PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh Steelers rookie punter Pressley Harvin III stands at an imposing 6-feet, 255 pounds, and special teams coordinator Danny Smith believes his size could prove useful.
“The best thing we can do with this guy is, you know about the quarterback sneak play? You’re going to see a punt sneak play with this big dude,” Smith joked. “That’s the first thing we started working on. Maybe he can get a yard.”
While Georgia Tech never utilized Harvin’s legs in short yardage situations, he did demonstrate a knack for converting fakes with his cannon of an arm.
Georgia Tech punter Pressley Harvin III threw for a touchdown 😯pic.twitter.com/KHpkiCTV9m
— Def Pen Sports (@DefPenSports) October 19, 2019
“He’s a talent, he really is a talented guy,” Smith added. “He is a powerful young man. And we’re just perfecting his skillset. We’ll see how all that unfolds. He’s practiced very well.”
While Harvin certainly has a strong leg and a uniquely large frame, Smith will be the first to tell you that there is more to punting than just brawn.
“A strong leg isn’t just the answer,” he said. “There’s a lot of strong legs out there that don’t make it in this league. I call it ‘you’ve got to have game.’ You got to be able to pooch punt. You got to be able to put the ball out of bounds. You got to have a good get off time. You got to be able to hold, in most cases. There’s a lot of factors involved. Those are the kind of things we are working on. But we are very excited about him and very excited about working with me. We’ll see how it all unfolds.”
Selected in the seventh round of April’s draft, Harvin was the Ray Guy Award winner and a unanimous All-American with the Yellow Jackets in 2020.