Shane Lechler, one of the best punters in NFL History, started off his football career as a standout punter and quarterback at East Bernard High School, where he passed for nearly 5,000 career yards. The Sealy, Texas native averaged 41.6 yards per punt with a best of 85 yards and led East Bernard to the state quarterfinals.
Lechler signed and played with the Texas A&M Aggies from 1996-’99 primarily as their punter and additionally their kicker. While at A&M he set an NCAA record with a career average of 44.69 yards, now second overall and finished with 11,977 total punting yards and was 3rd in the nation for punting (‘97 and ‘99). He was named a two-time All-American (1998 and ‘99) and a three-time First-team All Big-12 pick (‘97-’99). Lechler still holds the NCAA FBS record for most games with a 40-yd average or more with 37 games.
After a stellar collegiate career, Lechler brought his talents to the Oakland Raiders after being selected in the 5th round of the 2000 Draft. During his 13 seasons with the Raiders, he became their all-time leading punter and made three playoff runs. After appearing in 206 games for Oakland, he punted a total of 1,014 times for 48,215 yards and holds the Raiders record for the longest punt with an 80-yard punt in 2011. He was selected to the Pro Bowl seven times (‘01, ‘04, ‘07, ‘08, ‘09, ‘10, and ‘11) and was named First-Team All-Pro six times (‘00, ‘03, ‘04, ‘08, ‘09, ‘10). From 2013-2017, Lechler joined the Houston Texans as a free agent, where he took part in 80 regular-season games. In his five seasons with the Texans, he punted 430 times and averaged 47.6 yards per punt. In 2014, he set his longest punt with 71 yards. Lechler also led the league in punting yards with 4,507 yards on 92 punts in the 2017 season, which was his final season before retiring.
During his 18 season NFL career, he totaled 286 games played, 1,444 punts (T2 in NFL history), 68,676 total punt yardage (T2 in NFL history), 47.6-yard punting average (1 in NFL history), and led the NFL in punting average five years. He was also in the NFL’s top two in punting average 12 times in his 18 seasons. Lechler was named to the 2000 All-Rookie Team, the Punter of the Decade for the 2000s, a member of the 2010-2019 All-Decade Team, and was voted on the NFL 100 All-Time team. He was inducted into the Texas A&M Athletic Hall of Fame in 2006, the Texas High School Football Hall of Fame in 2014 and the Texas Sports Hall of Fame in 2020.
