Punter Ryan Stonehouse bet on himself, and it's paying off for Tennessee Titans | Estes

Credit the Tennessee Titans for this one: They didn’t just stumble onto the NFL’s best young punter. It wasn’t mere happenstance that Ryan Stonehouse ended up clobbering kicks in Nashville as an undrafted rookie.

Rather, it reflected two things:

How much Stonehouse, in his words, is “really confident in my ability.” Enough that he'd want to show up and compete with a franchise institution like Brett Kern.

But even more so, how much the Titans wanted Stonehouse to come do it.

“Constant communication,” said Stonehouse, who opted to sign with the Titans mostly because of how heavily he'd been recruited by them. He rated his pre-draft relationship with Titans special teams coach Craig Aukerman and special teams assistant Chase Blackburn as “better than any other team.”

And so for all that might change with the Titans’ makeup from year to year, this has not: Without Kern in 2022, same as it was for years with him, one of their most valuable players is still their punter.

Five games into his pro career, Stonehouse leads the NFL with a 54.9 average on 27 punts. His net average (47.3) is second only to the Chiefs’ Tommy Townsend.

His leg has been an especially useful weapon for a team that has continually had to hold on to leads late in games, overcoming offensive struggles that mean punts are needed to flip field position.

“He’s done phenomenal,” Titans kicker Randy Bullock said. “I mean, it’s been really impressive.”

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You wouldn’t know that just from speaking with Stonehouse. With his long hair and humble, laid-back persona, he radiates Southern California cool. He’s listed as being born in San Dimas (“Bill & Ted” anyone?), and while punting was probably always in his future, he didn’t start taking it seriously, he said, until his last couple of years in high school.

He preferred baseball at the time. But his father Paul punted for Stanford. His uncle John punted at Southern Cal. Another uncle, Jeff Banks, punted at Washington State. His cousin Jack, who punts for Missouri right now, once told the LA Times that he used to practice with a helmet “so I didn’t get a bloody nose.”

That’s the flexibility and force we’re talking about with punts in the Stonehouse family.

And Ryan might be the best yet. He had an 81-yard punt at Colorado State, which signed him to a scholarship out of high school, a rare feat for a punter. His 47.8-yard average there set an FBS career record.

Stonehouse should have been drafted, but when he wasn’t, the Titans were in position to make a move.

“I knew that they were looking at this class,” Stonehouse said. “Didn’t know if they were going to (draft) someone or not. … I would have had to (bet on myself) anywhere. I think this was just a great spot, and it really helped having a relationship with them first. I had some teams approach me in the draft that I had no relationship prior to a phone call.”

Aukerman’s successful pitch was to come in and not just compete with Kern but learn from him, so if Stonehouse didn’t win out, at least he'd have the experience of being mentored by one of the league’s best veterans.

“I don’t think we were really going out there and looking for a punter,” Aukerman said. “It was something that we saw on film with him and said, ‘Hey, let’s give this guy an opportunity to come in and compete for a job.’ Then obviously, he just took off with it.”

It was a gamble by the Titans to roll with Stonehouse and cut a three-time Pro Bowler in Kern. The Titans did hedge their bets by basically being able to stash Kern – who hasn’t signed elsewhere – in the attic if needed.

Kern, 36, had taken a step back statistically over the past couple of seasons. And while you won’t get anyone with the Titans to admit that they were actively searching for his replacement, it's telling that they went after Stonehouse with a zeal that ended up winning him over after the draft.

Then the 23-year-old Stonehouse quickly won over the Titans.

Coach Mike Vrabel put it this way: “I don’t think that the competition was too much for him.”

Stonehouse said he never felt like it was awkward with Kern, who understood what he was up against and was highly complimentary of the rookie’s ample ability during training camp.

“As much as sometimes they say, ‘Oh, vets won’t help you out,’” Stonehouse said, “he just helped me in terms of conceptually understanding what it’s like to be the NFL, how to handle yourself as a pro.”

Kern also helped him learn how to hold kicks for Bullock, which was something Stonehouse hadn’t done since earlier in his college career and would have to do in Kern’s place. Before practices going back to the preseason, Stonehouse has often been on the field catching snaps from a machine, similar to extra work a wide receiver might do.

“Give him credit for his hard work he’s put into it,” Bullock said, “because it’s not seamless. That’s one of the hardest jobs to do.”

“He’s doing a great job for us,” Aukerman said of Stonehouse, “but we still feel like he hasn’t even had an ‘A’ game yet. That’s how well he’s been doing it in practice.”

Reach Tennessean sports columnist Gentry Estes at gestes@tennessean.com and on Twitter @Gentry_Estes.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Tennessee Titans' recruiting coup of Ryan Stonehouse paying off big time