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New England Patriots 2019 training camp primer: Specialists

By Patrick Morgan

ATLANTA, GEORGIA - FEBRUARY 03: Stephen Gostkowski #3 of the New England Patriots celebrates his teams 13-3 win over the Los Angeles Rams during Super Bowl LIII at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on February 03, 2019 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
ATLANTA, GEORGIA - FEBRUARY 03: Stephen Gostkowski #3 of the New England Patriots celebrates his teams 13-3 win over the Los Angeles Rams during Super Bowl LIII at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on February 03, 2019 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images) /
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MINNEAPOLIS, MN – FEBRUARY 04: Ryan Allen #6 of the New England Patriots warms up prior to Super Bowl LII against the Philadelphia Eagles at U.S. Bank Stadium on February 4, 2018 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
MINNEAPOLIS, MN – FEBRUARY 04: Ryan Allen #6 of the New England Patriots warms up prior to Super Bowl LII against the Philadelphia Eagles at U.S. Bank Stadium on February 4, 2018 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images) /

Here’s what we don’t know…

As SB Nation’s Bernd Buchmasser pointed out back in early June, the ongoing battle between Ryan Allen and Jake Bailey to be the Patriots’ punter in 2019 should be one of the premier storylines of training camp and the offseason in general.

Bailey, a graduate of Stanford, was selected by the Pats in the fifth round of last April’s draft. Allen came to New England as an undrafted free agent out of Louisiana Tech back in 2013. While Allen had arguably his finest performance as a professional in Super Bowl 53 – which only occurred less than six months ago – it still wasn’t enough to prevent Belichick from grabbing Bailey in the draft two months later.

Allen has a bit of recency bias going for him, as it should be hard for the Pats’ coaching staff to completely forget what he did for them in Atlanta. He also is reportedly superior to Allen – at least so far – when it comes to “consistency, directional punting, and ball placement,” per Buchmasser. Those are all obviously important qualities for a punter to have, especially when playing under a coach like Belichick who values situational football and the field position game so highly.

Bailey, on the other hand, has three major advantages of his own over Allen… and they’re all big ones. For starters, he’s significantly younger than Allen, which means he already has more upside. He’s also far cheaper than Allen, with an average annual salary of about $700,000 compared to Allen’s $1.5 million.

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Most importantly though, Bailey has a stronger leg, and with that usually comes more hang-time and longer punt averages overall. It’s for these three reasons primarily that Bailey has been given the slight edge over the incumbent Allen at winning the starting punter’s job this fall… but there’s still a ways to go before anything is settled for sure, obviously.

READ ABOUT THE PATRIOTS’ QUARTERBACKS HERE.

READ ABOUT THE PATRIOTS’ RUNNING BACKS HERE.

READ ABOUT THE PATRIOTS’ WIDE RECEIVERS HERE.

READ ABOUT THE PATRIOTS’ TIGHT ENDS HERE.

READ ABOUT THE PATRIOTS’ OFFENSIVE LINEMEN HERE.

READ ABOUT THE PATRIOTS’ DEFENSIVE LINEMEN HERE.

READ ABOUT THE PATRIOTS’ LINEBACKERS HERE.

READ ABOUT THE PATRIOTS’ CORNERBACKS HERE.

READ ABOUT THE PATRIOTS’ SAFETIES HERE.

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