Braden Mann is NFC Special Teams Player of the Week for Week 13

Some love for the Eagles’ punter!

Philadelphia Eagles punter Braden Mann is NFC Special Teams Player of the Week for Week 13 of the 2024 NFL season, according to an official league announcement.

Mann is the first Eagles punter to win NFC Special Teams Player of the Week since Super Bowl LII champion Donnie Jones did it back in 2013.

Mann played an important role in the Eagles’ win over the Baltimore Ravens:

Mann was busy with six punts for 307 yards, a 51.2 average. Five of his punts were downed inside the 20-yard line and two were downed inside the five-yard line. That’s good work. Mann was aided by bad decision-making from the Ravens’ returner to let the ball bounce instead of fair catching it. Still, Mann deserves credit for doing his part.

Speaking during his weekly press conference, special teams coordinator Michael Clay had praise for Mann.

“It was outstanding. Braden did an unbelievable job. I know everyone has kind of seen, five of six punts inside the 20. You saw the one that got down at the one with Sydney [Brown], then the one down at the four by Kelee [Ringo]. He did an unbelievable job.”

“Braden’s been doing a really good job. You look at everything, you’re like ‘He’s just going to have a quiet year.’ But he’s been doing an amazing job for us when it comes to putting the ball in a place where we can cover, putting the ball where we can down the ball, and help the team in any way we can.”

“In one of those games that turned into a field position game, it kind of sparked a little bit with that defense with the three-and-out right there. Then the punt, then the offense scored on a short field. It was fantastic out of Braden to kind of give a little spark off the special teams.”

As Clay alluded to, the Mann punt that got to the 1-yard line turned into the Ravens punting from their own 6-yard line, which allowed the Eagles to take over at the plus 49-yard line. From there, the offense finally got going for their first scoring drive to make it a two-point game (Eagles 7, Ravens 9).

Mann’s been a nice pickup for the Eagles since they acquired him last year to replace a struggling Arryn Siposs. Sometimes I can’t help but wonder if the Eagles may have won Super Bowl LVII if they had Mann instead of Siposs. But I digress.