Kicker Consideration: The importance of hang time

One of the most important and completely unavailable statistics in NFL special teams is hang time. If I tell you that Jon Ryan out kicked Michael Dickson 57 to 55 yards, it doesn’t really help contextualize the two kicks much, especially once you gain some more information, such as the fact that Dickson’s kick stayed in the air for .6 seconds longer at basically the same distance.

During last week’s game against the Chargers in Week 2 of preseason, Curt Menefee brought up when talking to Brock Huard the point that distance and hang time are two big indicators of punting performance. But does it really matter if the ball gets there .6 seconds later? Let’s dive into the stats and check. Take…