Second-Round Punter in the 2026 Draft? Brett Thorson Could Make NFL History

Punters are an afterthought at best in the NFL draft, and several experiments in recent years with teams risking significant draft capital on a punter or kicker have gone awry. Some quite quickly.

However, that is not expected to derail one punter prospect from quite likely hearing his name called before many of the more well known players in the upcoming draft, who field much more glamorous positions. 

Georgia punter Brett Thorson has generating significant heat among NFL special teams coaches as he makes the rounds visiting with teams ahead of the draft and he is seen as much as sure-fire prospect for immediate success at the pro level as many of the quarterbacks and cornerbacks and pass rushers who will be selected well ahead of him.

“If you put a gun to my head and made me say if I’d put a first-round grade on him, the answer might be yes,” one longtime NFL executive said. 

“No one is taking a punter in the first round… But I can see someone saying he could provide first-round value.”

How High Can A Punter Go?

Thorson is a native of Australia with a tough-minded mentality and a willingness to throw his body into traffic to make a tackle. 

It can, and has, led to injuries, but teams who have met with him love him and his metrics are off the charts and if nothing else there is a strong sense among teams I spoke to that he will be selected somewhere on the second day of the draft (second and third round).

“I don’t know that you can justify taking a punter above the third round,’ another personnel executive said, “but if that’s the threshold then he meets it. Maybe he even goes late second round. He has elite hang time and distance, and a lot of special teams coaches now seem to be getting more into that and not as much solely looking for the directional stuff… And he can do that too." 

One general manager said: “It’s crazy to talk this way about a punter, but the Georgia kid might be kind of special. If you really need a punter, and you have a coach who wants to be able to flip the field, there’s value to having a great punter.”

Ray Guy, the only punter in the Hall of Fame, went 23rd overall in 1973; no one has been selected in the first round since, but some have sneaked into the second round. And it might happen again.