Sepulveda will win the punter job. Guaranteed.

Short of an injury, Daniel Sepulveda will be the Steelers' punter once again.

Okay, Jeremy Kapinos filled the role exceedingly well last year.  The bar was pretty low, though, considering the last person to replace Sepulveda due to injury was Mitch Berger, whose average punt could almost have been measured on a full set of fingers and toes.

And I will grant you that Kapinos has a slightly -- and I do mean slight -- better average than Sepulveda this season, besting Robopunter's 46.6 by a fifth of a yard.

Everyone seems to be jumping on that number and the fact that Kapinos is going to come a good bit cheaper.  But there are a few details that are being overlooked.

First of all, if net average is such a big deal, then Sepulveda still wins.  His 37.9 career average bests Kapinos' by 3.4 yards.  That's a lot.  A whole lot.  We're talking about a third of a first down.  We're talking a number that is at least approaching the NFL average yards per play.

But here is the biggest reason why Jeremy Kapinos will either be punting somewhere else or waiting for the seemingly inevitable midseason call from the Steelers.  Let's face it: RoboPunter has crepe-paper ACLs.

Two words: Hang Time.

Of Sepulveda's five punts in the first two games, three have been downed inside the 20 with no touchbacks.  Kapinos, on the other hand, has had two downed with one touchback.  The numbers are close, I agree, and you could argue that one bounce, or a player being a step faster or slower, and those numbers are reversed.

But for his career, Sepulveda has dropped 73 of 196 punts inside the 20 (37.2 percent), and a total of 31 of his punts have been downed by his teammates (15.8 percent).  Kapinos, on the other hand, has dropped 31 of 106 punts inside the 20 (29.2 percent) with 12 downed (11.3 percent).  Sepulveda's control has also resulted in 14 touchbacks to Kapinos' 15 -- 7.1 percent to 14.2 percent.

Punting and kicking often comes down to a yard or a tenth of a second, just like everything else in the game.  But despite most people's loathing of kickoffs, punts and field goals, they are no more or less important than blocking, running, passing or catching.  And those few feet could be the difference between field goal range and punting for the other team.

McFadds the weakest link?

Dale Lolley is reporting that cornerback Bryant McFadden, on his second to of duty with the Steelers, could be on the way out despite starting in the NFL for three and a half of the last four years -- including a year with the Cardinals.  We all recall that #20 was torched in the Super Bowl.  Of course, the entire secondary was pretty much dreadful, but that could be related to both Troy Polamalu not being his usual calculated-reckless self as well as the complete lack of a pass rush.

All that aside, McFadden struggled at times last season after spending most of his season in Arizona getting torched regularly.  Given that he is due a pretty hefty sum of money; and that youngsters like Keenan Lewis, Crezdon Butler and Curtis Brown are only a marginal difference at this point -- with a lot of upside in the entire group, too -- it stands to reason that McFadden could be on the way out when final roster cuts come due.  I already pointed out that he needs to be worried about his spot in the lineup, but now it looks like his very roster spot is on the line.  His nagging injuries aren't helping his case one bit.

Further updates as events warrant.

Guessing The Roster - Take One

It would be foolish -- downright stupid, really -- to assume that I could guess the entire 53-man roster for any team before even the 80-man cutdown comes due.  But, because I do things differently here at Snack's 'Socks, it isn't going to stop me from taking a shot or two at it.  It's not like I've ever been afraid of making a fool of myself -- on the Internet, at least.