Eagles punter Arryn Siposs skates into Philaelphia's preseason finale on thin ice

The worst part about the Philadelphia Eagles' situation at punter, is that while almost every other position group on the team is rated near the top of the league, their special teams unit leaves much to be desired, and you guessed it. Their inability to rely on flipping field position ranks them at the bottom of the league in that area. In short, the punter isn't just a weak spot. It is their weakest.

During their preseason game versus the Cleveland Browns, the Eagles hung all of the punting duties on Ty Zentner's shoulders, an undrafted free agent who was brought in to compete with Arryn Siposs for the position.

Well, we all know how that turned out. Zentner was recently released, and Siposs is the last man standing, for now. Don't look now, but we're right back where we started.

Arryn Siposs is a weak link in a very strong Eagles roster chain. What can be done to change that?

Well, we can officially state following Zentner's time in Philly that he most certainly stunk up the joint. He averaged a horrible 39.8 yards per boot. In his swan song, none of his attempts traveled further than 45 yards. His hang time wasn't great either.

Following his release, we could probably let bygones be bygones. Yay for us, right? There's still one glaring issue. Unfortunately, the only punter that is currently on the Eagles roster is, once again, Arryn Siposs. 

If nothing changes, Arryn Siposs will again be the Eagles' punter. Philly hasn't brought anyone else in to challenge him. Sadly, it's hard to forget that he bricked during a Wild Card Round performance versus the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and after he was brought back for the 2022 season with no competition to push him, we all know how that whole thing ended. Forgive us if we are concerned.

Sure, things were a little different this time around. He did actually have some competition this year, but Zentner performed so poorly that it's tough to acknowledge that this was a battle. This was a formality, and a joke of a formality at that.

This doesn’t necessarily mean all hope is lost for the Eagles’ at a very important special teams position. There are currently six teams in the NFL who are rostering two punters, so there is certainly a possibility that when one of those teams hopefully drops one by final roster cuts (August 29th), the Eagles could pick them up.

The Green Bay Packers are intriguing. They are home to the incumbent, Pat O’Donnell and his challenger, Daniel Whelan. The battle between the two is heated and either of these guys would be welcome blood for the Eagles.

Pat O’Donnell is 32 years old and an NFL veteran. He was drafted in 2014 and spent his first eight seasons with the Chicago Bears. One of his better showings came last year with Green Bay. He attempted 52 punts. He only registered one touchback. He also placed the ball inside the opponent's 20-yard line 46% of the time. 18 of his boots led to fair catches. That's not bad at all.

Daniel Whelan is O’Donnell's opposite. Whelan is 24 years old. His only real experience has come as a member of the XFL's D.C. Defenders. He was named to the All-XFL team. D.C. earned a postseason berth. There, he averaged 53.8 yards per punt on four attempts. Do we need to discuss Arryn's postseason resume?

Here’s the deal, if you’re measuring punting based on advanced metrics like Puntalytics does (they’re great by the way), Pat O’Donnell wasn’t in the top half of the league. He was actually just below Arryn Siposs.

Daniel Whelan though? The dude has a meat cannon of a leg. He can also absolutely send the ball into the atmosphere. During an XFL game this year I had the pleasure of viewing, I saw one of the prettiest and most deliberate punts in recent memory (Video below). If the punt was in Dallas, that ball is absolutely punching a hole through the scoreboard. 

The final preseason game is on Thursday, September 24th, and eyes will certainly be on Siposs when he takes the field. If he shows us anything reminiscent of how he ended the 2022 season, he should be ushered to the chopping block. If that isn't an option, another guy should be brought in. O’Donnell or Whelan would be great for that competition. 

Or the Eagles could just lay down and run it back with the same old choke artist of the past two years and act surprised when he shanks a punt in the playoffs putting the team behind the eight-ball when circumstances are dire. That could happen too. Hell, they brought back special teams coordinator Mike Clay and even gave him a raise, so at this point, one has to believe that anything could happen.

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