In 2004, after losing Josh Bidwell in free agency to Tampa Bay (where he made the Pro Bowl a year later), Mike Sherman drafted BJ Sander in the 3rd round of the draft.
Why a punter in the third round? Wait, sorry, what meant to say was: why trade up to the third round and then select a punter? Well there weren’t a lot of good players on the board at the time. Just Matt Schaub, Shaun Phillips, Jared Allen, Micheal Turner – well, that’s just a partial list of Pro Bowlers drafted after BJ. Heck three-time First Team All Pro punter Andy Lee went in the 6th f#cking round. Damn Sherman sucked (Here’s more proof)!
It was apparent from day 1 that the pick was a mistake. First off, he was a punter drafted in the third round. Secondly, he sucked at punting a football (yeah, I know he won the Ray Guy award college, the problem is that he stunk up the joint in the pros). He was terrible right off the bat, so Sherman did what any good GM would do when a rookie punter struggles – keep two punters! You can’t just give up on a third round pick right away, can you?
Nope, not if you’re Mike Sherman. In that case, you bring in Bryan Barker and let him punt while BJ Sander sits around collecting a paycheck while being listed as inactive every week. Then let him punt next year. When he finally gets his chance and averages 39.2 yards per punt (worse than Barker’s one pathetic season with the team), Ted Thompson will come to town and Old Yeller his #ss.
That’s about as bad as it gets in a punter saga.
So maybe you don’t like Schum, maybe you’re nervous about Vogel, but however you feel about the Packers punting situation, remember: it could be worse.