DONE DEAL: Cleveland Browns has successfully won the race by signing an incredible star worth $100M from…………
Punters don’t get talked about often, but Bojorquez’s season is worth singling out
Bojorquez ended the season with the fifth-highest Pro Football Focus punting grade at 79.0. He placed 35 punts inside the 20, seventh-best in the league, and his longest punt was 73 yards.
“He makes it difficult on returners for sure,” Ventrone said of Bojorquez last month. “It’s hard to catch a lefty like him. He can definitely put the ball out there. He can also get it up, elevate the ball pretty well and he’s really been a great player for us right now and he continues to improve and understands how we want him to play the game and he’s improving in his plus-50 ball as well. So really excited about how he’s come along and gave our unit and our team, I would say an advantage to be able to control the field.
3. Bubba Ventrone revitalized the unit
Ventrone brought in the energy everyone expected as special teams coordinatorYes, he helped bring out the best in Bojorquez and Hopkins, the latter of whom was just 15 of 30 on 50-plus yard kicks in his career prior to coming to Cleveland.
He also got key contributions from guys like Mike Ford Jr. and Matthew Adams, veterans who came in and made big tackles and stops.
In Rick Gosselin’s 2023 special teams rankings, the gold standard for the metric, The Browns finished 11th overall. In 2022 they finished 18th, and in 2021, they were 30th. According to those rankings, they led the league in opponent field goal percentage (70.8) and blocked kicks with three.
Ventrone wasn’t afraid to get creative, like when he sent Myles Garrett flying over the Colts O-line to block one of those kicks, a field goal attempt by Matt Gay.
He managed to deal with numerous setbacks, including the team bringing in a new kicker in August, being without both a kicker and punter due to injuries the final weeks of the regular season, and losing a star returner Jakeem Grant Sr. to a season-ending Achilles injury in training camp.
But nothing could rattle Ventrone, as the Browns always figured out a way.
That new energy and risk-taking paid off, and ideally, the tone has been set for the unit going forward.
