Bryce Baringer's first look in Patriots uniform revealed
Former Michigan State Spartans punter Bryce Baringer is getting his shot at the NFL. This comes after getting drafted by the New England Patriots to hopefully be the franchise’s specialist of the future.
With OTAs underway, Baringer is out practicing with the team, finally wearing what should be his future NFL uniform. For those Spartans fans who rooted for him over the years, this was an exciting moment to see.
So, Michigan State took to Twitter to show off the team’s former punter practicing in a New England Patriots uniform.
Despite being known as a Michigan State punter, Bryce Baringer actually began his career at another Big Ten school, Illinois. He took a redshirt there in 2017 before transferring to Michigan State.
In 2018, due to injuries, Baringer was forced into being the team’s primary punter for the final four games due to injuries but didn’t play at all in 2019. However, by 2020, Baringer was once again the team’s primary punter and he never looked back. That included setting the Michigan State single season record for punting average with 48.4 yards per punt in 2021, before breaking his own record with 49 yards per punt in 2022.
As a sixth-year senior in 2022, Bryce Baringer was named First-Team All-Big Ten, a Consensus All-American, and Eddleman-Fields Punter of the Year.
The Patriots took Baringer in the sixth round of the 2023 NFL Draft with the hopes that he can become the team’s punter of the future. He is likely to replace Michael Palardy, a punter who has bounced around the NFL and CFL.
Patriots head coach Bill Belichick on DeAndre Hopkins
New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick has never been one to give overly intricate answers to the media unless the question is about the benefit of a certain type of punter. So, it’s no surprise that Belichick was blunt about the team’s interest in free agent wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins, who is visiting the team.
“I don’t know about that,” Belichick said. “Talked to him, [we’re] working through it. Not sure.”
When asked a follow-up question, Belichick could hardly hide his annoyance.
“I think it relates more to the logistics and things like that. I’m not really a travel agent. I’m not going to say it’s going to happen here, or it’s not going to happen. There’s a lot of other stuff going on that I’m not directly involved in, so I’m not going to say anything and then you turn around and say I misled you in some way because that’s not what I’m going to do.”