Bryce Baringer (born April 26, 1999) is an American professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

punter for the

New England Patriots The New England Patriots are a professional American football team based in the Greater Boston area. The Patriots compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East division. The Pa ...

of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

(NFL). He played

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

for the

Illinois Fighting Illini The Illinois Fighting Illini () are the College athletics, intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The university offers 10 men's and 11 women's Varsity team, varsity sports. The university op ...

and

Michigan State Michigan State University (Michigan State or MSU) is a public land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan, United States. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the first of its kind in the ...

Early life

Baringer was born and grew up in

Waterford, Michigan Waterford Township (commonly known simply as Waterford) is a charter township in Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. A northern suburb of Detroit, Waterford is located roughly northwest of downtown Detroit. As of the 2020 census, the ...

and attended Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy. He initially signed a

National Letter of Intent The National Letter of Intent (NLI) is a document used to indicate a student athlete's commitment to participating in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) colleges and universities in the United States. The NCAA Eligibility Center manag ...

to play college football at

Southern Illinois Southern Illinois is a region of the U.S. state of Illinois comprising the southern third of the state, principally south of Interstate 70. Part of downstate Illinois, it is bordered by the two List of U.S. rivers by discharge, most voluminous ri ...

, but was granted a release and committed to play at

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

as a preferred walk-on.

College career

Baringer began his college career at Illinois, where he redshirted his true freshman season. After the season, he transferred to

Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State or MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan, United States. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State o ...

. Baringer enrolled at Michigan State and originally did not plan on continuing his football career until he was contacted by the

Spartans Sparta was a prominent city-state in Laconia in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon (), while the name Sparta referred to its main settlement in the valley of Evrotas river in Laconia, in southeastern P ...

coaching staff. He took part in two tryouts, but was not offered a spot on the roster after either one. Baringer eventually joined the team after punters Jake Hartbarger and Tyler Hunt both suffered injuries during the 2018 season. He played in four games and punted 15 times for an average of 32.4 yards. Baringer was cut by the Spartans entering the 2019 season after the team added Australian punter Jack Bouwmeester to their recruiting class. Baringer continued to practice punting independently and was offered to rejoin the team after Bouwmeester left the team at the conclusion of the season. He entered his redshirt junior season competing with Mitchell Crawford, a graduate transfer from UTEP, but ultimately won the punting job early in the season and averaged 43.6 yards per punt on 37 punts. As a redshirt senior, Baringer punted 59 times for a Michigan State record 48.4 yard average and was named second team All-Big Ten Conference. Baringer used the extra year of eligibility granted to college athletes in 2020 due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

and returned to Michigan State for a sixth year. He entered his final season ranked as the best punting prospect for the 2023 NFL Draft by ''

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

'' analyst Mel Kiper.

Professional career

Baringer was selected by the

in the sixth round, 192nd overall, of the

2023 NFL draft The 2023 NFL draft was the 88th annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible players for the 2023 NFL season, 2023 season. The NFL draft, draft was held outside of Kansas City Union Station, Union Station i ...

. He signed a standard four-year rookie contract with a total value of about $4.02 million, including a signing bonus of $178,459. He was named to the PFWA NFL All-Rookie Team. Baringer started his career with a punt of at least 50 yards in each of his first 26 games. The streak ended in Week 11 of the NFL 2024 season.

Personal life

Baringer is a close friend of professional golfer James Piot, who was also his roommate at Michigan State.

References

External links

New England Patriots bioIllinois Fighting Illini bioMichigan State Spartans bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baringer, Bryce 1999 births Living people All-American college football players American football punters Illinois Fighting Illini football players Michigan State Spartans football players Sportspeople from Waterford, Michigan Players of American football from Oakland County, Michigan New England Patriots players