Will be too decide if Dan Carpenter is going to be our guy. Kickers are a fickle bunch who sometimes can have their career go South in a hurry. Games are decided by FG's all the time, we CAN'T have him perform like he did in 2012.
I'm no authority on kickers, but I think you don't have to look outside of the state to find the best two college prospects, but they will cost a 6th. Hopkins (FSU). 80%+ in college, record number of points, and a long boot of 56. Sturgis (UF) at 85% with a long of 55. Otherwise there are always a number of halfway decent prospects that go undrafted who can provide legit camp competition. Carpenter was one of them once upon a time. I suspect that is Ireland's preferred route. And I agree it is necessary.
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IMO no need to pay Carpenter big bucks when there's 3 solid kickers we could draft and pay significantly less.
I do believe he's due a nice little bonus if we don't cut him before a certain date. Personally, I think he's good as gone.
You ain't kiddin. That's why I'd just as soon cut him loose and spend less than that amount for an entire rookie contract.
I agree with Fin-O. We need to bring in serious camp competition for Carpenter this year. He missed way too many big FGs this season. Just unacceptable in my book. He rebounded nicely to finish the season but you have to wonder how much faith the coaching staff has in him.
He cost us wins this year...possibly playoffs. We have to strongly consider if he is the best option or not. I think we will go elsewhere.
Yup. Use a 7th on one of the kickers in this draft. There are several good ones. The kid from Nebraska won that skills competition they had on ESPN recently. He was booming them. Did you see that? 4 kickers competed. They had to attempt 2 from 30, 2 from 40, 2 from 50 and 1 from 53, and had one minute to do it. That put a time pressure on them. The announcers thought the FSU kid would win it. Raul Allegre was the kicking analyst on the broadcast. He knows a few things about kicking to say the least. He liked Fisher's elevation and leg strength even from long range. Also that he was able to get a strong end over end rotation on the ball, which he said makes the kicks less susceptible to drifting left or right in a crosswind. There was also the kickers from Florida and LA-Lafayette. Maher from Nebraska was most impressive in this setting. Granted, in a game they'll not be under that time pressure, but I think that sort of makes up for no one rushing them while kicking.
Nate Kaeding is still listed on the roster on the team web site. Maybe the plan is to have he and Carpenter battle it out. Kaeding was at Iowa when Philbin was there, so they have history together, for whatever that's worth. Kaeding has the 2nd best career FG% in league history. Though most people remembering him for missing a potential game winner in OT as a rookie for San Diego.
Carpenters struggles precede this past season. He was missing clutch kicks the season before as well.