Competing for NFL job for 1st time, punter Braden Mann joins friend Pressley Harvin with Steelers
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There’s likely no truth to the rumor that Braden Mann and Pressley Harvin III compared their respective Ray Guy Award trophies when they convened with the Pittsburgh Steelers this spring.
But they did share some old stories.
Mann and Harvin share not only the distinction of being named the nation’s best punter during their college careers. They also have a history training together that dates to their high school days.
“I think my first time punting with Pressley was probably my junior year of high school,” Mann said after minicamp at UPMC Rooney Sports Complex last month. “So, we have punted together off and on. We were actually kind of joking about how we had never really hung out outside of a football setting, and now it’s kind of come full circle.
“It’s been close to 10 years now we have known each other. Pretty wild.”
Wild also describes one NFL team having two former Ray Guy Award winners (Mann in 2018, Harvin 2020) in the same training camp. Like Harvin, who was a seventh-round pick by the Steelers in 2021, Mann was one of the rare drafted punters (sixth round, 2020).
Texas A&M’s Braden Mann visits with Chris Fowler on ESPN after winning Ray Guy Award as nation’s top punter: pic.twitter.com/D1DBzQY9yW
— Brent Zwerneman (@BrentZwerneman) December 7, 2018
The two strong-legged punters will figuratively duke it out (kick it out?) on the fields of Saint Vincent starting July 26.
Mann was the New York Jets’ punter from the time he was drafted until this past spring, when they signed 37-year-old veteran Thomas Morstead on April 7 and placed Mann on waivers the following week.
“It’s the most competitive level of football,” Mann said of the NFL. “There are only 32 spots. There’s not a depth chart at punter. It’s one. You get one for the season, and so it’s, obviously, super competitive, but I didn’t have anybody in New York come in except for when I got hurt, so I didn’t really have any other punters there. So this is a little bit different for me, but Pressley is awesome, so it’s been good so far.”
That the Steelers put in the waiver claim for Mann signifies they sought legitimate competition for Harvin as he enters his third camp with the team. Mann missed only seven of the Jets’ 50 games over his tenure, all in early 2021 because of a knee injury.
Harvin, likewise, has held the Steelers’ punting and holding jobs since he was drafted — beating incumbent Jordan Berry during his rookie preseason — aside from a two-game bereavement absence late in the 2021 season.
But while Mann and Harvin came into the league with high pedigree, neither has ascended into the upper echelon of NFL punters. Last season, among 34 qualifying punters, Mann ranked 17th and Harvin 28th in gross punting average and Harvin 18th and Mann 20th in net average. Each also ranked in the bottom half of the league in touchback percentage and inside-the-20 rate.
Pro Football Focus graded Mann very highly (fourth in the NFL), but footballoutsiders.com’s punting metrics rated the Jets as the league’s fourth worst. (Harvin was middle-of-the-pack in both lists.)
“I got released, and I was on waivers for 24 hours and I got notified that (the Steelers) put a claim in,” Mann said of his Jets departure. “So, I was like, ‘All right, going to Pittsburgh.’ So I was excited to come here.”
#Steelers 2-a-days: Specialists Christian Kuntz, Braden Mann part of camp competitions @C_AdamskiTrib https://t.co/F7CKjhJMCJ
— Tribune-Review Sports (@TribSports) July 6, 2023
Mann (5-foot-11, 198 pounds) had a soccer background and quit playing linebacker after injuries as a youth. In 247 Sports’ recruiting rankings for the 2016 incoming college class, Mann was the nation’s fifth-best kicker recruit. He would handle the kickoff duties for Texas A&M throughout college, but it was after winning the punting job as a junior that he took off.
Mann set the NCAA record for most 60-plus yard punts in a season (14) and led the nation with in punting average at a school-record 50.98 yards per attempt.
“It was kind of a weird journey,” Mann said. “Multiple positions to switch.”
That journey has led Mann to Pittsburgh, where he likely faces an uphill battle to unseat Harvin, whose directional punting skills and big leg the Steelers like. It’s more a matter of consistency. Holding for placekicks is another, under-discussed factor in any evaluation of modern punters.
Mann will be going toe-to-toe with Harvin, this time not as part of a high school punting camp but at Steelers training camp.
“Not just Pressley, everybody here has been super welcoming, nice and awesome,” Mann said. “Bunch of awesome guys. It’s good to be part of the culture and the team here. Just excited to get to camp.”
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