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Best way to find a kicker.


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As much as Nugent was hated even before his melt down in '16, I am surprised there is not more discussion on how to find a replacement.  Here are my thoughts.

 

Over the last decade there have only been 19 kickers drafted.  Looking at the list it is clear that monkeys throwing darts could probably be more accurate than NFL scouts. But each year there is usually one or two that turn out to be a good NFL kickers.  My plan only works in a year like this when we are supposed to get as many as 4 extra picks.  Since late round picks are like lottery tickets I would use 3 sixth round picks on kickers. Based on the recent draft history of kickers there is a good chance we could get the three top rated kickers in the class.  It doesn't that we know we will cut 2. We won't have room for 11 picks anyway. I think it would be worth it to greatly increase our chances of hitting the right pick.  

If the NFL gives out the same number of picks between rounds in '17 that they did in '16 then our first pick in the 6th round would be #167 and the last two supp picks would be 220 and 221.  Over the last decade only 2 kickers have been taken higher than 160 so there is a decent chance we get the #1 guy.  In 6 of the last 10 years we would have gotten at least 2 of the top 3, and 3 times we would have gotten all three.  

Scouting kickers may be hard, but if you bring in the top 3 I'd say there is a good chance you get one of the very best.  Have them compete head-to-head at the end of each training camp practice in front of as many fans as possible.  

The hardest thing to judge about a kicker is how he will do under real pressure when there are no real pressure game situations in meaningless pre season games.  To crank up the stakes the Bengals could bring in dogs due to be euthanized at the local shelter and have each kicker be assigned the life of a dog that he can either save or kill with his performance.  The media would love it.  Millions of people would watch even if they did not care about the Bengals.  It would raise a lot of money for animal abuse charities.  And it would create massive amounts of pressure on the kickers even though there are no real games.

 

Recap...3 sixth round picks.  Save some puppies.  Good PR for team.  Good PK for us fans.

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6 minutes ago, Jason said:

The safest way to get a kicker is free agency.  And you can spend somewhat big on a kicker and still have a small impact on the overall cap.

Problem is that even the most expensive K is cheap enough that their own team re-signs them.

I honestly have not kept track of what top kickers have changed teams in free agency, but I don't recall any big splash moves in the last couple of years.

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2 hours ago, fredtoast said:

Problem is that even the most expensive K is cheap enough that their own team re-signs them.

I honestly have not kept track of what top kickers have changed teams in free agency, but I don't recall any big splash moves in the last couple of years.

Adam Vinitieri (sp?)

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