Pressley
Harvin III.
Pressley
Harvin III.
Georgia Tech· 6'0"· 255 lb
"A 6-foot, 255-pound Georgia Tech punter with unusual mass, a track-and-field shot-put background, and the 2020 Ray Guy Award — a Round-7 special-teams bet built on raw leg strength over refined hangtime."Pre-draft read
This left-footed operator leverages exceptional leg strength and a compact drop with a stable plant to flip field position using directional punts, provided he stays over the ball. A two-step operation with a fast get-off and hip-through-torso rotation (shot-put background evident) generates distance without a long approach.
Functional directional and pooch work pins opponents inside the 10-yard line with sky punts and angled boots when clean. However, spiral quality occasionally wobbles when maximizing hangtime, leading to line drives that shorten net average. Ball drops can drift under the leg, resulting in shanks or knuckling flight. Mechanics become less consistent under protection breakdowns. Steady enough on holds to back up placekicks.
Consistent special teams operation with a focus on field position over hangtime, valuing a quick operation and repeatable mechanics under pressure.
A Year 1 starter who can flip field position with his booming leg and contribute to a situational punting scheme, with the ceiling to become a long-term starter who consistently pins offenses deep.
A scheme that over-prioritizes consistent 5.0+ second hangtime on every punt, regardless of field position, would diminish his primary strength of raw leg power.
Harvin is a power-leg punter best suited for an operation that can manage his hangtime volatility and utilize his directional and pooch capabilities to maximize field position, especially in cold-weather venues.
Behind The Scenes: Pressley Harvin III - 2020 Ray Guy Award
Program feature around the Ray Guy Award win showing operation, drop mechanics and personality.
Georgia Tech Football: Special Teams 2020
Season special-teams reel with senior-year punts, directional work and pooch drops inside the 10.
Pressley Harvin III Perfect 48-Yard Punt Inside the 1-Yard Line vs Cowboys
NFL clip of a coffin-corner boot pinned inside the 1-yard line, showcasing directional touch translated to the pro game.
Pressley Harvin III presented as a unique specialist prospect, a 6-foot, 255-pound left-footed punter with a build more common to a fullback than a typical punter. His powerful leg and track-and-field shot put background provided a strong base for field-flipping punts, offering teams a plan for a punter who could excel in inclement weather and provide significant gross distance.
He was a four-year starter in the ACC, consistently logging over 60 punts per season for Georgia Tech. His college career culminated in a 2020 Ray Guy Award as the nation's best punter and first-team All-American honors, underscoring his production against ACC competition. He consistently delivered a career gross average above 44 yards on high-volume workloads.
Evaluators noted concerns about hangtime consistency and spiral quality, particularly when he pushed for maximum distance, which sometimes led to a lower net average despite impressive gross numbers. His larger frame also raised questions about long-term durability. He was generally projected as a priority undrafted free agent or a late seventh-round pick, with the Pittsburgh Steelers ultimately selecting him with the 254th overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft.
- 01
Exceptional Leg Strength
Leg strength enables 60-plus yard punts consistently, flipping field position on deep boots from inside the 20.
- 02
Award-Winning Punter
Award-winning résumé includes the 2020 Ray Guy Award as the nation's top punter and first-team All-American honors.
- 03
High Volume Experience
Four-year starter at Georgia Tech, handling high-volume workloads of over 60 punts per season.
- 04
Cold-Weather Punter
Cold-weather profile, with his frame and mechanics suitable for windy northern venues like outdoor AFC North stadiums.
- 05
Directional Punting Tools
Directional and pooch tools allow angling punts to the sideline and dropping sky punts inside the 10-yard line.
- 01
Hangtime Consistency Issue
Booming gross punts often have mid-4-second hangtimes, giving returners space and lagging net average.
- 02
Inconsistent Spiral Quality
Spiral quality can falter when pressing for distance, resulting in line drives or knuckle punts.
- 03
Durability Concerns
Frame and durability are concerns due to his heavy playing weight for a punter, stressing the plant leg.
- 04
Varied Ball Drop
Ball-drop variance leads to occasional shanks or 25-yard misfires when the drop drifts under the leg.
| Yr | Team | G | Punts | Yds | Avg |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Georgia Tech | 11 | 50 | 2205 | 44.1 |
| 2018 | Georgia Tech | 13 | 35 | 1447 | 41.3 |
| 2019 | Georgia Tech | 12 | 80 | 3583 | 44.8 |
| 2020 | Georgia Tech | 10 | 45 | 2159 | 48 |
| Career | — | 46 | 210 | 9394 | 178.2 |
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Boom-leg specialist whose gross average and pinning ability keep him employed even when net numbers underdeliver relative to leg strength.
Best-case is a high-volume, big-leg punter who becomes a Pro Bowl-caliber weapon by pairing directional touch with hangtime once the coverage unit catches up.
Ray Guy-adjacent college résumé that translates into a solid multi-year starter, but hangtime and net-average issues cap the ceiling and leave the seat contested every camp.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Pre-draft context. Pressley Harvin III arrived in the 2021 class as the rare specialist with real hardware: a 6-foot, 255-pound left-footed punter from Georgia Tech who anchored the ACC leg-strength conversation for four straight years and won the 2020 Ray Guy Award as the nation's top punter. His track-and-field background in shot put gave him an atypical thick, rotational lower half for the position, and his career gross average sat in the plus-44 band across a high-volume ACC workload. There was no combine because of the 2021 cancellation, so evaluators worked off pro-day boots, senior tape, and a body of consistent starter reps against ACC returners, with boards clustering him in the priority-UDFA to Round 7 range depending on how much an organization valued specialist stability.
NFL fit — Pittsburgh Steelers. Pittsburgh used its Round-7 pick on Harvin as the youth push at punter behind veteran Jordan Berry, a fit that matched a special-teams pattern of valuing cold-weather specialists with big legs. Harvin won the camp battle as a rookie in 2021, then held the job for three full seasons — 2021 through 2023 — as the Steelers' primary punter across a Chase Claypool / Kenny Pickett / Mitch Trubisky era of field-position football. The role was exactly what the pick had projected: high-volume boots in an AFC North with wind and cold, high gross averages, and periodic drops that showed up on hangtime and net.
Retrospective. Harvin's NFL arc ended tragically and abruptly. He punted 209 times for Pittsburgh across three seasons before the team moved on ahead of 2024, and he passed away in January 2024 at 24 years old. On football terms alone, the pick delivered exactly what a Round-7 specialist selection is supposed to deliver — three years of starting play from a late seventh-round investment, an above-average gross, and a Ray Guy-caliber leg in the AFC North — while the net-average inconsistency the pre-draft grade flagged did keep him in a season-to-season role rather than a locked-in long-term one.