ORCHARD PARK — If you hadn't heard, Joe Brady's new slogan is "Put the ball down." It's not easy for Tommy Doman Jr.
Sure, one of the Buffalo Bills rookie punter's jobs is to literally put the ball down. But there's a bit more science. The relationship between kicker and holder requires chemistry.
For some kickers, how the ball is put down matters a great deal.
Some kickers want the ball put down as quickly as possible to see it longer on approach, others don't want any herky-jerky movements and others want the placement tempo to match their approach.
There are kickers who even have a preference on where the ball is put down.
"It's not about me," Doman told GNN Sports. "It's about getting the ball down and helping the kicker be in the best position possible to succeed."
It's all preference. And the only universal detail is to make sure the laces are facing the goalposts when the kicker makes contact.
Usually no one notices the holder unless there's a mistake. But some may have noticed Doman's process when holding for kicker Tyler Bass.
When Doman catches the ball from long snapper Reid Ferguson, his head goes straight down, eyes locked on the ball. And he doesn't look up for roughly three seconds after Bass strikes the ball.
It goes back to his sophomore season at Michigan. Doman used to be a kicker, so he liked looking at them. But in turning to watch, he was unknowingly pressing the ball into the turf. It wasn't until then-Michigan kicker and current San Francisco 49er Jake Moody told him that it was affecting the height of the ball that Doman realized.
"From then on, I was like, 'OK. Ghost hand,'" said Doman, whose first NFL punt went 63 yards against Houston. "Hold it, make sure it's there and just be over the top by just staying there, just make sure that I'm doing my job. The crowd tells me if it goes in or not. … It's like that cool moment where I don't need to look."
Doman held for three kickers in three seasons to end his college career, two at Michigan and the last at Florida. After the Bills made him a seventh-round pick in April, Doman approached Bass for his preference on how to put the ball down.
Except Bass doesn't have a specific choice. As long as the ball is caught calmly and put down every time, Bass is happy. Doman calls it, "Smooth is fast, fast is smooth." From there, Bass simply matches the tempo of his approach to the hold and swings.
And Bass isn't overly concerned with Doman's post-strike routine because he has one of his own.
"Once I kick it, I try to follow through and not look until I'm done with everything," Bass said. "Then I look."
The process has worked so far, with Bass going 3 for 3 on field goal attempts — with a long of 46 — and 4 for 4 on extra points. Much has been made about Bass' struggles over the years, dating back to the end of 2023, which ended with a missed game-tying field goal in the waning moments of a 27-24 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC divisional round.
In his first game after missing all last season with hip and groin surgery, Bass missed a 45-yarder in the preseason opener. It turned out to be his only miss as he went 6 of 7 on field goals — including 52-yarder in Cleveland — and knocked in all eight of his extra points.
"I get it, I understand it," Bass said. "We're in a business. … Kind of been through the good and the bad of it, just is what it is. I try not to look at it. Honestly, I'm not on social media so I just try to go out there and have fun doing my job. And if you like, you like it. If you don't like it, you don't like it."
NOTES: S Cole Bishop (groin/knee), RB Ty Johnson (hamstring) and DL T.J. Sanders (knee/illness) are questionable for Thursday's game against the Lions.
