Steelers Punter Competition Might be Over

PITTSBURGH — Is the Steelers punter competition really still a thing? After Saturday’s game against the Buffalo Bills, Pressley Harvin III may have very well clinched the job over Braden Mann. Harvin had been having a strong training camp, but needed to show that he could translate it over into games, where shanks could potentially doom the defense on a punt. But that never happened.

Pressley Harvin III checked the boxes he needed to check on Saturday and looked far more impressive than Braden Mann did last Friday. All of his five punts ended up inside the 20-yard line, some of them being tight punts. One ended up being a great play by Miles Boykin that ended with Harvin’s punt at the 5-yard line. Overall, it’s hard to not give him props. The punter job seems, mostly, locked up in Harvin’s favor.

Meanwhile, Mann struggled with his overall consistency against the Buccaneers. At times, just like he would in practice, Mann would have booming punts. But far too often were there some punts that seemed to be flat and put the Steelers special teams in bad spots. Now that Harvin has translated his success into the game not just once but five times over the entire game.

So, it seems that Harvin just needs to have another solid outing while dueling against Mann in Atlanta to fully lock the job down. But his superior training camp and now the far more impressive in game exposure signal that this job is likely to go to Harvin.