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BALTIMORE -- Shortly after last Sunday's victory in Cleveland, Baltimore Ravens coach John Harbaugh stood in the locker room and gave the game ball to someone he called the best punter in the NFL. For Sam Koch, it was the first time in his 12-year career he had ever been honored this way. "I’ll take that one home and put it up in the man cave," Koch said after dropping three punts inside the 5-yard line. Few punters receive game balls. Fewer NFL players get to put a game ball in a basement they constructed. Koch is a talented handyman who takes tremendous pride in his ability to tackle home projects, a passion likely passed down from a grandfather who was a carpenter. A few years ago, Koch and someone who knew the local building codes spent 52 days finishing his basement. He started each day at 7 a.m. and worked until about 9 p.m. The biggest challenge was sanding, re-sanding and putting up the mud for the drywall. A self-proclaimed perfectionist -- which his teammates will quickly attest to -- Koch painted the basement seven times, and each time, he filled in all the holes. "In anything working with your hands, you have to pay attention to the fine details and making it perfect," Koch said. "It’s along the same lines of punting. I have to pay attention to everything, from footwork to the snap to your hands to how you contact the ball." Koch truly is the NFL's do-it-all specialist, and a national television audience might get another glimpse at that Saturday, when the Ravens (8-6) host the Indianapolis Colts. He pins teams deep in their own territory more than any other punter. Converting a fake punt, field goal or extra point, Koch has proved he can throw the ball as well as run it in for a score. In fact, Koch is one of five non-quarterbacks since 2001 to complete at least four passes, score a touchdown, record a 2-point conversion and total at least 14 tackles, according to ESPN Stats & Information. Koch is the MVP: the most versatile punter. "Anybody in this locker room will tell you, Sam is one of the best athletes on this team," kicker Justin Tucker said. Tiger Woods of punting Koch let everyone in on his secret about how he can get 50-yard punts to bounce within feet of the goal line and not carom into the end zone. "Tucker has a Nintendo Switch paddle on the sideline that he always hits the backspin button as I punt," Koch said with a grin. "I tell him to dial in on Tiger Woods, 40 yards or so." In many ways, Koch is the Tiger Woods of punting. He selects one of his dozen kinds of kicks from his "golf bag," and he repeatedly backs teams right up against their own end zone. His peers have reverently talked about how Koch has changed the punting game over the years. The 35-year-old leads the NFL this season with the most punts inside the 20-yard line (37, six more than anyone else) and inside the 10 (16). He would be tied for the most inside the 5-yard line if officials hadn't ruled a punt that stopped inches from the goal line in Green Bay -- which Harbaugh called "the greatest punt in the history of football" -- a touchback. "Sam is probably more precise than certainly any punter I have seen -- not just been around, but seen," Harbaugh said. "They say the ball takes funny bounces for a reason. It is oblong, and it does. You can’t predict it, but I will tell you, Sam Koch seems like he has perfected that oblong somehow, some way, because it rarely takes off into the end zone. That is the measuring stick."  'He's so OCD'
Only three of Koch's punts have resulted in touchbacks, which is crazy considering half of his punts have landed inside the 20. It all goes back to practice -- a lot of practice. If a punt rolls into the end zone during a workout, Koch has to try it again to find the right spin. "We're working on the perfect punt," long-snapper Morgan Cox said. Koch is working on perfection with everything he tackles. In 2010, the Ravens started playing cornhole, and Koch had to figure out the best way to toss beanbags. He ended up beating quarterback Joe Flacco in the championship of a 12-player tournament. "The best way to describe it is he's so OCD [obsessive-compulsive disorder] about things," Cox said. "That carries over into every aspect of his life. Disciplined." Koch is a perfect passer. On fake punts, he's 4-for-4 for 48 yards for a career passer rating of 116.7, which ranks No. 1 in franchise history. Baltimore special-teams coordinator Jerry Rosburg referred to Koch as "the greatest holder that has ever played the game." Koch has placed the ball down for Tucker, the most accurate kicker in NFL history, in addition to two other Pro Bowl kickers (Matt Stover and Billy Cundiff). Over his career, Koch has scored a touchdown on a 7-yard scramble off a fake field goal against Oakland in 2012, recorded a 2-point conversion off a fake extra point against Pittsburgh in 2011 and rushed twice for first downs (at Cincinnati in 2012 and against Kansas City in 2015). Koch has also made 14 special-teams tackles. "There’s nothing really that Sam does that surprises a whole lot," Rosburg said last month. "He’s an extraordinary athlete. I mean, he’s the cornhole champion. That pretty much says everything!" Humble beginnings Koch comes from Ulysses, Nebraska, a small town with a population of 171. His first job, at age 13, was detasseling corn stalks, which is the dreaded summer job of removing the top of the plants. He walked on as a punter/kickoff specialist at the University of Nebraska, where he later earned a scholarship, and was drafted in the sixth round by Baltimore in 2006. "It's crazy that, as a kid from Nebraska growing up, people are like, 'Well, at least you're going to give it a shot,'" Koch said. "There wasn't much optimism back there other than the immediate family." The turning point for Koch came in 2008, with the arrival of Rosburg. Koch remembers meeting in his new special-teams coordinator's office, where Rosburg essentially told Koch that he wasn't impressed by the game film or the stats. Koch wasn't upset. He knew he wasn't a good punter at that point in his career. His strong leg got him through the first two seasons. Rosburg worked with Koch for hours and hours in the team's field house. The best piece of advice was adjusting how Koch dropped the ball out of his hands. "Honestly, from that day forward, it's totally changed the consistency part of my punting," Koch said. The surprising part is how Koch has gone relatively under the radar for 12 seasons. This season, he became the first punter since Brian Moorman in 2005 to be named AFC special-teams player of the week twice in a season. But he was snubbed once again for the Pro Bowl. Koch has received only one Pro Bowl invitation, and that came in 2015. Those close to Koch know how valuable he is to Baltimore's success. "Sam is the best punter in the league," linebacker Terrell Suggs said, "but we’ve always known that."
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