Top 20 NFL Sooners, No. 16: Tress Way

Tress Way tried his foot as a placekicker, but then focused solely on punting and became one of football's elite talents

In the past 20 years, the Oklahoma Sooners have experienced arguably their most productive era ever in the NFL Draft.

From the 2000 to 2019 drafts — the entirety of the Bob Stoops and Lincoln Riley years — OU has had 95 players drafted.

Using today’s 7-round comparison, that’s more than any other two-decade era in school history. In the 1970s and ‘80s, OU had 131 players drafted, but only 88 were selected in the first seven rounds.

In the last 20 years, the Sooners have produced some historically good players. Every day leading up to this year’s NFL Draft (April 23-25), SI Sooners presents the Top 20 NFL Sooners of the last 20 years.

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No. 16: Tress Way

One could make the argument that no former Oklahoma Sooner — not even Adrian Peterson — has been better at his position over the last six years than Tress Way.

Since joining the Washington Redskins in 2014, Way has led the NFL in punting average twice. His league-leading mark of 49.6 last year was the second highest (by a tenth of a yard) in the NFL over the last eight years and is the ninth-best single-season mark in NFL history.

And to think, Way came to Oklahoma wanting to be a kicker.

Way actually arrived at OU in 2009 as a two-way kicker out of Tulsa’s Union High School. And he got a shot — he made 11 extra points as a true freshman.

But with his powerful left leg, Way was also tasked to try long field goals for the Sooners, and he was just 1-of-6 in that realm, including a wayward 54-yarder at the end of the fateful 14-13 loss to BYU in the ’09 season opener.

After that season, Way, focused on punting full time and he became an artist. His best single-season average at OU (45.7) came during his freshman season, but once he mastered the nuances of dropping punts inside the opponents’ 20, Way became a true multi-faceted weapon — a punter who flipped the field when the offense was dealt poor field position, or a 12th defender who pinned teams at their own goal line.

He punted the ball at OU 250 times and finished his college career with a school-record 44.0-yard average.

As is the case so often with punters and kickers, Way’s NFL career was slow to take off.

The Chicago Bears signed him as an undrafted free agent in 2013, but he didn’t make it out of training camp. The Bears liked what they saw, however, and brought him back in the 2014 offseason, but again Way was released during the preseason.

Way’s second cut turned out to be the best thing for him, professionally.

Washington signed him that season, and he’s been — as Way used to say — “dropping bombs” in the NFL ever since.

His season averages are impressive on their own — 47.5, 46.1, 45.1, 45.7, 45.3 and 49.6 — but taken as a whole, his career average of 46.6 ranks sixth in NFL history.

His phenomenal 2019 season landed Way a spot in his first Pro Bowl. There may be more ahead.

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Our Top 20 list was chosen by five voters: SI Sooners publisher John Hoover, deputy editor Parker Thune, long-time OU fan and amateur Sooner historian Anthony Jumper, OU school of journalism student Caroline Grace, and OU history and stats expert Steven Smith (aka Blinkin Riley).

The criteria was simple: former Sooners who played at OU during the last 20 years and went on to an NFL career. The rest, i.e, their NFL career, was purely subjective. Players received 20 points for a first-place vote, 19 for second, etc., down to 1 point for 20th. A total of 28 players received votes.

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