Duke
Duke punter Porter Wilson talks finding NFL opportunity
Former Duke punter Porter Wilson reflects on what the process for finding a spot in the NFL is like for a specialist.
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Former Duke punter Porter Wilson reflects on what the process for finding a spot in the NFL is like for a specialist.
You guys. Good. All right, porter, I think I heard uh Dwayne or one of your teammates over there say best punter in the nation right there before you kind of had to start your workout. Uh But is that your mentality when you get to perform? You know what I mean in front of a pro day stage and all these NFL scouts kind of having that mentality of trying to prove to them that I am the best out here and I need to be on your draft board. Yeah, I mean, I definitely have confidence but it all comes down to just doing my best and, you know, bleeding myself. It just, yeah, you know, it's definitely nice to have teammates who support you and, you know, hype you up at the end of the day. I'm also trying to prove to myself that I, you know, I can do what I wanna do and be the best, the best of my craft. Did they throw you off at all with any uh particular drills or anything or was it, it was pretty much what you expected? Yeah, that's pretty much what I expected. Pretty uh you know, standard, nothing, nothing crazy. How does the uh draft process for specialists compared to other positions? What's kind of been your learning experience here? I'd say the biggest thing is that, you know, most positions, you got 32 teams that are looking for that, that position or looking for a guy in that position. Whereas, you know, specialists in general, you know, you got about, you know, 5 to 10 teams that are actually looking for a guy. So, um, it's really about finding those teams and, you know, getting a foot in the door. No pun intended. Yeah, really? What's, what is your schedule now moving forward? You know what I mean? Uh, now that this is kind of like this is the last big thing that you have to do, but I'm, I'm sure there's other interviews and things that you have to kind of partake in or whatever before the actual draft pick. What's that looking like for you? So I'm not sure yet, you know, probably can continue to train. Um, I head down to Birmingham works my punting coach but, you know, at this point it's, you know, sitting around and keep my phone on just waiting to, you know, see what's next, what's been something that you've been working on personally to improve your punting ability. I mean, like we've mentioned you are pretty good. Is there hang time distance? What are you looking at? Yeah, I mean, what I always say is that you never have enough hang time. You know, the more the merrier and, uh, you know, consistency is the game. So the more consistent you are the better, how many kicks would you say you're getting on a daily basis over the course of this off season? So I, I don't kick every day. It's usually every other day or two days in between, but 50 ish punts per session. Is there a particular reason why you wanna save your energy? Save your Yeah, it, it's such a repetitive motion that, you know, it's really easy to wear down specific muscles if you do it too much. So, it's about limiting your reps that it's like a pitcher in baseball can't pitch every game.