Pat O'Donnell

BIOGRAPHY

Patrick Michael O'Donnell was born on February 22, 1991, in Lake Worth, Florida. He is a punter in the NFL.

He played college football at the University of Cincinnati and the University of Miami.

He attended Palm Beach Central High School where he played football and was a track racer; he was a Three-year letter winner in both sports. During his senior year, he recorded seven field goals; in 2008 he was co-winner of 2008 Lou Groza Award for top kicker in Palm Beach County, earned first-team all-state and all-district honors and played in 2009 Outback All-Star Game.

O’Donnell played college football for the bearcats ate the University of Cincinnati; during the 2009 season, he played in 3 games. Entering the 2010 season, he was named starting punter and kicked eight times in the season opener for 304 yards and a 38.0-yard average.

In 2011 he was the starting punter and finished the year with 63 punts totaling 2760 yards, 61 kickoffs for 3915 yards, and one tackle. On 2012 season he was named Big East Special Teams Player of the Week following game vs. Virginia Tech and recorded season-long 63-yard punt.

In 2013 due to family reasons, he transferred to the University of Miami; he played all 13 games of the season for the hurricanes handling kickoff and punting duties.  He set Miami single-season record with 47.1 yards-per-punt average and finish the season with a punt of 50+ yards in eight straight games. He was named Second-team All-America by USA TODAY Sports, and third-team All-America by Athlon Sports, First-team All-ACC selection by ACSMA, league's head coaches and Athlon Sports, Special Teams MVP at end-of-season team awards show and earned letter.

O'Donnell was drafted by the Chicago Bears with the 191st overall pick in the sixth round of the 2014 NFL Draft and signed a four-year contract on May 13, 2014. During his rookie season he finished with 71 punts for 3,107 yards (43.8 gross avg.) with 20 punts downed inside the 20, 3 touchbacks, 1 blocked punt and 335 opponent return yards for a 37.7 net avg.; his gross average of 43.8 was the seventh highest in Bears single-season history, and he was named to PFWA and Mel Kiper's ESPN All-Rookie team.

During the 2015 season he hit 70 punts for 3,097 yards (44.2 avg) with 28 inside the 20, 4 touchbacks and 197 return yards for a 39.7 net average in 15 contests; his 39.7 net punting yards ranks 2nd in Bears single-season annals and hit a career-long 72-yard punt in Game 3, the longest punt by a Bears player since Brad Maynard had a 75-yarder in the series finale of the 2002 season. In 2016, he finished with 68 punts for 2,994 net yards for a 44.0 average.

On the 2017 season he played in 16 games and punted 87 times for 4,087 yards for a gross average of 47.0 (all career-highs) and landed 27 punts inside the 20 with 6 touchbacks; he is entering the fourth campaign with Chicago (2014-17), hitting 296 punts for 13,285 yards (44.9 gross avg) and landing 99 punts inside the 20 with 18 touchbacks.

On March 18, 2022, O'Donnell signed a two-year contract with the Green Bay Packers. He was named NFC Special Teams player of the week for his week 3 performance against the Buccaneers in a 14–12 victory, having seven punts with the longest 63 yards and an average of 48.4. Five of them landed inside the 20-yard line, the most for any of the team's punters in a game since 1976.