[sherck]

One of the few bright spots of this lost season. On IndyStar.com (located here).

Highlights:

He’s undrafted, the son of Mexican immigrants, the California kid who took up football in high school only to appease his friends. One field goal in, this is what the coach told him on the practice field that day: “You’re not going anywhere.” Four years later he’s authoring one of the finest seasons for a rookie punter in NFL history.

Eleven games in he’s first among rookie punters (since 1976) in net punting (43.4 yards per kick), tenth in average, sixth in percentage of punts downed inside the 20 (33.9), second in touchbacks and first in return percentage. Stacked against the game’s current punters, Sanchez is fifth in the league in net average and the Colts are second as a team in return average allowed.

He spends 20 minutes with Rhodes after every special teams meeting, snap after snap after snap, fine-tuning his holding. They run through 20 more minutes of work after practice each day.

He can’t be the guy who screws up the hold for the greatest kicker ever.

McMahon drills that right leg of Sanchez’s during practice, placing two practice dummies 60 yards down the sideline. “Hit them,” he tells the rookie, so Sanchez does, blasting the football over and over and over, until he gets it just right.

“I like to be that guy where I don’t settle,” Sanchez says.

Sounds like we found a keeper.

Walk Worthy,