By Teresa Varley
Steelers.com

When the Steelers traded a draft pick to select punter Dan Sepulveda in the fourth-round of the draft this year little did they know that he would wind up being the team’s recipient of the “Joe Greene Great Performance Award” which is given to the team’s outstanding rookie.

But he had his sights set on it right from the start.

”That’s one of the first things I saw when I came up to the front office,” said Sepulveda. “I saw the Joe Greene trophy sitting there. Just looking at some of those names was pretty neat. I can’t say it didn’t cross my mind the first time I saw it. It’s a tremendous honor.”

Sepulveda’s 42.4-yard punting average ranks him eighth in the AFC and his 37.7 net is fifth best in the conference. But he is always looking to improve.

”When I look at this year I set the bar pretty high for myself,” said Sepulveda. “There are some good things and bad things that came along with the year. There are some things that need improvement.

”Punting for the Steelers is a whole lot different than punting for the Bears down in Baylor. A lot of times in Waco you have a long field to work with and there are usually more punts per game. Certainly not a knock on them, that’s just the way it was.”

One thing Sepulveda did key in on way his ability to place punts inside the opponents 20-yard line, something he struggled with early on at Baylor. He is now ranked second in the AFC and tied for fourth in the NFL with 27 punts inside the 20.

 

“I knew in Waco one of the things I needed to work on, my most glaring weakness, was getting the ball inside the 20,” said Sepulveda. “It was during my senior year that I made the switch to the Australian rules football kick, the Aussie kick, but that kick has been awesome for me. I can go out there with 100 percent confidence that I will be able to hang it up there and get the guy to fair catch it inside the 20. We have had some success doing that this year and it’s been good.”