Part of Jack Fox had to be relieved when the Lions' first drive against the Colts stalled near midfield. After waiting anxiously on the sideline for the duration of the game prior, Fox would get to do his job: "It's a buildup until you finally punt," he explained. "Once I get my first punt out of the way, I kind of settle into the game."
The Lions called on Fox from the Colts' 46-yard line and he pinned them on their 12, the first of his four punts in Detroit's ninth straight win that tethered Indy inside the 20. The Colts went nowhere on the ensuing drives as Detroit's defense made it two straight games without allowing a touchdown.
After the Lions' rout of the Jags in which they didn't punt for the second time this year, Fox earned another round of "highlights" from the social team for holding seven extra points -- his friends get a kick out of it, he said -- and a shoutout from Jared Goff for being "the best holder in the league." After their win over the Colts, the Field Position Optimization Specialist got something better: a game ball from Dan Campbell.
"We talked about it going into the game," said Campbell. "Field position was going to be big. We were going to lean on Jack Fox, and boy, he came through for us. What a monster day."
Fox has been a difference-maker for the Lions since he took over as punter in 2020, their final season under Matt Patricia. Bill Belichick once called him "a weapon," not to mention "the best punter in the league." He's in the midst of his best season yet, on Detroit's best team in the Super Bowl era.
The NFL single-season record for net punting average is 46.0 yards, set by Johnny Hekker of the Rams in 2016. Through 11 games this year, Fox checks in at 46.1. (That's actually second in the NFL -- Logan Cooke of the Jaguars comes in at 46.4). Difference is, Hekker punted more than six times per game for a team with the worst offense in the NFL. Fox is punting about three times per game, fewest of his career, for a team with the best offense in the NFL.
"When I get out there and I have my opportunity to punt, it means a lot," he said. "I don’t get as many opportunities, which is obviously a good thing, but for me, at least, when I do get an opportunity, I put a little more pressure on myself to execute."
Fox doesn't feel like he's "done anything crazy" in his fifth NFL season: "It's just that everybody else around me has played that well." Dave Fipp has the Lions' special teams humming.
"The coaching’s been amazing, running fake punts helps us in coverage and protection. The gunners have done great, (Khalil) Dorsey and (Kindle) Vildor, and then on the interior we have so many studs," said Fox, pointing directly to rookie long-snapper Hogan Hatten. "He has done an incredible job of getting down the field and making tackles. People probably take that for granted. Most of the time long-snappers aren’t doing that."
Here's something else that might get taken for granted: "I think more work goes into the holding stuff than the average fan might expect," said Fox. "We take that very seriously." If anyone can appreciate it, it might be Goff, who was a holder himself in high school -- "and it's hard," he said. What's more, Goff had to hold the ball on a kicking block, "which you can argue is harder," he said with a grin.
Fox laughed and rolled his eyes in response: "Yeah, so I kicked in high school and my senior year I specifically used a block to make it easier on the holder, so he can think what he wants. He’s the backup holder. I’m sure he can get the job done if he needed to."
(Does that make Fox, who was also a quarterback in high school, QB ... 4 for the Lions? "Jared would be a better holder than I would a quarterback, 10 times," he said.)
Fipp takes this stuff seriously. His "favorite part" about Fox's story is that he wasn't a great holder when he arrived in Detroit because he hadn't done it much in college -- "and I wasn’t shy about saying that, either," said Fipp. Fox has dedicated a lot of time to it the past few years, primarily by hitting the JUGS machine to hone his receiving skills. It continues to pay off.
"He’s sure-handed, he gets the ball down on the ground quick, he does the same thing every time," said Fipp. "His hands aren’t erratic. They’re nice and fluid and smooth. He gets the laces right when they’re not right, and then there’s a lot going into the tilt and the lean of the ball, too. He really does a great job of getting all that stuff set, and that helps the kicker tremendously.”
Fox, 28, is one of the Lions' lone holdovers from the Patricia era. He has seen the other side. He's enjoying it on this one. After home wins, which feel as automatic these days as extra points, Fox likes to bring his crew to bar a few blocks from Ford Field called The Brakeman. (He used to be a Tin Roof guy -- "It's too loud for me now," he laughed.) It's one of the only places where he gets recognized in public, mostly because "all my friends and family are wearing Jack Fox jerseys."
"Dead giveaway. Outside of that, which is probably one of the cooler parts of the job, I get to be on the team and nobody notices me outside the building," he said.
But the best part of the job, for Fox, is that the team is winning.
"It’s definitely the thing that I’m most proud of about my NFL journey so far," he said. "I was here when we weren’t playing well and I’ve seen the rebuild and now I’m part of a winning team. I definitely don’t take winning for granted, because I’ve experienced losing and how bad it sucks. And then it’s just been cool to see the city. Everybody was with us when we were losing.
"But the excitement that is around the Detroit Lions now, it’s just so fun to watch."