Week 4: Jamie Gillan, New York Giants

New York Giants punter Jamie Gillan, who played at Leonardtown High School, has been named the DC Touchdown Club Pro Football Player of the Week after his terrific play helped the Giants beat the Los Angeles Chargers, 21-18, for their first victory this season.

In his seventh NFL season, Gillan played a large role Sunday in helping the Giants maintain an edge in field possession.

He averaged 48.8 yards on three punts, including three that landed inside the Chargers’ 20-yard line. Gillan also boomed a 68-yard punt from the back of his own end zone in the middle of the third quarter, preventing Los Angeles from having a short field to try for the go-ahead score.

Gillan, who grew up in Scotland, was more of a rugby player growing up. His family moved to Southern Maryland because his father is in Royal Air Force and had an assignment as an exchange officer at Naval Air Station Patuxent River. But he joined the Leonardtown football team midway through his senior year of high school and got a last-second scholarship offer to play collegiately at Arkansas-Pine Bluff after a friend saw the team post on Facebook that it needed a kicker.

Undrafted out of college, Gillan signed with the Cleveland Browns and played three seasons there. He then joined the Giants and is now in his fourth season with the team, having signed a three-year, $10.2 million contract this past offseason.