Below is the PFF draft profile for Texas A&M's Drew Kaser, which incorporates PFF’s college grades and scouting intel from our team of analysts. To see all of PFF’s 2016 scouting reports, click here.
Position fit: Punter
Stats to know: Averaged 47.3 yards per punt in 2015, second in this draft class.
What he does best:
— Showed serious improvement in 2015, with his grade moving from -25.6 in 2014, to -12.3 this year. Grading negatively obviously isn't a good thing, but very few college punters grade positively, so the jump in grade was a big step in the right direction
— Had a solid day at the Shrine Game, with four of his five punts landing inside the opponents 20 yard line and had a punt with 5.02 seconds of hang time
— Was able to get the ball inside the 20 yard line often in 2015, with 26 of his 66 punts landing there last season
Biggest concerns:
— 36.1 percent of his punts were returned this past year, up from 21.0 percent in 2014, and the seventh-worst mark in this draft class
— Not always consistent with hang time. 34 of 61 punts were downgraded for poor hang time
— Didn't kickoff in college so doesn't come with the ability to be a kickoff specialist straight away
— Inconsistent at Texas A&M. Graded lower than -2.0 in four games in 2015 so will benefit from working with NFL coaches
Bottom line: Very few punters grade well in college, and the fact that Kaser was able to improve as much as he did in 2015 is a big plus. There's still a lot of work to be done however and he will have to improve in a number of areas to become a successful punter. There's a lot to be said for grading positively in the Shrine Game after working with NFL coaches though, and ultimately that may help him get a shot in the NFL.