What's Behind Giants Punter Jamie Gillan's Recent Struggles?

Lost in the mire of the New York Giants' 2025 season has been the rough stretch over the last three weeks turned in by punter Jamie Gillan.

Over that span, Gillan has had a mixture of solid punts and some clunkers, the latter happening in clutch situations when a solid punt would be more preferred.

The issue really came into focus in last week’s game against the Lions, where, inside the pristine conditions of the dome, he punted three times, his first going out of bounds, his second appearing to be off the side of his foot, and his third was fair caught.

The inconsistency has also wreaked havoc with his numbers. Over the last three weeks, he’s averaged 40.0 yards per punt, down from the 44.9 average he was logging in the first nine games of the season.

And of his 15 punts placed inside the opponent’s 20, only two have come in the last three games, while his average hang time has also dropped from being over four seconds in the first nine games to well under 3.75 over the last three.

Nov 23, 2025; Detroit, Michigan, USA; New York Giants punter Jamie Gillan (12) kicks the ball in the second quarter against the Detroit Lions at Ford Field. | David Reginek-Imagn Images

“I think confidence-wise, I truly believe he feels like he's a great punter, which we have tremendous faith and belief in him as well,” said special teams coordinator Michael Ghobrial.

“Not every specialist is going to consistently sustain success every week. It's the ability to bounce back, to re-correct after one rep, and that's something that I truly believe he knows how to do and he's done before in his career.”

The problem is that Gillan’s punting, at least over the last three weeks, has been a mixed bag, where just when one thinks he’s bounced back, he comes up with another clunker that fails to flip the field in the Giants’ favor.

Ghobrial said that while there isn’t necessarily a common denominator for Gillan’s poor kicks, one thing that does affect a punter’s kick is the drop of the ball to his foot.

“A lot of times the drop does reflect ball contact because that is the most important part for a punter being able to execute and hit a good ball,” Ghobrial said.

“There are so many things that could happen with it, right? The nose could go down, and your foot's trying to keep it up. The drop could be inside, and your leg is reflecting the kick direction on that.

“That is an important part of correcting a punter's fundamentals, but like I said, every rep is so singular that you're really focused on just what is your routine, what are your steps to even warm up.”

Whatever is behind the sudden issues, Ghobrial is confident that Gillan will be able to fix it.

“He's ready to attack success and fix those things,” he said.

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