Should we draft a kicker this year?

[Cbus cardsfan]

Kickers and punters are a dime a dozen.No way do you spend anything but a late round pick on one,unless you're the Raiders. Weren't people praising Novak earlier in the year . Look at his fiasco in Washington.

 

[ajcardfan]

*sigh*
The re-kick was a 50 yarder.

Yep, which is a distance that he nailed easily last season.

 

[Russ Smith]

One interesting thing about Rackers which I have noticed from looking at NFL.com stats. In the KO category they have a stat for average yards per KO and it literally means he kicks it at the 35 how many yards on average does he kick it(has nothing to do with return etc). If you look with Cincy Neil was about 60 yards every year(one bad year of 55). His first year with us just below 60, he then suddenly averaged 67.5, 68.8 and 67.8 this year.

So something changed after he left Cincy and after he joined us. He suddenly got a lot better at KO's. I've looked at the stats it's not just kicking in Arizona it got better home and road. Something Rackers did in his training or technique suddenly made his leg a lot stronger. But for whatever reason, he can't make big kicks. We've all seen it, NFL K's are judged by their ability to hit clutch kicks, plenty of guys with huge legs have bombed out for not being good in the clutch.

 

[john h]

Rackers is getting us nowhere, so should we look to the draft for one?

I think we need a kick returner more than a kicker.

 

[D-Dogg]

*sigh*
The re-kick was a 50 yarder.

Thought it was a 45 yarder.

 

[Russ Smith]

Thought it was a 45 yarder.

50.

Most of his misses have been wide left too, if it's physical he should have corrected it by now, gotta be mental.

 

[dreamcastrocks]

Thought it was a 45 yarder.

It was a 40 yarder, and a 10 yard holding penalty on Wakefield which brought it back to 50.

 

[abomb]

Rackers has surpassed his single-season tackle mark this season with 5.

 

[D-Dogg]

It was a 40 yarder, and a 10 yard holding penalty on Wakefield which brought it back to 50.

At the stadium, they were really jacked up on the down and distance on that play. After the penalty, they had it at 4th and 9, which is impossible. They also had it listed as the ball on the 27 yard line.

 

[Pariah]

Mason Crosby definitely has to be on our wishlist. He's a beast.

Agreed, but we'd probably have to spend a second-rounder on him (and even then we might miss out on him--I wouldn't be at all surprised if someone took him late in the first...Dallas, maybe?)

 

[BigRedArk]

One interesting thing about Rackers which I have noticed from looking at NFL.com stats. In the KO category they have a stat for average yards per KO and it literally means he kicks it at the 35 how many yards on average does he kick it(has nothing to do with return etc). If you look with Cincy Neil was about 60 yards every year(one bad year of 55). His first year with us just below 60, he then suddenly averaged 67.5, 68.8 and 67.8 this year.

So something changed after he left Cincy and after he joined us. He suddenly got a lot better at KO's. I've looked at the stats it's not just kicking in Arizona it got better home and road. Something Rackers did in his training or technique suddenly made his leg a lot stronger. But for whatever reason, he can't make big kicks. We've all seen it, NFL K's are judged by their ability to hit clutch kicks, plenty of guys with huge legs have bombed out for not being good in the clutch.

When he first joined us who was the ST coach? Seems like it was Hank Kuhlman. If so it seems he really took off as a kicker under him. Now over time and two different ST coaches later he is having problems? Maybe ol' Hank being gone is now showing up?