Kohl’s Kicking Camps held their annual Pro Combine, which featured some of the top NFL Draft prospects at the kicker, punter, and long snapper positions.
Kohl’s is consistently regarded as the premier camp for specialists at the high school and college level to showcase their skills and get scouted. 69 NFL starters have attended a Kohl’s event, which is a remarkable number considering there are roughly 3 specialist starters per NFL team.
After two days of charting, Kohl’s held an uncut video broadcast for NFL coaches to evaluate the prospects competing in a series of competitions: Field goals, punts, snapping, and kickoffs. Only the top performers from the first two days qualified for these competitions.
These competitions are available on YouTube, and I highly recommend you check them out for yourself and show some love to Kohl’s for the exceptional job they do every year.
We’ll go over the participants and results from each competition, along with provide some analysis regarding the 2022 NFL Draft prospects.
Field Goal Competition
Format: A double miss competition that progressively moves further away, starting with a 50 yard attempt. Once you miss two kicks, you’re eliminated. Prior to the competition, each kicker took a warmup kick from 30 yards, 35 yards, 40 yards, and 45 yards.
Participants:
- Caleb Shudak, Iowa: Draft Eligible
- Andrew Mevis, Iowa State: Draft Eligible
- Kenny Doak, SE Missouri State: Draft Eligible
- Parker White, South Carolina: Draft Eligible
- Jonathan Garibay, Texas Tech: Draft Eligible
- Jonathan Doerer, Notre Dame: Draft Eligible
- Dalton Witherspoon, Houston: Draft Eligible
- Evan Staley, West Virginia: Draft Eligible
- Tyler Basch, Missouri Western: Free Agent (2018 Draft Class)
- Haider Zaidan, Tennessee Tech: Free Agent (2019 Draft Class)
Results:
Winner: Andrew Mevis, Iowa State
Runner-Up: Caleb Shudak, Iowa
Analysis:
No one was perfect throughout the course of the competition, but Andrew Mevis and Caleb Shudak were really close.
After four warmup kicks ranging from 30-45 yards, the competition started with a fairly long kick of 50 yards. Keep in mind these guys aren’t wearing pads, don’t have a pass rush, and there was barely any wind.
Still, the deep range from some of these guys was better than I expected.
Mevis hit a 67 yarder to win the event, despite having only attempted two field goals of 50+ yards in his year at Iowa State. You could see the power in his lower body and consistent form.
Shudak also proved that height is not always an indicator of leg strength. The 5’7″ kicker had a breakout season for the Hawkeyes this past year, and really showed off his leg strength in this event. Despite only having a career long of 51, he showed the leg strength to consistently hit from 60+ in these conditions.
Shudak and Mevis will both be rising on my board after showing the ability to maintain solid form through very deep kicks.
Among the other participants, Parker White also impressed me with the elevation he was able to get on his kicks. That will translate well to long kicks in actual game scenarios.
The same can be said about Dalton Witherspoon. While he didn’t have nearly as much leg strength as some of the other kickers, he was able to hit from 55 and consistently hit it right down the middle.
Jonathan Garibay is another pro prospect to watch, having hit a 60+ yard game winner earlier this year. He clearly had the leg strength to keep hitting from 60+, but needs to work on giving a consistent strike.
Punting Competition
Format: Prior to the competition, each punter will have four warmup kicks: A flip-flop, directional left, directional right, and hit away. In the competition, they get two attempts for each round. First round they’ll first need to achieve a 40 yard, 4.0 (40 yards of distance and 4+ seconds of hangtime). Second round required 44 yards, 4.4 hang time. Third round required 47 yards, 4.7 hang time. Fourth round required 50 yards, 5.0 hang time. Fifth round was simply best kick wins.
Participants:
- Ryan Stonehouse, Colorado State: Draft Eligible
- Jake Julien, Eastern Michigan: Draft Eligible
- Andrew Foster, Morehead State: Draft Eligible
- Will Spiers, Clemson: Draft Eligible
- Ryan Wright, Tulane: Draft Eligible
- Nathan Schneider, Ball State: Draft Eligible
- Jonn Young, East Carolina: Draft Eligible
- Simon Laryea, Abilene Christian: Free Agent (2019 Draft)
- Alex Pechin, Bucknell: Free Agent (2020 Draft)
- Tucker Day, Mississippi State: Draft Eligible
Results:
Winner: Alex Pechin, Bucknell (Free Agent)
Runner-up: Ryan Wright (Tulane) & Jonn Young (ECU)
Analysis:
There were a number of impressive performances from the punters today. Starting with the winner, Alex Pechin, who I absolutely loved in the 2020 draft class. He showed excellent distance and hang time consistently through warmups and competition, never even needing to do a second punt.
Pechin is a free agent who could be signed as soon as free agency period starts, and he earned himself another shot today.
As for the draft eligible prospects, Ryan Wright, Jonn Young, Will Spiers, and Andrew Foster all helped themselves in my eyes.
Starting with Ryan Wright, who was my top ranked punter prospect attending this event, and in my top 5 overall.
Wright is a big punter and good overall athlete who’s also played QB. He’s very competitive and has a powerful leg.
Wright showed decent consistency, and consistently drove the ball over 55 yards. He took a big step forward with his hang time this past year, and was very close to taking home the win.
Jonn Young is a sleeper I found a few months back, and I’m hoping some people will wake up to him after this performance. Jonn doesn’t get the most distance on his kicks, but it’s impossible to return against him. He forced fair catches on 55% of his kicks this season, which led the nation.
The ability to not out-kick your coverage is something coaches understand, but many media analysts don’t seem to. Young showed this again here today.
Will Spiers didn’t have a great yards per punt average for Clemson this year, but did a great job with directional kicks and pinning people deep.
Spiers didn’t do the best in warmups, but got going during the competition and made it to the 4th round. He showed good hang time on most of his punts along with consistent power.
Finally, Andrew Foster was the only punter here who I hadn’t watched prior to the event. I thought I had found every punter with a notable NFL chance, but clearly I’ve missed some. Foster was really impressive with his power and aggressive kicking. His accuracy wasn’t great in warmups, but during the competition 3 of his 5 kicks travelled at least 59 yards beyond the line of scrimmage.
The other player to touch on is Ryan Stonehouse, who had a remarkable college career. Stonehouse had the two longest hang times of the competition, and yet he failed to reach the 40 yard mark (39 on each kick). The problem for Stonehouse in college was outkicking his coverage, so he’s clearly been working on converting that power to hang time.
Even though he was the first out of the competition, his willingness to address his shortcomings could be viewed as a positive start by NFL coaches.
Long Snapping Competition
Format: Each long snapper gets 5 snaps blocking to each direction. The competition is less structured, measuring times while evaluating blocking, spin rate, and snap accuracy.
Participants:
- Antonio Ortiz, TCU: Draft Eligible
- Justin Mader, Texas: Draft Eligible
- Scott Meyer, Vanderbilt: Free Agent (2021 Draft)
- Adam Bay, Wisconsin: Free Agent (2021 Draft)
- Mitchell Fraboni, Arizona State: Free Agent (2017 Draft)
- Turner Bernard, San Diego State: Free Agent (2021 Draft)
- Adam Higuera, Tulsa: Draft Eligible
- Jake Goldberg, Air Force: Draft Eligible
Results:
Antonio Ortiz: 0.67 average snap time. Best: 0.66. Worst: 0.70.
Justin Mader: 0.66 average snap time. Best: 0.65. Worst: 0.67.
Scott Meyer: 0.71 average snap time. Best: 0.69. Worst: 0.74.
Adam Bay: 0.70 average snap time. Best: 0.68. Worst: 0.76.
Mitchell Fraboni: 0.67 average snap time. Best: 0.66. Worst: 0.69.
Turner Bernard: 0.66 average snap time. Best: 0.65. Worst: 0.68.
Adam Higuera: 0.67 average snap time. Best: 0.66. Worst: 0.69.
Jake Goldberg: 0.70 average snap time. Best: 0.69. Worst: 0.73.
Winner: Unspecified. Unofficially based on time Justin Mader & Turner Bernard.
Analysis:
Based on snap speed and placement, Turner Bernard looked like my favorite guy out there. Bernard is a free agent who was one of the top 5 snappers in last year’s draft, and has a chance to find a team this year.
Antonio Ortiz entered the Kohl’s Pro Combine as my number 2 ranked long snapper behind Pitt’s Cal Adomitis.
Ortiz performed well, showing good blocking form post-snap and finishing with an above-average 0.67 snap time.
His placement was good, but not elite.
Justin Mader had impressively fast snaps like we saw in college, but was also consistently high on his snaps. Nothing rose to being “bad” placement, but there’s still work he can do there to make things easier for his punter.
Mitchell Fraboni is another free agent snapper who impressed me. I don’t remember much of him from his draft class, but he improved as the competition went on. He showed as good of placement as anyone, and managed an average 0.67 snap time despite a slow start.
Kickoff Competition
Format: Each athlete gets four total kickoffs. Highest kickoff score wins. Score is determined using a basic formula created by Kohl’s Kicking Camps, which considers both distance and hang time.
Participants:
- Caleb Shudak, Iowa: Draft Eligible
- Andrew Mevis, Iowa State: Draft Eligible
- Jonathan Garibay, Texas Tech: Draft Eligible
- Haider Zaidan, Tennessee Tech: Free Agent (2019 Draft Class)
- Parker White, South Carolina: Draft Eligible
- Kenny Doak, SE Missouri State: Draft Eligible
- Jonathan Doerer, Notre Dame: Draft Eligible
- Caleb Lightbourn, Idaho: Draft Eligible
- Tyler Basch, Missouri Western: Free Agent (2018 Draft Class)
- Logan Tyler, Arizona State: Draft Eligible
Results:
Winner: Caleb Lightbourn (Idaho) & Tyler Basch (Missouri Western)
Analysis:
Three kickers really stood out in the kickoff competition: Caleb Lightbourn, Tyler Basch, and Caleb Shudak.
Caleb Lightbourn is a big punter prospect who most recently played at Idaho, but also spent time at Oregon State and Nebraska.
Lightbourn knocked all five kicks out of the back of the end zone, with good hang time on all of them. His leg strength was on full display, but he was unable to qualify for the punting competition.
He’ll need to continue working to refine his punting ability to land a roster spot in the NFL, but you can’t deny his ability as a kickoff specialist.
Tyler Basch looked good in the field goal competition, and he also had a great showing in kickoffs.
The NFL Free Agent booted all but one kick out of the back of the end zone, and exceeded four seconds of hang time three times.
Basch clearly has the ability to be an NFL kickoff specialist, and has certainly earned some NFL looks from his overall performance on the day.
Caleb Shudak also looked great in kickoffs. He had the very first kick of the competition, which was the highest scoring kick until late in the final round.
Shudak was the kickoff specialist for three years at Iowa, and you can see the hangtime and distance on display.
In terms of the other top kicker prospects, Andrew Mevis performed well and should have no issues handling kickoffs in the NFL.
Jonathan Garibay looked okay, but didn’t show nearly as strong of a leg as expected. Garibay didn’t handle kickoffs at Texas Tech, and looked like he still had plenty of room to improve. That doesn’t mean he can’t handle kickoffs, most of his kicks would still have been touchbacks. He just didn’t look as good as expected.
This was the conclusion of the 2022 Kohl’s Pro Combine.
Be sure to check out Kohl’s Kicking Camps for more information about this and future events: kohlskicking.com
You can view my related prospect rankings for the 2022 class below.
