Ethan Evans had what most would describe as a subpar rookie season in 2023. While he has a powerful leg, he only downed 20 of his 64 punts inside the 20 and had a net average of just 39.1 yards per punt – the second-worst mark among all qualified punters.
Some of that was out of his control, in part because of the Rams’ awful coverage unit on punts, but he also outkicked his coverage too often with long punts that lacked hang time. He’s looking to improve in Year 2 and based on this recent workout video, he seems to be getting more air under those booming kicks.
The video below shows seven straight punts by Evans, which all had a hang time of at least 5 seconds. For reference, JK Scott led the NFL in average hang time last year at 4.72 seconds, according to PFF, so anything over 5 seconds is outstanding.
Evans’ best hang time in the video is 5.56 seconds but he was consistently going over 5.3 seconds.
I present to you with no Comment a set of 7 @ethanevans2019 rolling film punts all above 5.0 pic.twitter.com/BVuIsQSMeE
— IsaacPunts (@IsaacPunts) July 2, 2024
The Rams hope Evans rarely has to go on the field to punt the ball away but when he is called upon, it seems he could be much improved in his second NFL season.