WASHINGTON (CBSDC) — As the Washington Redskins continue their downward spiral, 24-year-old punter Tress Way continues to build upon his Pro Bowl-caliber first season.

Way, who went undrafted out of Oklahoma in 2013, was signed and released ahead of consecutive seasons by the Chicago Bears before being brought in to Washington for chance to compete for the job he’d later win.

In his first NFL season, Way leads the league with a 48.3-yards per punt average, and is the owner of the longest punt of the year, thus far, at 77 yards.

On Tuesday, Way and Redskins long-snapper Nick Sundberg caught up with 106.7 The Fan’s Grant Paulsen, Danny Rouhier and Chad Dukes to talk about their special teams expertise.

“I’d say probably the scariest thing is everybody — not in a weird way — but everybody in front of me, you know obviously is bent over, and then on the other side, they’re bent over getting ready for the action, and then when you have somebody like Devin Hester or Josh Cribbs,” said Way. “You’re just making eye contact with them. Right before you punt, it’s like, ‘Man, please don’t house this. Just don’t take this back to the house.'”

Do you want to tackle guys?

“You know, I don’t mind it,” Way answered. “But Nick told me, it’s not a good thing if I’m tackling guys. So I get my street credit up a little bit from the fans if I make a couple tackles, but in all reality, I don’t want to.”

Do you study other punters? How does a punter hone his craft?

“So, being a punter, you really just punt a lot of balls,” Way said. This could very well be the hidden secret to becoming a leading NFL punter. It is a fact that Way has punted 58 balls for the Redskins this season.

When was the last time you watched film on other guys?

“I don’t,” Way replied. “I don’t care what another guy does, because, it’s like, you watch Manny Ramirez and like Gary Sheffield. They’re stances, their swings in baseball looks totally different and the dude can mash balls. So I do whatever I gotta do.”

“I do study myself, but to a certain extent, I like to stay out of my own head,” he’d add. “I like to have fun whenever I’m playing, and so if I get to over-thinking, there’s no telling what’s gonna happen — you know, mechanically, technically — so if I happen to have just a shank in practice, I’ll go back and look and see what happened, but I mean it is what it is.”

“That’s rare though,” Sundberg chimed in. “That he has a shank in practice.”

Way, as noted above, has been one of the lone bright spots on a floundering 3-9 Redskins team which has lobbied in recent weeks for fans to vote him into the Pro Bowl.

Pro Bowl voting happens here.

Redskins News And Rumors[display-posts category=”Redskins” wrapper=”ul” posts_per_page=”4″]