Punting on Kickers
Essay by pimfizz • April 19, 2012 • Essay • 398 Words (2 Pages) • 1,336 Views
Punting on Kickers:
A gross oversight by PredictionMachine.com
"Everything but kickers and punters... no one really cares about that anyways." -PredictionMachine.com's own Jimmy Shapiro in reference to all of our NFL draft content.
Well Jimmy, I respectfully disagree and so do NFL teams. Since 2000 NFL teams have drafted 25 kickers with the average pick coming in the 5th round. Why would teams spend valuable picks on kickers? Because every year kickers end up playing a crucial role in the most important games and unfortunately the results are not always positive. Billy Cundiff, 2012 AFC Championship, missed a 32 yard field which would have sent the Ravens/ Patriot's playoff game into OT. Nate Kaeding, 2010 AFC Divisional Playoffs, missed three field goals and a crucial 40 yarder in the closing minutes of the 4th quarter as the Chargers lost 17-14. Dough Brien, 2005 AFC Divisional Playoffs, missed two potential game winning fields goals for the Jets with under two minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, the Steelers ended up winning in OT. It's these types of high profile misses that keep the kicker merry-go-round moving and opening up new spots for college kickers to be drafted.
When drafting a kicker we are looking for two things, number of fields made and accuracy. Similar to Matt Richner's philosophy with quarterbacks, he wants QBs with a lot of wins and a high completion percentage, I want a kicker with a large number of field goals made and a high field goals percentage. The magic numbers, 60 plus field goals made with 80% accuracy. If an NFL team is able to draft a kicker that meets these requirements they can expect to capture value for their pick.
A kicker has been drafted in nine out of the last ten years. While none of the kickers in this year's draft class meets 60/80 rule, the following have a chance to hear their names called next week.
First tier College Statistics
Randy Bullock, Texas A&M: Field Goals Made: 63 Accuracy: 78.75%
Second tier
Dave Teggart, Connecticut: Field Goals Made: 74 Accuracy: 76.28%
Jason Cunningham, Montana St: Field Goals Made: 69 Accuracy: 75.82%
Philip Welch, Wisconsin: Field Goals Made: 59 Accuracy: 77.63%
Third tier
Blair Walsh, Georgia: Field Goals Made: 76 Accuracy: 73.78%
Kevin Goessling, Fresno St: Field Goals Made: 61 Accuracy: 75.31%
Grant Russel, Missouri: Field Goals Made: 52 Accuracy: 83.87%
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