The One Dolphins Quietly Having Tremendous Season

Raise your hand if you thought punter Jake Bailey was done as the Miami Dolphins punter when the team brought in big-legged Ryan Stonehouse in the offseason.

Bailey not only beat out Stonehouse for the job, he's gone on to do nothing but validate the decision to keep him since the regular season started. Forget that, he's putting together an amazing season so far.

Obviously it's gotten lost in the Dolphins' 1-4 start and punters generally don't generate much attention regardless, but what Bailey has done is truly impressive.

Through the first five weeks of the 2025 season, Bailey is second in the NFL in net punting average at 46.6 yards and leads the league by a wide margin in the analytics category of net yards over average at 5.074 (Jordan Stout of Baltimore is second at 3.564).

To put it into perspective, Bailey's current net punting average would blow the Dolphins franchise record of 42.4 set by Brandon Fields in 2013.

Bailey's gross average of 49.1 would be the second-highest in team history behind only Fields' 50.2 in 2012.

Oh, and we should add that Bailey has nine punts inside the 20 with zero touchbacks. There are seven NFL punters without a touchback so far, and among those only Jack Fox of the Detroit Lions has more punts (11) inside the 20.

Bailey's performance in the 27-24 loss at Carolina last Sunday was about as good as it gets for a punter: Six punts, none returned, 52.0 gross average, 52.0 net average, three inside the 20, zero touchbacks, long of 61 that ended up being downed at the 2-yard line.

“I think it’s just the process with him whether it was in the offseason, training camp, this guy has just been locked and focused on what he has to do to get better whether it’s his drop, whether it’s his footwork, whether it’s his line that he ends up doing," special teams coordinator Craig Aukerman said. "You can see kind of his laser focus that he’s had whether he was in competition in training camp and he’s just kept that on.

"Just really proud of what he’s been able to do. Our players see that. He had a really good game. It was one of like, top three that I’ve coached as far as a punter is concerned this last game where he has not just one or two punts where he’s averaging over 50 yards; it’s six punts that he netted over 52 yards, which was really good. And it wasn’t ‘hey, lets go bang the ball with no hang time.’ It was 50, 60 yards with hang time allowing Elijah Campbell, Ethan Bonner to get down there and cause a fair catch. So really proud of him and hopefully he continues to do that which I’m sure he will.”

BAILEY'S BIG JUMP

Bailey is in his third season with the Dolphins after coming over from the New England Patriots in the 2023 offseason, but it was fair to think that third season never would happen after Stonehouse was signed.

Not only was Stonehouse rejoining Aukerman, with whom he had worked with the Tennessee Titans, he also arrived holding the NFL record for highest gross punting average in a season with a 53.1 mark in 2022, which he almost matched the following season.

In his first two seasons with Miami, Bailey averaged 45.7 and 47.1 gross with a net of 40.7 yards each time.

The decision was made to go with Bailey after the second preseason game when the veteran probably sealed the deal with two punts that went for 59 and 50 yards and neither was returned — Stonehouse had punts of 42 and 38 yards in that game.

That, as it turned out, was a preview of things to come.

"He always has a good focus, but when you do have competition, it brings out the best in everyone," Aukerman said. "I think that helped him out, but he’s a professional. He understands the job, he understands that every day is an interview and that’s what he’s really locked into.

"I know he’s still not satisfied, which is great with Jake (Bailey). He feels like he can do even better. I know he had the one mis-hit, but we ended up on a roll and our guys did a great job covering and the first thing, he comes off is, ‘I missed it.’ Which that’s what you want as a competitor and a guy who wants to continue to get better for someone who ended up having over 50 yards of net on that play but he ended up mis-hitting it. I’m proud of him and what he’s doing so far.”

Maybe it'll never come to pass (or punt), but there may come a game where punting could be the difference for the Dolphins, and with everything going wrong right now, at least they know they're getting a Pro Bowl-caliber performance from at least one player.

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