Quote:
Originally Posted by POND_OF_RED
(Post 16946520)
Kickers who start showing consistent signs of regression are worrisome. Too many teams keep kickers around too long and waste too much salary cap space on them thinking they can’t be replaced. We’re just emotionally scarred from the kicker who shall not be named, but there is no way a team should get too complacent with the 35th most accurate kicker in the NFL when there’s only 32 teams.
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Lol, talk about misleading your audience.
Butker has been rock solid steady with his accuracy for his entire career (excepting last season) with a kicking percentage of 90.2%, making him one of the most accurate kickers in NFL history.
Last season, and only last season, his accuracy dropped to 75%,
due to a high ankle sprain injury he sustained in Week 1, that lingered for more than half the season. So when you say he's the 35th PK in the NFL, what you meant to say is that in 2022 he injured his ankle on his plant foot, missed several games, and the result was a 75% accuracy percentage, which made him the 35th PK for 2022.
Not the 35th PK in the league for the last 5 years. Or the last two years. You're taking a single injury-impacted season and blowing it up into an indictment of Butker's entire future. Which is just about the dumbest way to use stats.
Btw, Harrison doesn't have an injury history to speak of outside of his injury last season. He's 27 and has been very durable and reliable throughout his 6-year career. Not to mention widely regarded as the 2nd-most accurate kicker in the NFL behind Justin Tucker.
Btw again: Tucker, currently the best PK in the NFL and a shoo-in HOFer, also sustained an injury last season and his accuracy dropped to 86% in 2022. No doubt you'd cut him as well I suppose.
Or maybe you'd have cut Tucker after his third season when his accuracy dropped all the way down to 85%? Assuredly after his accuracy dropped to 82% the following year?
Well, you'd have mocked around the league as one of NFL history's biggest morons, considering Tucker posted a 90+% accuracy rating 4 out of the next five seasons.
There is no regression. Butker got hurt, and for the team he tried to return too early and play through it. He's 100% healthy now and his accuracy will go right back up into the 90% range, making him again one of the top-3 most accurate kickers in the NFL.