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RENTON, WASH. - Don't think the punter can have a big impact on a football game?

Think again. All you had to do was watch the NFC playoff games last weekend to notice that the guys who hoof the ball high into the air can go a long way in making or breaking a team's chances of victory.

Look no further than Detroit's Sam Martin, who shanked a punt that travelled a grand total of 10 yards in the fourth quarter against Dallas on Sunday. It gave the Cowboys excellent field position, and they proceeded to march the short distance for the game-winning touchdown against the Lions

In Charlotte, N.C., on Saturday, Arizona Cardinals punter Drew Butler didn't do his offensively challenged team any favours when his first two punts travelled 20 and 28 yards, respectively. The Carolina Panthers jumped out to an early lead because of it.

Which brings us to Jon Ryan, the Saskatchewan native who punts for the defending Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks. He is already in his ninth year in the league, he's the second oldest member of the Seahawks, and his head coach heaps praise on him all the time.

Seattle head coach Pete Carroll gushed again on Thursday about the red head from Regina.

“He's a stud,” Carroll said. “He's been a great player for us and been a great factor for us for years. In the last six weeks we've really controlled the kicking game in that regard. We've given up very few yards in punt returns, and we expect to continue to do that.

“Jon's a focal point field position guy for us. He'll kick 'em deep and put our defence inside the 20-yard line at least a few times in this game as he always does, and that's a big weapon for us.”

At first blush, Ryan's numbers don't scream top-notch punter. Dig a little deeper, however, and Carroll appears to be correct in his “stud” assessment. Ryan punted 61 times during the regular season, and 28 of them were downed inside the 20-yard line. His percentage of 45.9 was better than any other punter's this season.

Only 17 of Ryan's 61 kicks were returned, and 22 of them were fair caught, which was one of the better percentages in the league as well. One was returned for a touchdown, but that was on St. Louis' trick play return on Oct. 19.

Simply put, Ryan is on top of his game as the NFC's top-seeded Seahawks prepare to defend their title with a divisional clash against Carolina on Saturday at CenturyLink Field. Being the modest Saskatchewan boy that he is, however, means he isn't prepared to speak as highly about his game as his head coach does. The 33-year-old wouldn't give himself a definitive rank among his NFL punting brethren.

“I don't know where exactly,” Ryan said. “There's times when I think I'm in the top 10. Statistically I'm never going to quite be up there with those top guys just because of the team that I play on and the situations that we're in a lot of the times.

“With this defence, you don't very often need to hang the ball up there 60 yards and take a chance when a 42-yard fair catch will do just fine. I like to think of myself as one of the top 10 punters. Whether or not I am or whether or not other people think, so I don't know.”

Whether he wants to admit it or not, he's up there. And the former University of Regina kicker/receiver still has to pinch himself a bit when he thinks about it.

“When I first got in I said I wanted to play at least three or four years, and then that kind of became 10,” said Ryan, who spent his first two professional seasons launching missiles for the CFL's Winnipeg Blue Bombers. “Now I'm almost at 10, and now I'm like: I feel great. I told my fiancee the other day I think I've got five more left in me. I don't know if that's possible or not, but it just keeps on going.

“You can never be satisfied with the level that you're at, so I just want to keep on getting better and see how long I can ride this thing out for.”

DIFFERENT WORLD FOR RYAN

Jon Ryan, the shy kid from Regina who showed up at Winnipeg Blue Bombers camp a decade ago, now finds himself in the gossip pages.

Oh, how life has changed for the 33-year-old Seattle Seahawks punter.

The reason for Ryan's increased popularity these days is a move he made after Seattle's final regular-season game on Dec. 28. That night he proposed to his girlfriend, comedian Sarah Colonna, and she said yes.

Colonna, 40, used to make regular appearances on Chelsea She was a semifinalist on the NBC reality program Last Comic Standing in 2006, and she headlines comedy shows across the U.S. She also rarely misses a Seahawks game, making her way up from her L.A. home whenever Ryan and the 'Hawks take to the turf at CenturyLink Field.

Ryan is taking his newfound fame in stride and sounds quite comfortable appearing in entertainment magazines.

“It's all fun and never really goes to your head,” Ryan said. “We don't really think of it as being that big of a deal. It's just her and I, and that's kind of the life that we both chose, and it kind of comes with it.

“At the root of it I'm still the same guy from when I left Canada.”​

kirk.penton@sunmedia.ca

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