On January 25, 2007, the Eagles announced the signing of punter Sav Rocca, an Australian Rules Football star. Many wondered what it meant. Was he just a camp body whom the Eagles wanted to see during extended time? Was he a prospect who would seriously challenge incumbent Dirk Johnson in the spring and summer? Who? What? Why?

In the end, Rocca proved why he was worthy of the team's attention.

The 6-foot-5, 265-pound Rocca arrived in Philadelphia in the spring and proved to be more than a novelty. His leg strength was obviously there, but he was raw. His technique, too, needed work. But he got better with each practice and in the end, beat out Johnson for the job.

Rocca had some shaky moments during his first full-time year as an NFL punter, but by and large he was just fine. The numbers - 42-yard gross average and 34.5-yard net average - were in the middle of the pack in the NFC.

Rocca improved as his rookie NFL season matured and finished the year strong by dropping 10 punts inside the 20-yard line in the final five games of the regular season. A week after booting a career-high three at home against the Giants on Dec. 9, Rocca downed a career-high five punts inside the 20-yard line at Dallas. It was the most by an Eagles' punter since Johnson did it at Dallas on Oct. 12, 2003.

Rocca delivered several big kicks at clutch moments. His kicks changed field position and impacted outcomes.

At Minnesota on Oct. 28, Rocca launched consecutive punts of 64 and 65 yards in the fourth quarter.His 65-yarder was a career long and pinned the Vikings back at their own 9-yard line with 15 seconds left on the game clock. He finished the day with a career-high 52.8 gross average, which tied former Eagles punter Jeff Feagles (10/5/92 vs. Dal.) for the highest single-game average in Eagles history.

Rocca also punted in some truly awful weather and yet he had few poor punts.

Eagles general manager Tom Heckert referred to Rocca as having "a big-time leg," and Rocca proved that. For the season, Rocca landed 24 punts inside the 20-yard line. In 12 of 16 games he launched at least one punt of 50 or more yards. In the preseason he averaged 45.4 yards per punt on 15 attempts.

Rocca was a consistent, steady leg for Rory Segrest's specialty teams. Opponents averaged 11.4 yards on punt returns for the season, including one touchdown.

In addition, by  unseating Johnson, Rocca also earned another important special teams role -- as the holder for placekicker David Akers.

Rocca made tremendous strides in a year's time. As the season went along, he got better and better. He was more accurate with his directional punts, he had a quicker get-off time, and his hang time got better almost every week. His upside is terrific.

Rocca had dreams of following in the footsteps of fellow countrymen Darren Bennett, Ben Graham and Mat McBriar. Now he's part of that rich Australian punting pipeline in the NFL. Rocca is the front-runner to remain the team's punter in 2008, although there is likely to be competition.

- BOB KENT

NOTE: PhiladelphiaEagles.com will not profile players scheduled to become unrestricted free agents.

Assessing Rocca involves a lot more than talking about his numbers from last year, or the way he improved his technique in his first NFL season. It involves tracking what kind of progress Rocca made from the time the Eagles signed him to the time the season ended. Rocca, who was practicing his punting technique in Australia with an Australian football a year ago, went from a free-agent novelty to a legitimate NFL punter with a tremendous upside.

I'm sure that upside had something to do with the reason the Eagles kept Rocca over Dirk Johnson, who had an outstanding training camp and preseason. Rocca demonstrated that enormous ability at times last year when he got off some booming punts and enjoyed some terrific games, but what was even more commendable was the reduction he had in his mis-kicks.

I look forward to the best of Rocca in 2008. I think he is the kind of talent that is going to take a gigantic step forward as his technique improves. The leg strength is there, no doubt. Rocca has awesome power and he is going to be better and better with his technique.