Parkey is a free agent and ended the regular season 21-of-23. “I was pretty successful, as statistically it was my best year in the NFL,” Parkey said. “I do believe Jay Feely was the (lone) holder of the record before this. So if there is one common denominator it’s #92 (long snapper) John Denney. That guy puts it right there. And (punter) Matt (Haack) does a great job of holding for me. And the field goal protection team did a great job. We didn’t get one blocked this year and that’s huge.” Parkey set another record on Sunday, converting his fourth onside kick. According to records, dating back to 1997, the Dolphins are the only team in NFL history to successfully convert four onside kicks in a season. Parkey was the NFL’s 22nd-highest paid kicker this season, at $690,000. The 16th-highest paid kicker, Greg Zuerlein, made $1.6 million this season. So it’s certainly possible Parkey could command $1 million or more as a free agent. I say keep him.
I would definitely keep him with a nice little raise. Kickers are certainly underappreciated and underpaid for their roles on the team. They are almost always the lead scorer. It sucks they didn't give us the onside kick record as it happened- he made the history books without us even realizing it.
Here are Parkey's career stats (from 2014-2017): https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/P/ParkCo03.htm 20-29: 23 out of 23 = 100% 30-39: 29 out of 31 = 93.6% 40-49: 18 out of 27 = 66.7% 50+: 6 out of 7 = 85.7% Overall FG: 76 out of 88 = 86.4% Extra points: 107 out of 111 = 96.4% Compare to league averages from 2014-2017: 20-29: 951 out of 976 = 97.4% 30-39: 1065 out of 1179 = 90.3% 40-49: 935 out of 1199 = 77.98% 50+: 390 out of 618 = 63.1% Overall FG: 3379 out of 4010 = 84.26% Extra points: 4553 out of 4776 = 95.3% So basically, except for the 40-49 yard range where he's much worse than league average, Parkey's slightly better (or much better in the case of 50+ yards) than league average, including overall.
He's still a RFA for 2018, so unless another team is going to offer him a contract good enough for the Fins to let him walk for a second or third round draft pick, he's very likely back next season. The question comes as to whether the team will look to give him a longer contract instead. Kicker contracts are interesting. The top three have a cap hit of about 5m. The rest of the top 10 is 2-4m. Then there's a huge gulf to where the #11 kicker, Randy Bullock of the Bengals, makes under 800k. Where would a long term deal for Parkey fit in? Probably something like Brandon McManus of the Broncos, who is in year two of a four year deal where he counts between 2.5-4.25 per season.
Gotta admit i was a little worried when we brought him based on the year before. However he did an excellent job for us and he's a Dolphins fan. Felt more comfortable with him back there than any other kicker recently. Keep him.
He had suffered a severe injury in 2015, and was just healthy enough to play when the Browns signed him. And then, if you take away his terrible game against us right after he signed, he was very good for them the rest of the year, going 17/19 from then on out. And one of those misses was in freezing weather in Pittsburgh, one of the hardest stadiums to kick in. So from his second game with the Browns through the end of this season, he's gone 38/42 on FGs, and was 35/40 before than too. He's solid as a rock.
