...at least. Barry Jackson: "Caleb Sturgis will miss rest of offseason with leg injury" Phin Phinatic (Brian Miller): "Head coach Joe Philbin announced that Sturgis will be out the remaining OTA practices. This will include mini-camps as well. The earliest he will be available is late July, according to Philbin."
Something needs to be done here. Sturgis just can't be depended on. He's perpetually hurt and struggles when healthy. With the new extra point rules, it's more important to have a reliable kicker.
I was very willing to give him his shot instead of Carpenter, but now we need to move on and bring someone else in.
He's basically a goner. The coaches feel like they can't trust him. And now his chances for earning that trust back are dwindling.
No, I seriously doubt that's the case. He has had injuries going back to college. The team took a chance at drafting a kicker high with his injury history. They lost. They may have felt Carpenter's salary and probably the fact that he was part of the old regime maybe had written his fate. Sturgis was the real deal in college, where his coach even said he had wished he had another year of elegibility. I had a feeling this "leg injury" would rear it's ugly head again. Miami needs to have a Plan B, and like last year. Really sucks because with the new rules, the kicker may become a more important player on the team.
That's why we paid him... [video=youtube;ULW1AI_e2Sc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULW1AI_e2Sc[/video]
This might come across as massive disrespect, but it's not intended as such. It's just that I've always been mystified at how hard a time a lot of kickers seem to have in the NFL. Maybe there's something really difficult about kicking a football, there must be, because both soccer and rugby players make what appear to be far tougher or longer kicks all the time, as a matter of course. What's so difficult?
Sturgis to miss is a recurring theme, Rizzi supposedly hand picked Sturgis to replace Carpenter, who was going to be a cap casualty, and that has worked out like dog pooh for yrs now. To me, think for the team is a good thing now the "drafted kicker" can have replacements have a real shot at landing the job.
Way I see our ST unit is we have some elite ST type pieces in Denny/Fields/Landry, Paysinger offsets the loss of Trusnik, but FG kicking is so key in this league, Sturgis had a great run half way through his rookie yr then fell off of the cliff
We had so many of Ireland's bums here stealing money....thankfully Tannenbaum got rid of a ton of them, we still have some of Ginger's holdovers who've basically been picking up their paychecks with masks and gloves on...Sturgis, Dallas Thomas, Jamar Taylor, Will Davis, Dion Jordan, even Koa Misi with his 4.5 mil cap hit this year, too much for him. Good chance they'll all be gone in 2016 though, so that's good news.
Not a lot of free agent kickers out there who have had any success. Jay Feely (who's 39) and Shayne Graham (who's 37) are about it.
Rizzo knows what a weapon Sturgis can be when healthy. But yeah, he's gonna have to put ol' Yeller down...
If this season even partially gets derailed by lack of kicking, particularly considering the new extra point, I'm gonna blow a gasket...special teams has killed us in some key moments for YEARS...not just the last few, but several. Seems like the team don't "really" worry about a major area or two a year...STs is there a lot. Then again its still pretty early, so we have a chance to see what type of urgency gets applied here.
from 0-39 yard sturgis has been money... so if the new extra point is 40+ i think we are screwed...... still need a new guy though.
Biggest difference is the speed at which the kick takes place. In Rugby or soccer a player taking a set piece kick will have up to a minute to prepare and then he takes his time with an long run up and unhurried action. NFL Kicking is done in the teeth of a rush. If you take some of the Aussie AFL punters like Darren Bennett or Sav Rocca, those guys can easily put the ball 80 plus yards with no rush, but against a rush they're in the 40-50 range
Yeah, with Sturgis, I think that our impression of him is colored by some misses in big situations. Overall, looking at his stats, I don't think he has been as bad as we think he has been. Realistically, he was at 50% from 50+. He was at 80% for 40-49 in '13, but that dropped to 60% in '14. Granted, I don't really follow kickers, so I'm not entirely sure how that ranks against other kickers.
Hes in New Orleans camp battling our last years challenger Hocker...so far Hocker is winning the battle so maybe theyll cut Hopkins loose
he was never in the game before the injury... we need a kicker more than a right guard at this moment in time.
