Placekicker
Voting present: Jay
Feely (re-signed by Big Dead 3/24), Neil Rackers (signed by Redskins 4/24), Ryan Longwell (cut by Vikings 5/8), Dave Rayner, Shayne Graham (signed by Texans 5/9)
Sleepers: Graham
hasn't had a lot of work the last two seasons, but he's nearly 80%
for his career in the 40-49 yard range, which beats everybody here,
and Josh Brown (70%), pretty handily.
Tag you're it: Connor
Barth, Phil Dawson, Mike Nugent, Matt Prater, Josh Scobee. I think more kickers were tagged this year than any other position.
Out of the running: Nick
Folk (re-signed by Jets)
Gawd no: At
42, John Kasay's no kind of long-term answer, and he's very
unreliable outside of 40 yards.(Re-signed by Saints, 4/24.) David Buehler has a big leg for kickoffs, which you'd want on your roster if kickoffs were still from the 30. He had hip surgery last year and sprayed FG attempts all over the place the year before.
RamView’s moves:
Josh Brown has been a disappointment from the moment he signed the
big contract to come here in 2009. Playing more than half his games
in domed stadiums, he still only managed to go 8-for-14 last year
beyond 40 yards, which includes 0-for-2 beyond 50. That is not a
big-money performance. He also has an annoying knack to kill the rare
offensive momentum the Rams can muster with untimely misses. And even
though kickoffs were moved up five yards last season, Brown only
kicked 15 touchbacks and shows no ability to put the ball out the
back of the end zone, even indoors. His FG% rate of 75% was 32nd in
the league, and he ranked 22nd for the 40-49 yard range. I'm sick of
Brown's act and would happily invite Shayne Graham to camp to battle
it out with him. Graham's leg is fresher and he's been a much better
career kicker on longer kicks. I'd also expect him to be a cheaper
alternative to Brown.
Shoot the moon: Jay
Feely is several years older than Brown, but he's a better overall
kicker, with 21 touchbacks and a 6-for-9 rate last year at FGs beyond
40 yards (1-2 > 50). (Surprisingly, Rackers was only about as good
as Brown, a mediocre 8-13 beyond 40 last year.) I'd happily bring
Feely in to replace Brown for a couple of seasons, too.
Prediction: Brown
will be back to play out the last year of his contract and will
continue his career pattern of being more successful at meaningless
51-yard FGs than at meaningful 45-yarders.
-$-
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