Jake
Camarda.
Jake
Camarda.
Georgia· 6'1"· 193 lb· 4.56s 40
"The best leg in the class and the best punting average in Georgia history, with the open question of whether raw distance without elite directional control is worth a fourth-round pick."Pre-draft read
Camarda is a leg-talent punter whose operation is built on raw hang and distance rather than on directional trickery. He drops the ball cleanly, strikes it with a compact swing and produces carry that flips a field in one snap. Georgia used him as a weapon on the plus side of midfield and trusted him to pin from tight spots inside his own end zone.
He also handled kickoffs and held on placements, which is the profile special teams coordinators want in a single roster spot. The coffin-corner work is functional but not his signature; his answer to a short field is usually a high, hanging ball rather than a rolling directional kick. When he mishits, the ball comes out low and short, and the miss is loud because the baseline is so high.
A special teams unit with fast gunners that can cover a high, deep ball and a coordinator willing to trade net average for field-flipping distance.
Year 1: the immediate starting punter and kickoff man. Ceiling: a Pro Bowl leg who is the best field-position weapon on the roster.
A cold-weather team that lives on directional, coffin-corner punting inside the opponent's 40, where his booming default puts the ball in the end zone instead of at the 5.
His value depends on coverage speed; without gunners who can run under the hang, his gross average never becomes net.
Jake Camarda: 2022 NFL Draft profile of the No. 1 punter in the nation
Pre-draft profile with the Georgia tape that made him the top-graded punter in the class.
2022 Blue Chip Draft Prospect: Jake Camarda
Technical breakdown of the drop, swing and strike from a punting-specific channel.
Jake Camarda with one of the best punting performances you'll ever see
Single-game reel showing the hang time and distance that defined his college work.
Camarda arrived in the draft as the consensus best punter in the class, and for once the label carried weight. He left Georgia as the school's career leader in punting average at 45.78, passing a Ray Guy Award winner to do it, and he did it while kicking off, holding on every placement and playing on a national championship team.
The evaluation of a punter is narrow, and here it was mostly favorable. The leg strength is genuinely rare, the hang time gives a coverage unit time to work, and the ball comes off at a consistent angle. Georgia's defense also meant he punted less often than most SEC starters, which cuts both ways: fewer reps to grade, but also a punter used mostly in high-leverage, long-field situations rather than in garbage time.
The reservations were about consistency and about the mishit floor. He had games where every ball was a weapon and games where a couple of drops came out flat, and his directional and pooch work lagged behind his gross average. Tampa Bay, needing to replace a veteran, spent the 133rd pick on him — high for the position, and a bet that the leg would hold up.
- 01
Elite leg strength
produced a 68-yard punt against Alabama and a career average of 45.78 yards, the best in the history of a program that has produced a Ray Guy winner.
- 02
Hang time
gets the ball high enough to let coverage arrive at the catch point, which is what turns gross average into usable net yardage at the next level.
- 03
Three-phase value
punted, kicked off and held on all 99 Georgia placements as a senior, filling three special teams jobs with one roster spot.
- 04
Big-moment reliability
punted five times for a 44.6-yard average in the CFP Championship Game, twice downing the ball inside the Alabama 10-yard line.
- 05
Kickoff leverage
71 touchbacks on 102 kickoffs in 2021 helped Georgia finish third nationally in kickoff return defense at 13.0 yards per return.
- 01
Inconsistent strike
the mishits come out low and flat, and because his baseline is so high the bad ball costs more field position than an average punter's does.
- 02
Directional and pooch work
the short-field placement game lags the booming leg, with fewer answers than the best pros when the ball must die inside the 10.
- 03
Low volume sample
3.6 punts per game as a senior, below the NCAA qualifying minimum, meaning evaluators graded him on a thinner body of work than usual.
- 04
Positional value
a punter taken in the fourth round has to be an immediate top-ten leg to justify the pick, leaving no runway for a slow professional start.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.56sp50
- Vertical
- —in
- Broad jump
- —in
- Three-cone
- —s
- Shuttle
- —s
- Bench
- —rep
| Yr | Team | G | Punts | Yds | Avg |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Georgia | 14 | 43 | 1830 | 42.6 |
| 2019 | Georgia | 14 | 61 | 2857 | 46.8 |
| 2020 | Georgia | 10 | 36 | 1677 | 46.6 |
| 2021 | Georgia | 15 | 47 | 2197 | 46.7 |
| Career | — | 53 | 187 | 8561 | 45.8 |
The 2020 and 2021 lines are verified on cfbstats (Georgia team 257, player 1094924): 36 punts for 1,677 yards in 10 games and 47 punts for 2,197 yards in 15 games. Sports-Reference supplies 2018 and 2019 with bowl games included, which is why 2018 shows 14 games rather than the 13 regular-season appearances some aggregators list. The four seasons sum exactly to the career line of 53 games, 187 punts and 8,561 yards. The field goal and extra point zeros are verified: he never attempted a placement at Georgia, where he was the holder. Kickoff totals (102 kickoffs for 6,487 yards with 71 touchbacks in 2021) are published by cfbstats but are not part of the punting category shown here.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Strong-legged early-round punter who holds a starting job for years on gross average.
Big-leg punter who converts distance into All-Pro net numbers with a coverage unit behind him.
Serviceable starting punter who bounces between teams once the consistency slips.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
The leg was exactly as advertised. Camarda punted 79 times for a 48.8-yard gross average as a rookie in 2022 with a long of 74, then improved to 50.1 yards per punt across 77 attempts in 2023 — figures that put him among the best gross punters in the league. The net numbers never matched the gross, at 41.6 and 41.8, and that gap became the story of his career: enormous balls that outran their coverage, with touchbacks and returns eating the margin.
It unraveled quickly. He opened 2024 punting 13 times at a 45.3 gross and a 36.5 net, was made inactive for three of four games in favor of a practice squad punter, and was waived by Tampa Bay on October 22, 2024. Buffalo signed him to a futures deal in January 2025 and released him that July. He signed with the Columbus Aviators of the UFL in February 2026 and was placed on reserve/retired the following month. Three NFL seasons, 169 punts, a 49.1 career gross average and no landing spot after age 25 — a fourth-round pick that produced real snaps and a real weapon for two years, then nothing.