Top 50 Cal Pros: No. 45 -- Bryan Anger a Model of Consistency

We are counting down Cal’s top 50 athletes based on their careers as post-collegiate professionals. Their performance as Golden Bears is not factored into the rankings.

45. BRYAN ANGER

Years at Cal: 2007 to 2011

Sport: Football

Pro teams: Jacksonville Jaguars, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Houston Texans, Dallas Cowboys

Age: 36

Hometown: Camarillo, Calif.

Why we ranked him here: Selected by Jacksonville in the third round of the 2012 NFL draft, Anger has played 13 seasons (and counting). He boasts a career punting average of 47.0 yards, which ranks ninth all-time on a list where active punters own 11 of the top 12 spots. Anger has punted 890 times for a total of 41,794 yards, which works out to nearly 24 miles. He was named to the 2012 NFL All-Rookie team when he set a record for rookie punting average of 47.84 yards. He led the NFL in 2014 at 47.5 yards, and had career-best 51.4-yard average with Dallas in 2023, when he had just one game under a 45-yard average and nine above 50. Consistency has been his hallmark — Anger has averaged 46 yards or better per punt for nine seasons, including at least 48.4 yards the past 4 seasons. He has not had a punt blocked the past six seasons. His career long? Merely 83 yards in 2022. Anger was a Pro Bowl pick and second-team All-Pro selection in 2021 and ’23. The Cowboys re-signed him to a two-year contract worth $6.4 million ($3.3 million fully guaranteed) in March, securing him through the 2026 season.

Bryan Anger at Cal | Photo courtesy of Cal Athletics

At Cal: Was the Bears’ punter all four seasons, averaging 43.1 yards as a redshirt freshman in 2008, 41.5 as a sophomore, a still-standing program-record 45.6 as a junior and 44.2 as a senior. For his career, his average was 43.5 yards on 255 punts, with 90 of them downed inside the opponent’s 20-yard line. He had five punts of at least 70 yards at Cal, including a 76-yarder vs. Stanford in the 2008 Big Game. Anger was named first-team All-Pac-10 his final three seasons. He played in the East-West Shrine all-star game, where he averaged 60 yards on three punts.

Other: Anger has skills beyond punting. In April he won his second consecutive celebrity home run derby, topping nine Cowboys teammates by hitting eight homers and raising $13,200 to benefit the Salvation Army.

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