If you're a fan of Pro Football Focus and its grading system, you may not like what they just did to star Michigan State punter Ryan Eckley this week.
After another excellent outing with three perfect punts against Boston College, Eckley was named the Ray Guy Award National Punter of the Week. He had three punts all downed inside the 20, and two of them were downed inside the five.
For a punter, that's about as good as you can do your job. Not many punters have had the accuracy and power that Eckley possesses, and it's what sets him apart from the rest of the nation.
But Pro Football Focus disagrees, apparently.
In fact, PFF released its punter rankings through two weeks of action, and Eckley is ranked No. 46 in the country, which Matt Wenzel correctly called "comically absurd".
For anyone who puts a lot of stock in Pro Football Focus grades, PFF has 45 punters in the nation ranked higher than Ryan Eckley. It's comically absurd. pic.twitter.com/Q1TL56RURK
— Matt Wenzel (@mwenzel2) September 11, 2025
To think that there are 45 better punters in college football right now is not only psychotic, but it's dangerously incorrect. Heck, there aren't three better punters in the nation right now, and I'm pretty confident in saying that Eckley should be the front-runner for the Ray Guy Award.
Don't believe me? Well, these numbers tell the story:
- Yards per punt: 52.4 (1st in the nation)
- Net average yards per punt: 49.1 (6th)
- Punts downed inside 20: 7 (2nd)
- Punts downed inside the 3: 3 (probably 1st, but can't find this metric)
All but two of his punts this season have been downed inside the 20, and if you're looking for an even crazier stat: 33 percent of his punts have been downed inside the 3-yard-line.
Eckley is having an All-American start to his junior season, and yet Pro Football Focus is treating him like some bum. That's unacceptable.