The state of kicking in the NFL...

[Mr. Scot]

...is...bad.

Really bad 

If you saw or heard about the Titans game last night, you might have a sense of just how bad.

Like a lot of folks, I hold my breath each time Joey Slye gets set to do a field goal or even an extra point. I know some folks want us to find someone more reliable, but the sad truth is that in the NFL of right now, that's easier said than done.

Probably just going to have to hope that Slye gets more consistent. I know some teams in the past have had kicking coaches on staff. That might not be a bad idea for us.

[Ricky Spanish]

If only we drafted a young, consistent guy in the late rounds to kick for us. 

I bet that would work out as long as we kept him and didn't hold on to an older, injured guy coming off his worst season on the team.

Right guys?

Guys?

[hepcat]

1 minute ago, Ricky Spanish said:

If only we drafted a young, consistent guy in the late rounds to kick for us. 

I bet that would work out as long as we kept him and didn't hold on to an older, injured guy coming off his worst season on the team.

Right guys?

Guys?

#hurneymagic

[NAS]

1 minute ago, Ricky Spanish said:

If only we drafted a young, consistent guy in the late rounds to kick for us. 

I bet that would work out as long as we kept him and didn't hold on to an older, injured guy coming off his worst season on the team.

Right guys?

Guys?

Right?  I know people like to say being a GM is tough and that hindsight is 20/20.  But most of us knew at the time that keeping Gano instead of Butker was the wrong decision.  I will never get over it.  

[shaqattaq]

This is so hard for me to get my head around. They literally have 1 job, and it's illegal to hit them.

[Tbe]

1 minute ago, shaqattaq said:

This is so hard for me to get my head around. They literally have 1 job, and it's illegal to hit them.

Same is true for golfers but they have poor hits all the time.

Its a mind game.

[thefuzz]

13 minutes ago, NAS said:

Right?  I know people like to say being a GM is tough and that hindsight is 20/20.  But most of us knew at the time that keeping Gano instead of Butker was the wrong decision.  I will never get over it.  

Most argued that we would be stupid to keep HB, that he had "lost" the training camp battle, and what head coach in their right mind would go into a season with an unproven rookie.

That's what I was told per the board.

[LinvilleGorge]

The Titans' kicking game was unbelievably inept. Gostkowski missed two FGs, had another blocked, and missed an XP. He finally made a last second old school XP range FG to win the game but literally everyone expected him to miss an absolute gimmie. Super weird game.

[shaqattaq]

4 minutes ago, Tbe said:

Same is true for golfers but they have poor hits all the time.

Its a mind game.

As a golfer with a perpetual case of the tips, I can understand better now. 

[Mr. Scot]

Want another example?

Quote

NFL Media reports that the Bengals are claiming Seibert off of waivers. The Bengals have the top waiver position in the league through the fourth week of the regular season.

The Bengals saw their chances of tying the Chargers at the end of regulation in Sunday’s loss go up in smoke when Randy Bullock missed a 31-yard field goal. Bullock hurt his calf in the process and was listed as a limited practice participant on Monday’s injury report.

Seibert was dropped by the Browns after missing a field goal and an extra point in their loss to the Ravens. Cody Parkey will do the kicking duties for Cleveland.

Bengals claim Austin Seibert off waivers

[WarHeel]

Another reason Gano was under appreciated around these parts. I said this last year as well but not sure how many folks are actually keeping up with kickers around the league. If they did they probably wouldn’t complain as much. 

[MasterAwesome]

I mean I get that Butker is an objectively good kicker, young, and we would have had him on a very cheap contract...but people are also extremely sensational and dramatic about his performance sometimes.  I didn't get a chance to watch the Thursday night game but I was keeping up with it in the thread and the way some people were losing their minds about Butker, I thought he was nailing 50 yarders left and right.  I was confused when I looked it up later and he made a 19-yarder and a 29-yarder...the latter of which seemed to just barely sneak through the uprights.

I'm still hopeful Slye will turn around his short-range woes cause he is incredibly impressive from long-range.  8/11 from 50+ last year and they all seem to go right down the middle with plenty of room to spare.

[Captroop]

Here's the thing though, if it's over 40 yards, I don't hold my breath when Slye is kicking at all. He's splitting the uprights with the distance to nail it from 60 yards. And for all the grousing we do about him, he cost us what Sunday? 1 point? And after a successful 2 point conversion, the "damage" was completely mitigated. (Unless you think we would have gone for 2 in the 4th quarter anyway, for a 4 point advantage rather than 3.)

I'm more impressed by what I saw after that, which was his ability to bounce back. He hit both FGs after the missed extra point, include a short 31-yarder. The range he was struggling with the most. Last year, he got rattled by a miss, and overthought things after that, which led to more misses. I think that reflects that he's improving and working on keeping his emotions in check. I wouldn't count Slye out just yet.

And look at it this way. If our kicker is 100% on field goals, and we consistently find ourselves in a position where we're at risk of losing by 1 point, then the problem isn't our kicker.

[bababoey]

Gano and Syle have the same problem.  Both have real big legs that can make 50+ yard FG with no problem but both have had problem with short FG and XP.  Is it a mental thing?  Is it they hit the ball to hard?  I don't know.  If someone knows something about kicking let me know because it would be interesting to know.