Pittsburgh Steelers punter, Pressley Harvin III, is headed into his third season in the NFL. He was selected by the Steelers in the seventh round of the 2021 NFL Draft. Since joining the NFL, Harvin has had his fair share of ups and downs professionally and personally.
Credit: Matt Freed / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Pressley Harvin III and Chris Boswell celebrate a successful field goal attempt.
Harvin started punting when he was in high school in South Carolina. He went on to start for Georgia Tech as a true freshman. During his senior year, he set a school and ACC record and was named First Team All-ACC. In addition, he won the Ray Guy Award as the nation's top college punter and was the first African American player to win that award.
The transition to the NFL hasn't been an easy one and the description most often used when asked about Harvin is "inconsistent." One punt he lays it perfectly on the two-yard, as if he set it there by hand. On the next punt, he shanks it out of bound for 20 yards. It has been frustrating to watch and certainly frustrating to live through for Harvin.
During his rookie season, Harvin experienced tremendous personal loss when both his father and grandmother passed away. His father had suffered kidney failure for most of Harvin's life. When the Steelers learned that Harvin's father was nearing death, they arranged for him to be brought to see his son play. Harvin said the way the entire organization came together to support him at that time was incredible.
Pittsburgh Steelers
The Steelers drafted punter Pressley Harvin III, pictured here with his parents, in the seventh round in 2021.
It is hard enough to be a rookie in the NFL, in a new city, on a new team, without your old support system. Then you couple in everything that was happening in his family and it is easy to believe it compounded the difficulties. Then his second season came around in 2022 and there was only a slight improvement.
Now this offseason, the Steelers are bringing in competition in the form of former New York Jets punter Braden Mann and Adam Korsak from Rutgers University. Competition is a good thing, but is this just a tactic to push Harvin? Or is he seriously in danger of losing his job? One thing is for sure, Head Coach Mike Tomlin would say there is nothing pre-determined and whoever performs the best will earn a spot.
Steelers' Pressley Harvin III On His Feelings Going Into The 2023 Season
Harvin recently appeared on former Steelers linebacker, Arthur Moats' podcast, The Arthur Moats Experience. During the show, Harvin discussed both his expectations for himself and how he has been prepping for the upcoming season.
Now that he is headed into his third season, Harvin said that he feels like he has finally found a bit of a rhythm to his offseason workouts. Spending time with his long-snapper, Christian Kuntz, has always been important to him and that hasn't changed. But instead of kicking like crazy every day, he has worked to get his body in rhythm with the way a season runs, kicking a few days of the week instead.
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Steelers long snapper, Christian Kuntz
"I definitely found strides in myself and definitely got my confidence up, especially now from two years ago. That rookie year, it's real stressful. Mine had a lot of outside stuff, but you know looking back on all of that now I wouldn't have wanted to change anything about it."
Harvin said that he has been playing a lot of golf. While many people would assume that is just a hobby or leisure activity, it is more than that. Surprisingly enough, there are numerous similarities between golf and punting.
"It's something I definitely use for a mental side more than just a pleasure side because it does make me pretty critical of what I need to do before a shot. How am I going to be able to hit it? Basically, the same stuff that you would see on the football field with a punt. I've been trying to get myself more mentally prepared than physically because I know physical attributes will take care of themselves as long as you put in that work, but that mental side, going into year three, it's always a big year for people. It's where you really see big leaps in careers."
Anyone who pays any attention to football knows about Tomlin and his many sayings. Harvin has spoken out before about how inspired he is by Tomlin and his many witty sayings. But he says there are two that have really been in his head this offseason, "routine players make plays routinely" so Harvin said he is just going to keep his head down and focus on the work at hand.
All of the issues that happened on special teams the past two seasons weren't all the fault of Harvin, not by a long shot. While Harvin predicts that fans will see a much improved special teams unit this coming season, he knows he can only control what he can control. He wants success though and it isn't all for himself. In fact, Harvin said it's more for his teammates than anyone else. He is going into season three looking at the big picture. Not just at the physical talents, because they all have those, but on what he is willing to do to succeed.
"All I got to do now is just really put my head down and just narrow down on what really matters. Just put my best foot forward, not doing it for myself, doing it for the team, doing it for the organization, the fans, everybody that's out there."
What are you expecting from Harvin in year three? Do you think he will win the starting job? Click to comment below.
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