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NFL Kicking Woes


Coach55

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Is it just me, or has the quality of NFL kickers deteriorated materially this year.  Some teams' kicking situations are so bad to the point where they have become a revolving door (Haushka hasn't helped us, but we are in way better shape than others). My question is, why do some of these teams keep going after consistently crappy kickers (NY Jets for example) and not go for a retired vet such as Dan Carpenter, who is only 33 and has put up pretty consistent numbers his entire career. 

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Kudos to the OP for bringing up this topic.  I mentioned something similar in a different thread that was critical of Hauschka.  He had a bad game vs. the Browns and it was costly to us, but our kicking situation is far from the worst in the league.  Kicking seems to be a problem league-wide this year, more than I can ever recall seeing in the past.

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5 minutes ago, msw2112 said:

Kudos to the OP for bringing up this topic.  I mentioned something similar in a different thread that was critical of Hauschka.  He had a bad game vs. the Browns and it was costly to us, but our kicking situation is far from the worst in the league.  Kicking seems to be a problem league-wide this year, more than I can ever recall seeing in the past.

He is 33rd in the league in FG %, the only player who has a worse percentage than him in the league is the guy the Titans cut after we played them.  If youre going to rely on a good defense in low scoring games you better have a hell of a kicker.

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I think this is something that's been building over the last few years, kickers reliability send to be getting worse and teams are scrambling to find someone reliable.

 

I wonder if alot of the issues are mental, the older kickers are retiring and younger ones coming in aren't as mentally tough to handle the pressure that's been put on the position? They let it go to their heads after missing 1-2 and they can't deal with it 

 

Either that or the NFL is juicing the balls like MLB did to get more homers?

Edited by apuszczalowski
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4 minutes ago, apuszczalowski said:

I think this is something that's been building over the last few years, kickers reliability send to be getting worse and teams are scrambling to find someone reliable.

 

I wonder if alot of the issues are mental, the older kickers are retiring and younger ones coming in aren't as mentally tough to handle the pressure that's been put on the position? They let it go to their heads after missing 1-2 and they can't deal with it 

 

Either that or the NFL is juicing the balls like MLB did to get more homers?

It may just be this year is an anomaly.  The league average has been around 84% the last five years, its 80% this year.   I would imagine some of the same kickers that got the league to 84% last year, are still kicking this year.   This is the lowest its been since 2003.  I imagine youll see it go back up next year.

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I thought I was the only one who noticed this. Ever since the extra point was made longer it seems like kicking has become much more problematic. I never remember it being this bad as it has the past few years . I am glad extra points are more difficult though. Makes games more interesting. 

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1 hour ago, msw2112 said:

Kudos to the OP for bringing up this topic.  I mentioned something similar in a different thread that was critical of Hauschka.  He had a bad game vs. the Browns and it was costly to us, but our kicking situation is far from the worst in the league.  Kicking seems to be a problem league-wide this year, more than I can ever recall seeing in the past.

 

Well I'm not sure about that. How many kicks have we passed up because McDermott has concerns about his range? Very few teams will pass up 53 yard FGs during the course of a game, especially when it would give you the lead, but we do regularly, which makes me think McD has no confidence in his ability over 50 yards right now...which was shown to be correct when he was SHORT from 53...

 

For a team that doesn't score many points, not having a kicker who can hit what is a very makeable FG because he doesn't have the leg anymore is kind of inexcusable and puts a lot of pressure on the offense which hasn't been shown to be good in those circumstances of converting 4th and short plays.

Edited by matter2003
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16 minutes ago, Reed83HOF said:

I hate long FGs anyways, unless it is 3rd and a million from the 35 you should go for the first (based on the game situation of course)

 

you mean like 3rd and 4 with 52 seconds left and a time out?

 

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1 hour ago, thenorthremembers said:

It may just be this year is an anomaly.  The league average has been around 84% the last five years, its 80% this year.   I would imagine some of the same kickers that got the league to 84% last year, are still kicking this year.   This is the lowest its been since 2003.  I imagine youll see it go back up next year.

This is exactly right.

 

This stuff goes up and down; it's unpredictable, and there is no "explanation" for it.

 

It will likely improve next year as you say.

 

 

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16 minutes ago, BigSky said:

Who was the kid we had in camp this year? Seemed like he did pretty good. With House struggling so much it might be worth taking another look at him. 

 

I guess you missed him kicking for the 49ers Monday night.

 

Shanked the game winner after making his first 3.

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5 hours ago, msw2112 said:

Kudos to the OP for bringing up this topic.  I mentioned something similar in a different thread that was critical of Hauschka.  He had a bad game vs. the Browns and it was costly to us, but our kicking situation is far from the worst in the league.  Kicking seems to be a problem league-wide this year, more than I can ever recall seeing in the past.


actually it is with a 61.5% rate with the highest cap hit of any kicker

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