”
So while Hekker throws about as often as he always has, he’s actually much more likely to throw than he used to be. In 2015, Hekker threw a pass 4 percent of the time he came onto the field. In 2018, that figure has more than doubled, to 8.5 percent. When Hekker entered the league under Fisher, the fakes he threw on came on exotic looks designed to get players wide open. Under McVay, Hekker’s throws are essentially regular passing plays that come out of punting sets. With Hekker at punter, the Rams offense is always on the field.
By the time Hekker retires, he’ll probably be considered the greatest punter ever to play the game. But perhaps that role’s just been a means to an end, allowing him to be what he’s wanted to be all along: a quarterback playing in the Super Bowl.
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- 1,209
Hekker's 2016 Stats were so good they don't seem possible.
98 Punts
47.8 Yard Average
46 Yard Net Average
Longest Punt =78 Yards
51 Punts downed inside the 20
1 Touchback
Absolutely Unbelieveable to have 51 punts downed inside the 20 and only 1 touchback. He was out of his mind that year.
98 Punts
47.8 Yard Average
46 Yard Net Average
Longest Punt =78 Yards
51 Punts downed inside the 20
1 Touchback
Absolutely Unbelieveable to have 51 punts downed inside the 20 and only 1 touchback. He was out of his mind that year.
- Joined
- Jan 15, 2014
- Messages
- 1,209
- Joined
- Aug 9, 2016
- Messages
- 5,468
- Name
- FaulkSF
Picked4td
Pro Bowler
- Joined
- Sep 13, 2015
- Messages
- 1,568
Been a huge fan of his for the longest time, and been telling anyone that would listen that he will end up in the HoF. Truely a special player and an all time great.
Been holding off on buying any Jerseys the last 4 years til they release their new looks, but once they do Hekker will be on of the first I buy and wear
Been holding off on buying any Jerseys the last 4 years til they release their new looks, but once they do Hekker will be on of the first I buy and wear