Pat McAfee Gives Passionate Motivational Speech to Special Teams Players at Combine

Ryan Phillips | Feb 27, 2025

Pat McAfee watches workouts at the 2025 NFL Scouting Combine. / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

Pat McAfee was having a ball at the NFL Scouting Combine on Wednesday and he let the players working out know how impressed he was.

Specialists had their day with on-field workouts at the combine a day before the full event started. Kickers, punters and long-snappers were able to showcase their skills, along with several international prospects at those positions. McAfee, a former All-Pro punter turned broadcaster, was full of praise for the players working out.

After the day's workout, McAfee gave a speech to the assembled players that was passionate and incredibly complimentary. Video is below.

.@PatMcAfeeShow gave a motivational speech to the special teams prospects at the Combine 💯

📺: #NFLCombine starts today at 3pm ET on @NFLNetwork
📱: Stream on @NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/pJbnFhyLcn

— NFL (@NFL) February 27, 2025

McAfee gave pointers but also praised the kickers and punters for "hitting bombs" while noting that the long-snappers all did their jobs well.

During the 2024 NFL draft, three specialists were drafted. Iowa punter Tory Taylor was selected by the Chicago Bears in the fourth round (No. 122), Arkansas kicker Cam Little was taken in the sixth round (No. 212) by the Jacksonville Jaguars, and Alabama kicker Will Reichard was a seventh-round pick (No. 230) by the Minnesota Vikings. BYU punter Ryan Rehkow went undrafted but was signed by the Cincinnati Bengals then earned the starting job and averaged an excellent 49.1 yards per punt.

Yesterday's workouts could have been a big boost to the draft stock of the specialists assembled. For his part, McAfee was impressed with what he saw.

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