When last I blogged, I mentioned that special teams coach Danny Smith had offered four of media types the opportunity to pick the punter. if you read that, you might have noticed that I went off on some long-winded tangent and did not pick the punter.

I’ll tell you one person who noticed—the Lovely Mrs. Woody.
“You didn’t pick a punter,“ she said.

Well, no. I don’t think Danny Smith really wanted me to pick a punter. But the Lovely Mrs. Woody has a point, as she often does.

So, today, I’m picking a punter. I’m picking Frostie. That’s Derek Frost, and I don’t think he knows that we press box guys call him “Frostie.“ I don’t think he’d mind.

I’m picking him because he had four punts in the preseason game Saturday night, and three of them were inside the 20. That’s good. He had one regular punt, and it was down the middle of the field and didn’t have a great hang time.

That’s bad.

He’s forced to compete for the job because of too many punts like that one with the short hang time last season. The Redskins spent a draft choice on Durrant Brooks, and when a team does that, it sends a message to the current punter and gives the draftee the inside track on the job.

Brooks’ track is not all that inside because he was a sixth-round draft choice. He didn’t punt that well in his first preseason game, but it was his first time in an NFL game. The Redskins don’t make decisions based on one game.

The other reason I’m going with the Frostman is that he’s very smooth when he holds for field goals and extra points. Brooks is learning to do that, and it’s a stressful endeavor. You wouldn’t think so, but in practice, he kneels about eight yards away from the Juggs machine, which shoots the ball out at a high rate of speed. I wouldn’t want to have to catch it.

Brooks catches it fine. He gets it down and spins it so the laces are not facing the kicker. But you can see him thinking through everything as he does. Holders have to be quick to the spot and smooth with the spin. It takes a while to get that down.

Generally, punters have to go through a couple of training camps before they get a handle on kicking in the NFL. Brooks might not have to do that. We’ll see.

As for the Frostman, I’ve had a few conversations with him over the years. He’s a nice guy. The last time we talked, the topic was nutritonal supplements. These guys always are looking for something legal that will help them recover from a workout faster or ease the pain in their joints, which is considerable. 

Mr. Frost had a bottle of something that day, and I can’t remember what it was exactly. But it was legal and I think it was similar to glucosmine. We kicked, no pun intended, that around for a few minutes, then he went to a meeting or wherever it is that punters go before practice, and I left what was by then an empty locker room.

We’ll see if I’m right later this month. Chances are I’m not. I rarely am. But I have, as they say, declared.