 Baker with the Carolina Panthers in 2008 | |||||||||
| No. 7, 6, 9 | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Position: | Punter | ||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||
| Born: | (1978-05-17)May 17, 1978 (age 46) Fort Wayne, Indiana, U.S. | ||||||||
| Height: | 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) | ||||||||
| Weight: | 205 lb (93 kg) | ||||||||
| Career information | |||||||||
| High school: | Wayne (Fort Wayne, Indiana) | ||||||||
| College: | Iowa | ||||||||
| Undrafted: | 2001 | ||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||
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| * Offseason and/or practice squad member only | |||||||||
| Career highlights and awards | |||||||||
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| Career NFL statistics | |||||||||
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Jason Michael Baker (born May 17, 1978) is an American former professionalfootball player who was apunter in theNational Football League (NFL). He was signed by theSan Francisco 49ers as anundrafted free agent in 2001. He playedcollege football for theIowa Hawkeyes. He has also played for thePhiladelphia Eagles,Kansas City Chiefs,Indianapolis Colts,Denver Broncos, andCarolina Panthers.
Baker attendedWayne High School in Fort Wayne, Indiana andlettered infootball andbaseball. In football, he won second-team All-Conference honors as a senior.
Baker playedcollege football at theUniversity of Iowa. When he graduated, he left as the Hawkeyes' all-time leader in punts and punting yards, with 272 punts for 11,304 yards. He was namedspecial teamsMVP of the1997 Sun Bowl for his performance in Iowa's loss againstArizona State University, after registering eight punts for 391 yards. He also made honorable mentionAll-Big Ten honors as a senior in 2000. He majored in business administration.
He was notdrafted by any team, and was signed as afree agent by thePhiladelphia Eagles in April 2001 before beingwaived a short while later, not having appeared in any regular season games for them. He was then picked up by theSan Francisco 49ers, and was their regular punter during the2001 NFL season. Unfortunately, he was released the next year, and signed again by the Eagles. He played several games for them before being released again at the end of the season. He was signed by theKansas City Chiefs before the2003 season, and was their regular punter for the whole season, averaging a respectable 39.5 yards per punt. Baker then had a bizarre season in2004. He was waived by Kansas City, then re-signed two weeks later, then waived a week after that. He was then picked up by theIndianapolis Colts, played with them for 5 weeks, then Indianapolis waived him and he was picked up by theDenver Broncos, who he finished the season with. He played for Denver in theAFC wild card game against his former team, Indianapolis. After the season, he was traded to the Carolina Panthers with a2006draft pick forPro Bowl punterTodd Sauerbrun. Baker eventually won the punting job, after battling withTom Rouen andSteve Cheek duringtraining camp and the preseason. He played the rest of his seven seasons in Carolina, where he averaged 44.0 yards per punt in 112 games, set most of the franchise records, twice led the league in punts, and was a Pro Bowl alternate multiple times but never attended. The Panthers rewarded him with a contract making him the highest paid punter in the NFL prior to the 2007 season. Baker is one of the fastest running punters in the NFL. He managed to surprise the Seahawks'Leon Washington in a game on December 5, 2010, tripping up the prematurely celebrating Washington to save a touchdown.
As of 2017[update]'s NFL off-season, Jason Baker still held at least three Panthers franchise records, including:
| Legend | |
|---|---|
| Led the league | |
| Bold | Career high |
| Year | Team | Punting | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GP | Punts | Yds | Net Yds | Lng | Avg | Net Avg | Blk | Ins20 | TB | ||
| 2001 | SFO | 16 | 69 | 2,813 | 2,443 | 64 | 40.8 | 35.4 | 0 | 21 | 4 |
| 2002 | SFO | 11 | 42 | 1,688 | 1,346 | 51 | 40.2 | 32.0 | 0 | 12 | 3 |
| PHI | 2 | 13 | 445 | 388 | 44 | 34.2 | 29.8 | 0 | 2 | 1 | |
| 2003 | KAN | 16 | 80 | 3,156 | 2,689 | 68 | 39.5 | 33.2 | 1 | 21 | 7 |
| 2004 | KAN | 2 | 9 | 340 | 242 | 52 | 37.8 | 26.9 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| IND | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| DEN | 4 | 15 | 591 | 516 | 48 | 39.4 | 34.4 | 0 | 7 | 1 | |
| 2005 | CAR | 16 | 72 | 3,118 | 2,803 | 59 | 43.3 | 38.9 | 0 | 23 | 4 |
| 2006 | CAR | 16 | 98 | 4,483 | 3,861 | 70 | 45.7 | 39.0 | 1 | 31 | 12 |
| 2007 | CAR | 16 | 90 | 3,978 | 3,393 | 64 | 44.2 | 37.7 | 0 | 22 | 5 |
| 2008 | CAR | 16 | 73 | 3,217 | 2,841 | 63 | 44.1 | 37.4 | 3 | 30 | 5 |
| 2009 | CAR | 16 | 76 | 3,352 | 2,820 | 61 | 44.1 | 36.6 | 1 | 22 | 4 |
| 2010 | CAR | 16 | 95 | 4,097 | 3,469 | 60 | 43.1 | 36.5 | 0 | 22 | 7 |
| 2011 | CAR | 16 | 66 | 2,819 | 2,253 | 56 | 42.7 | 34.1 | 0 | 19 | 5 |
| Career | 167 | 798 | 34,097 | 29,064 | 70 | 42.7 | 36.1 | 6 | 235 | 58 | |
| Year | Team | Punting | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GP | Punts | Yds | Net Yds | Lng | Avg | Net Avg | Blk | Ins20 | TB | ||
| 2001 | SFO | 1 | 5 | 183 | 148 | 45 | 36.6 | 29.6 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| 2003 | KAN | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2004 | DEN | 1 | 4 | 150 | 141 | 46 | 37.5 | 35.3 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 2005 | CAR | 3 | 16 | 600 | 547 | 52 | 37.5 | 34.2 | 0 | 7 | 2 |
| 2008 | CAR | 1 | 4 | 192 | 177 | 53 | 48.0 | 44.3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Career | 7 | 29 | 1,125 | 1,013 | 53 | 38.8 | 34.9 | 0 | 11 | 2 | |
Media related toJason Baker at Wikimedia Commons