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Eagles notebook: Braden Mann punts how many times per week?!?!
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- Eagles notebook: Braden Mann punts how many times per week?!?!
Eagles notebook: Braden Mann punts how many times per week?!?! originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
LONDON — Eagles special teams coordinator Michael Clay on Tuesday said that he has never seen a punter punt more than Braden Mann does during a typical practice week.
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How many punts each week?
"Brother, that number is infinite," Clay said. "Infinite. I have no clue."
If the special teams coordinator has no clue, does anybody? Well, we had to go on a mission to find out.
Long snapper Rocco Underwood heard the question on Wednesday and shook his head. His wheels were turning when punt returner Britain Covey, from the adjoining locker stall, ventured a guess. Maybe 300?
Underwood shook his head again. No, it's way more than that, the long snapper said. And Covey admitted he obviously doesn't get to see all of those punts because he's not with that group all the time. So Covey started to do some math — 50 before practice, 50 during practice, 50 after … then Jake Elliott walked by.
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"Jake!"
"What is this?" Elliott asked.
So we told him that we were trying to estimate how many punts Mann gets off during a typical week. Elliott scoffed. "Not even guessable," he offered before joining in on the guesswork. OK, so how about 300-400, Covey offered. Again more scoffing. Eventually, the group settled on an outrageous figure of 600-700 per week, and then Mann walked into the locker room, turned the corner and saw four faces staring back at him. Deer in the headlights.
But Mann sauntered over and chuckled when he found out about the group project. Eventually, he agreed that 600 was a reasonable guess and Covey offered that other punters aren't coming close to that.
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Whatever Mann is doing, though, it's working. After a career season in 2025, Mann has been even better in 2026. He is averaging 49.0 yards and 43.4 net yards per punt with 10 of 19 downed inside the 20 yard line.
Clay on Tuesday joked that the Eagles need to get assistant equipment manager Nick Still a caving helmet with a light for when he shags punts on Thursdays.
How long will Mann be out there?
"Until the sun goes down," Elliott said.
The Eagles' travel plans
While many teams teams arrive to their international game destinations early enough to acclimate and get a practice in, the Eagles decided to wait until Friday to leave for London.
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It's not a decision they made lightly.
"We felt like leaving Friday was best for our team and this team and with the schedule that we have with the weeks coming up," head coach Nick Sirianni said. "A lot of research obviously went into it. You guys know when I've discussed these things with you about short weeks, long weeks, rain weeks, hot weeks, whatever it may be, international weeks, of how to go about it.
"Obviously, this one's a little different than our last international trip because it was on the first game of the season, and we're trying to get a full week's worth of practice in before we go up there. We felt like this was through the studies that we did and through all the things that we looked at, we decided on this. At the end of the day, I've got to make those decisions, and this is the decision I chose with the help of great people, no doubt, but at the end of the day, I have to make this decision. This is the one I chose to help this team get ready for this game this week."
The Eagles did go to São Paulo earlier back at the start of the 2024 season, but as Sirianni mentioned, that was the season opener so the circumstances were different. Their plan this time is to not adjust to London time so they don't have to re-adjust when they get back to Philly for their Week 6 game.
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Team travel plans came under the microscope earlier this season when the 49ers and Rams had drastically different plans for how to attack a game in Australia. The 49ers got their early to acclimate and the Rams arrived later and got their butts kicked 27-7. But that's not to compare a trip to London and a trip to Australia; that's a real apples-to-oranges situation.
Last trip across the pond
This is the Eagles' first trip to London since they beat the Jaguars 24-18 on Oct. 28, 2018 at Wembley Stadium. (This time, the Eagles are playing at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.)
That Doug-Pederson led team improved to 4-4 with that win going into the bye week. They eventually lost to New Orleans in the division round to crush their hopes of repeating as Super Bowl champs.
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The Jags gave the Eagles a fight in that game, getting within a couple points in the fourth quarter before Carson Wentz hit Zach Ertz on a 5-yard touchdown pass in the fourth quarter to give the Eagles a cushion.
Wentz that day completed 21 of 30 passes for 286 yards with 3 touchdowns and 1 interception. The Eagles' leading rusher that day was Josh Adams with 9 for 61. And their leading receiver was Jordan Matthews, who had 4 catches for 93 yards. On the other side, the Eagles sacked Blake Bortles four times in that game; Chris Long led the way with 2 and Jordan Hicks chipped in 1 1/2. That's also the game where Lane Johnson really hurt his ankle and it developed into a lingering problem that threatened his career.
Need to find consistency
The Eagles' pass rush against the Rams was more of the same.
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"It was inconsistent for sure," Vic Fangio said.
That has been the theme for the Eagles' pass rush all season so far. They show up in glimpses but those have been fleeting. Through four games, the Eagles have just four sacks and only the Giants have fewer with three. The Eagles' pressure rate of 35.8% is 15th in the NFL but they have to start finishing more.
"Yeah, we just haven't been consistently really good against one-on-ones," Fangio said. "There's always going to be some chips that affect you, but when we are getting some one-on-ones, we're not getting it done on a consistent basis. We had some games that applied some pressure and did some good things against their backs and tight ends, but the normal down-to-down one-on-ones, we got to get better there."
