Chiefs want to make better decisions on kickers

[royr17]

Chiefs want to make better decisions on kickers

By ADAM TEICHER
The Kansas City Star

The Chiefs’ strategy for solving their kicking troubles was a simple one. Too simple, as it turned out.

Their solution was to sign the best available free-agent kicker, Seattle’s Josh Brown. They had no backup plan.

So when Brown instead signed with the Rams in the opening days of free agency, the Chiefs were left at kicker with journeymen Nick Novak and Billy Cundiff, an undrafted rookie in North Carolina’s Connor Barth and plenty of continuing unease over the situation.

“We’ll have to decide at the end of the day if one of these three guys is the guy or do we have to go out and get one of those old guys who doesn’t want to come to training camp?” coach Herm Edwards said. “Hopefully we don’t have to do that, but if we have to, we’ll do it.”

The “old guys” Edwards referred to include John Carney, who kicked for the Chiefs toward the end of last season, and former Colts kicker Mike Vanderjagt, who worked out for them early in the spring. Both are free agents.

Whatever the Chiefs do, they can only hope that their decision-making when it comes to kickers is better than it was last season, when they made one wrong choice after another. They erred in drafting Justin Medlock instead of Mason Crosby, in keeping Medlock instead of Lawrence Tynes, and in signing Dave Rayner instead of several other candidates, Novak included.

Novak and Cundiff are already kicking during informal workouts. Barth will join them when offseason practice begins in two weeks.

The Chiefs are encouraged with the early results, but there’s plenty of time for that to change.

“I called them both when we first signed them and told them that from the day they get here, there’s going to be competition,” special-teams coach Mike Priefer said. “I think they’ve each had one poor day. Other than that, they’ve both kicked very well. We’ve been kicking outside most of the time. It’s been cold, wet, windy. It’s Kansas City. If you can kick here, you can kick anywhere.”

Cundiff kicked for five seasons with Dallas and New Orleans, Novak for parts of two with Washington and Arizona. Each has been released numerous times, but that’s not unusual for a young kicker trying to establish himself.

“I’m not discouraged at all,” Novak said. “I feel like I’m getting better every year, especially on kickoffs.

“I’d say it’s been very close between us so far. Both of us should play in the league next year. The Chiefs either way will have a good kicker.”

The Chiefs came close to signing Novak early last year when they dumped Medlock. They opted instead for Rayner, who got off to a strong start but proved to be erratic as a field-goal kicker.

“We just felt (Rayner) had better potential,” Edwards said. “He had a strong leg, could kick off into the end zone. He came out of the chute firing. He was the special-teams player of the week. We thought we were going down the right road.”

Barth’s credentials at North Carolina, where he made 76 percent of his field-goal tries, were impressive enough for the Chiefs to sign him after the draft. It’s difficult to take seriously the roster chances of any rookie kicker in Kansas City because of last year’s experience with Medlock.

“I thought he should have been drafted,” Priefer said. “He was good enough to get drafted. He’s got some mental toughness to him. He had an excellent career at North Carolina. They didn’t score a lot of points down there, so most of his kicks were huge kicks for his team.”

The availability of Carney and Vanderjagt looms over everything. Only when the Chiefs signed the proven veteran Carney late last season did their kicking situation stabilize.

“Both Nick and I are still here, and right now that’s the only thing that matters,” said Cundiff, who kicked for the Saints in 2006 and went to camp last year with the Falcons. “You can’t worry about anything else or whether they’re going to bring anyone else in to kick.

“The way we look at it, it doesn’t matter what anybody else does as long as we perform up to the level of the standards we’ve set for ourselves.”

•LOCALS DON’T GET CALL: The Chiefs planned to sign nine rookies from their recent tryout camp, but two local favorites, Missouri safety Pig Brown and Kansas defensive lineman James McClinton, were not among them.

They did offer a contract to another Big 12 player, Oklahoma State running back Dantrell Savage.

The Chiefs conducted their rookie camp last weekend with college free agents and dozens of tryout candidates but none of their 12 draft picks. Edwards said that unorthodox move allowed them to get a better look at all the players trying out.

“It was a good way to go,” Edwards said. “It evened the playing field. We were laughing after the first practice. I went up to Chan (Gailey) and asked him, ‘Can you imagine if (Glenn) Dorsey was here?’ The offense wouldn’t have gotten a play off, literally. It wouldn’t have been fair. There’s a reason some guys get drafted and some guys don’t get drafted.”

[KcMizzou]

Chiefs want to make better decisions on kickers

I should hope...

[royr17]

Originally Posted by KcMizzou

I should hope...

Yea really. I wished they would've signed the Louisville kicker Art Carmody, he's pretty good and in college was called Art-O-Matic standing for Automatic.

[stlchiefs]

No Pig Brown for the Mizzou fans.

[T-post Tom]

So what happened to Vanderjagt? He used to be the shit... Age? Per Wikipedia: "He was once the most accurate field goal kicker in NFL history (229 of 265, 86.4% as of November 20, 2006)."

[Tribal Warfare]

http://www.kansascity.com/sports/chi...ry/612235.html

[Nightfyre]

This is another "Teicher states the obvious" article, I see.

[teedubya]

No shit, he wants to make a good decision on kickers. The Kicker is Herm's best Offensive weapon.

[Mecca]

It amuses me when they make comments like "after last year how can they go with a rookie kicker"

People still show impatience even in rebuilding, if you think the kid has it you go with him, Vinatieri was very average his first year in the league....actually his first couple of years.

[007]

we don't need a kicker. We have a punter.

[Wilson8]

I like the fact that the Chiefs aren’t handing the job to one guy and there will be competition at the position. Rick Gosselin had Conner Barth as one of the top kickers coming out of college this year.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcont...t.2cd004c.html

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcont..._rankings.html

[DaKCMan AP]

Originally Posted by royr17

“It was a good way to go,” Edwards said. “It evened the playing field. We were laughing after the first practice. I went up to Chan (Gailey) and asked him, ‘Can you imagine if (Glenn) Dorsey was here?’ The offense wouldn’t have gotten a play off, literally. It wouldn’t have been fair. There’s a reason some guys get drafted and some guys don’t get drafted."

[Chief Chief]

Originally Posted by royr17

Yea really. I wished they would've signed the Louisville kicker Art Carmody, he's pretty good and in college was called Art-O-Matic standing for Automatic.

Where is he now?

[Chief Chief]

Originally Posted by T-post Tom

So what happened to Vanderjagt? He used to be the shit... Age? Per Wikipedia: "He was once the most accurate field goal kicker in NFL history (229 of 265, 86.4% as of November 20, 2006)."

Operative word there: "...was..."

[Kylo Ren]

"It’s difficult to take seriously the roster chances of any rookie kicker in Kansas City because of last year’s experience with Medlock."

For me, I hope they go with the rookie, Connar Barth. We need to find a kicker for the next 10 years. And, I'm sure the young guy has a stronger leg for kick offs than the old guys.