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Washington Redskins 2014 Player Profile: Tress Way, Punter

He beat out Robert Malone and Coach Gruden has said he'll be the man unless he fails. Does he have what it takes to last the year?

David Banks-USA TODAY Sports

Tress Way

Punter

Oklahoma

Undrafted in 2013

Twitter: @tress_way

Height: 6'1"

Weight: 215 lbs.

2014 Outlook

Special Teams was a disaster last year and much of it had to do with the aging Sav Rocca.  While Rocca was a beast of a man and good for an awesome tackle every once in a while, he had gotten long in the tooth and was basically the worst P in the league the last couple seasons.  With a new ST Coach came new punting.  Ben Kotwica brought along a P he had experience with last year in NY in Robert Malone.  Most thought he'd be the guy this year and that thought was confirmed after he beat out Blake Clingan... or so we thought.  The Bears decided to cut Tress Way and the 'Skins immediately scooped him up.  After Way had only been with the team for about a week, Malone was released.  The job is now Way's.

Way brings renewed youth to the position (only 24 years old) and a strong leg.  He's had some consistency issues during camp with the Bears and the real scary part is he's never punted in an NFL game that counted.  Still, Rocca is 40... so this is an upgrade.  Hopefully his lack of experience doesn't hurt the team, but Gruden and Kotwica must like him, so there's something to be said for that.

Personal Information

Once Tress Way joined the Redskins in August, it officially became the second time in his life that he was a member of a Redskins team, but it's not his second stint with the Washington franchise.  He grew up in Tulsa, OK and his HS mascot was the Redskins.  They even ran out of a teepee onto the field and chanted, "All my life, I wanted to be a Redskin! Work, work, baby, work, work!"  Guess his wish came true.  Oh, and his HS is still called the Redskins...

Though Tress was cut from the Bears, it should be noted that he lost out to a P that the team had just drafted in the sixth round in Pat O'Donnell.  Tress is left-footed.  His younger brother is a 6'10" (that's not a typo) Pitcher in the KC Royals farm system.  Judging from his Twitter, he seems to be very religious and is recently married and seems thrilled with it.

I don't know what this last one's about. I just think it's funny.