Pat McAfee Named AFC Special Teams Player of the Week

Indianapolis Colts All-Pro punter Pat McAfee was named AFC Special Teams Player of the Week on Wednesday.

Jan 4, 2015; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Indianapolis Colts punter Pat McAfee (1) during the 2014 AFC Wild Card playoff football game against the Cincinnati Bengals at Lucas Oil Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

While the Colts have struggled in the team’s 1st 3 games, McAfee has been one of the team’s lone bright spots. On his 12 punts on the season, he has averaged a net of 47.5 yards per punt.

To put that in perspective, he averaged 42.8 net yards per punt last season, which indicates that the “Boomstick” is in full force this season. The Colts offense has often found itself in poor starting field position through 3 games, so it makes sense that McAfee has been called to “leg it out” more.

In last Sunday’s win against the Tennessee Titans, McAfee had 5 punts with a net average of 50 yards per punt as well as 6 touchbacks.

However, his biggest play came in the 4th quarter when he took off for 18 yards on a fake punt run on a 4th and 10 in the 3rd quarter, successfully getting the first down.

According to McAfee, that gutsy playcall didn’t come from the sideline, as he always has the “green light” to make such a move at his discretion:

"“It’s a situational thing,” said Pat McAfee post-game. “If I happen to get a snap that brings me out of the pocket a little bit, and I see that the edge is wide open, I kind of got the green light. That’s talked about once in training camp and if that situation ever pops up, you better go ahead and get it.”“If I don’t get it there right, I’m probably walking back to a punch in the face from Coach Pagano and Tom McMahon, special teams coach,” added McAfee. “Very happy we got it. Picked up some momentum there. Wish we could have done something with it, but that’s just situational football where we have such good coaches here.”"

Of course, such an honor is nothing new for McAfee, who’s among one of the best punters in football. The 7th-year pro is coming off a season in which he was named to his 1st career Pro Bowl and was a 1st-Team All-Pro. Additionally, he was named last September’s AFC Special Teams Player of the Month.

It should be just another accolade on a long list for the Colts talented punter before it’s all said and done.

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