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09-14-2012, 09:00 AM | |
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Are NFL kickers becoming too good?
Akers kicks a 63 yearder.....Kaeding went 5 for 5....
Why are the Chiefs still stuck with a guy who struggles with 41 yarders? http://www.slate.com/articles/sports...ld_goals_.html in Week 1 kickers made 67 of 72 field-goal attempts, or 93 percent. Oh, and the 49ers’ David Akers became the fourth kicker—after Tom Dempsey in 1970, Jason Elam in 1998, and Sebastian Janikowski last year—to kick a 63-yarder. He also became the fifth active NFL kicker to make one from beyond 60. I’ve written before that the improvement in NFL kicking since the 1970s is one of the greatest non-equipment-aided performance leaps in any sport. Today’s kickers are bigger, stronger, physically and mentally better conditioned, and, most important, more technically sophisticated than their counterparts in the early days of the “sidewinder” or “soccer-style” kicker. This guy, for one, wouldn’t sniff the field today. Kickers are so good now—more precisely, the distance from which they can score three points and their accuracy from all distances has increased to such a degree—that NFL coaches use them more than ever. NFL teams attempted a record 1,011 field goals in 2011, which works out to about four attempts per game. In 1984, the figure was 3.5 FG/G. In 1974, it was 3.0. As kickers have improved, the NFL has tried to make their job harder: in 1974, moving the goalposts to the rear of the end zone; in 1995, placing the ball at the spot of the kick instead of the line of scrimmage after a missed FG; in 1999, making them boot new, hard K balls. |
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09-14-2012, 10:22 AM | #16 |
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09-14-2012, 10:24 AM | #17 | |
'Tis my eye!
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Crosby had concerns about ball trajectory coming out. People were concerned he was going to push the ball low because to the long kicking he did in college. This is pure 100% revisionist history. |
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09-14-2012, 10:26 AM | #18 | |
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Then you see him blasting long field goals all year long. And he has proven clearly the best. So I guess if I'm wrong and it wasn't easy to see, then my buddy & I are just awesome talent evaluators. :P Just to follow up.. You are right about some of the scouting report thing. (low trajectory) However, this site rated him as clearly #1 http://www.fftoolbox.com/nfl_draft/p...ospect_id=1185 |
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09-14-2012, 10:36 AM | #19 |
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Shhh....don't tell people here that Succop sucks.
I've held my breath everytime he comes in to kick a FG. He's not clutch. The guy is simply not that great of a kicker. I was pissed off as hell that we didn't go after Alex Henery
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09-14-2012, 10:39 AM | #20 |
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I know one thing....the XP is a joke.
do away with that chit, or change it. |
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09-14-2012, 10:56 AM | #21 | |
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Not a huge Succop fan. Last edited by TRR; 09-14-2012 at 11:18 AM.. |
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09-14-2012, 11:07 AM | #22 |
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How can that be a legitimate concern? Kicking trajectories are not like QB mechanics. Experienced kickers can offer up kicks at whatever trajectory the situation calls for.
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09-14-2012, 11:09 AM | #23 |
'Tis my eye!
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09-14-2012, 11:17 AM | #24 | |
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Get a few barley pops in me, and I might start thinking I could deliver a more catchable kick than Cassel can deliver a catchable ball at over 40 yards.
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09-14-2012, 11:19 AM | #25 | |
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Your mechanics ALLOW you to lay the ball up with a bit of backspin and get the ball to stop on a dime but when you get up to take your swing, your competitive nature tells you to rip it, resulting in the ball sailing over the green and into the sandtrap. |
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09-14-2012, 11:23 AM | #26 | |
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My point was that 'trajectory' alone is not a valid knock on kickers, like a low or slow delivery might be for a QB.
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09-14-2012, 11:26 AM | #27 | |
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I just know that coming into that draft, there were concerns about Crosby's "style" and whether or not he could become a consistently good kicker or a poor man's Janikowski. And in the end, hindsight is 50/50. The people that thought Crosby would be the better kicker were right, regardless of their reasoning. |
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09-14-2012, 11:33 AM | #28 |
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I think the popular opinion was that the Chiefs drafted Medlock because of the UCLA connection.
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Originally Posted by Cassel's Reckoning: Matt once made a very nice play in Seattle where he spun away from a pass rusher and hit Bowe off his back foot for a first down. One of the best plays Matt has ever made. |
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09-14-2012, 11:34 AM | #29 | |
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09-14-2012, 11:35 AM | #30 |
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50% of the kickers drafted in the 1st round have made it to a SB. Time to draft one in the 1st round.
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