Jason Michael Baker(born May 17, 1978) is an American former professionalfootballplayer who was apunterin theNational Football League(NFL). He was signed by theSan Francisco 49ersas anundrafted free agentin 2001. He playedcollege footballfor theIowa Hawkeyes.He has also played for thePhiladelphia Eagles,Kansas City Chiefs,Indianapolis Colts,Denver Broncos,andCarolina Panthers.
 Baker in 2008 | |||||||||
| No. 7, 6, 9 | |||||||||
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| Position: | Punter | ||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||
| Born: | May 17, 1978 Fort Wayne, Indiana,U.S. | ||||||||
| Height: | 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) | ||||||||
| Weight: | 205 lb (93 kg) | ||||||||
| Career information | |||||||||
| High school: | Wayne (Fort Wayne, Indiana) | ||||||||
| College: | Iowa | ||||||||
| Undrafted: | 2001 | ||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||
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| * Offseason and/or practice squad member only | |||||||||
| Career highlights and awards | |||||||||
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| Career NFL statistics | |||||||||
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Early life
editBaker attendedWayne High Schoolin Fort Wayne, Indiana andletteredinfootballandbaseball.In football, he won second-team All-Conference honors as a senior.
College career
editBaker playedcollege footballat theUniversity of Iowa.When he graduated, he left as the Hawkeyes' all-time leader in punts and punting yards, with 272 punts for 11,304 yards. He was namedspecial teamsMVPof the1997 Sun Bowlfor his performance in Iowa's loss againstArizona State University,after registering eight punts for 391 yards. He also made honorable mentionAll-Big Tenhonors as a senior in 2000. He majored in business administration.
Professional career
editHe was notdraftedby any team, and was signed as afree agentby thePhiladelphia Eaglesin April 2001 before beingwaiveda short while later, not having appeared in any regular season games for them. He was then picked up by theSan Francisco 49ers,and was their regular punter during the2001 NFL season.Unfortunately, he was released the next year, and signed again by the Eagles. He played several games for them before being released again at the end of the season. He was signed by theKansas City Chiefsbefore the2003 season,and was their regular punter for the whole season, averaging a respectable 39.5 yards per punt. Baker then had a bizarre season in2004.He was waived by Kansas City, then re-signed two weeks later, then waived a week after that. He was then picked up by theIndianapolis Colts,played with them for 5 weeks, then Indianapolis waived him and he was picked up by theDenver Broncos,who he finished the season with. He played for Denver in theAFC wild card gameagainst his former team, Indianapolis. After the season, he was traded to the Carolina Panthers with a2006draft pickforPro BowlpunterTodd Sauerbrun.Baker eventually won the punting job, after battling withTom RouenandSteve Cheekduringtraining campand the preseason. He played the rest of his seven seasons in Carolina, where he averaged 44.0 yards per punt in 112 games, set most of the franchise records, twice led the league in punts, and was a Pro Bowl alternate multiple times but never attended. The Panthers rewarded him with a contract making him the highest paid punter in the NFL prior to the 2007 season. Baker is one of the fastest running punters in the NFL. He managed to surprise the Seahawks'Leon Washingtonin a game on December 5, 2010, tripping up the prematurely celebrating Washington to save a touchdown.
As of 2017[update]'s NFL off-season, Jason Baker still held at least three Panthers franchise records, including:
- Punts: career (570), playoff game (7 on 2006-01-22 @SEA; withTodd SauerbrunandBrad Nortman)
- Punt yards: career (25,064)
NFL career statistics
edit| Legend | |
|---|---|
| Led the league | |
| Bold | Career high |
Regular season
edit| Year | Team | Punting | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GP | Punts | Yds | Net Yds | Lng | Avg | Net Avg | Blk | Ins20 | TB | ||
| 2001 | SFO | 16 | 69 | 2,813 | 2,443 | 64 | 40.8 | 35.4 | 0 | 21 | 4 |
| 2002 | SFO | 11 | 42 | 1,688 | 1,346 | 51 | 40.2 | 32.0 | 0 | 12 | 3 |
| PHI | 2 | 13 | 445 | 388 | 44 | 34.2 | 29.8 | 0 | 2 | 1 | |
| 2003 | KAN | 16 | 80 | 3,156 | 2,689 | 68 | 39.5 | 33.2 | 1 | 21 | 7 |
| 2004 | KAN | 2 | 9 | 340 | 242 | 52 | 37.8 | 26.9 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| IND | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| DEN | 4 | 15 | 591 | 516 | 48 | 39.4 | 34.4 | 0 | 7 | 1 | |
| 2005 | CAR | 16 | 72 | 3,118 | 2,803 | 59 | 43.3 | 38.9 | 0 | 23 | 4 |
| 2006 | CAR | 16 | 98 | 4,483 | 3,861 | 70 | 45.7 | 39.0 | 1 | 31 | 12 |
| 2007 | CAR | 16 | 90 | 3,978 | 3,393 | 64 | 44.2 | 37.7 | 0 | 22 | 5 |
| 2008 | CAR | 16 | 73 | 3,217 | 2,841 | 63 | 44.1 | 37.4 | 3 | 30 | 5 |
| 2009 | CAR | 16 | 76 | 3,352 | 2,820 | 61 | 44.1 | 36.6 | 1 | 22 | 4 |
| 2010 | CAR | 16 | 95 | 4,097 | 3,469 | 60 | 43.1 | 36.5 | 0 | 22 | 7 |
| 2011 | CAR | 16 | 66 | 2,819 | 2,253 | 56 | 42.7 | 34.1 | 0 | 19 | 5 |
| Career | 167 | 798 | 34,097 | 29,064 | 70 | 42.7 | 36.1 | 6 | 235 | 58 | |
Playoffs
edit| Year | Team | Punting | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GP | Punts | Yds | Net Yds | Lng | Avg | Net Avg | Blk | Ins20 | TB | ||
| 2001 | SFO | 1 | 5 | 183 | 148 | 45 | 36.6 | 29.6 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| 2003 | KAN | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2004 | DEN | 1 | 4 | 150 | 141 | 46 | 37.5 | 35.3 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 2005 | CAR | 3 | 16 | 600 | 547 | 52 | 37.5 | 34.2 | 0 | 7 | 2 |
| 2008 | CAR | 1 | 4 | 192 | 177 | 53 | 48.0 | 44.3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Career | 7 | 29 | 1,125 | 1,013 | 53 | 38.8 | 34.9 | 0 | 11 | 2 | |
References
edit- Additional Career statistics/player information:Pro Football Reference
External links
edit- Carolina Panthers bioArchivedOctober 17, 2006, at theWayback Machine
Media related toJason Bakerat Wikimedia Commons
