GleefulGary
Cheesehead
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Wimm, if you think Cole Tracy, who couldn't even do kickoffs in college, could replace Crosby...then you're so far gone it's not worth discussing.
Cole Tracy is your pick....let's see how Mr. Tracy fares this season. Of course what he does with one team, could be very different with what he would have done with the Packers, or do we go by your assumption and only look at his made percentage and throw out all the other things?
Wimm, if you think Cole Tracy, who couldn't even do kickoffs in college, could replace Crosby...then you're so far gone it's not worth discussing.
I don't care, whatever fits your narrative best. I don't have access to the same information or the ability to work out kickers to make a decision on who should replace Crosby. It has been proven on numerous occasions that an undrafted free agent could do better than Mason though and it's the Packers front office job to find one capable of.
I totally agree with you on this, the Packers are definitely better equipped than you or I to make such a decision. I guess we will see what happens. Personally, I would have tried to sign John Baron, but the Bears got him. The Bears are definitely taking the approach you like, they have brought in a number of guys. A good team to watch to see how it works for them.
That chart shows less of a disparity than I would have expected. Compared to the median at about 83.5%, Crosby has had 3 additional misses out of every 100, or about 1 per year.I agree there was a reason that Lutz was the Saints 11th kickers in 11 years. It's mind-boggling the Packers have had only one since 2007 though.
Especially when taking a look at this chart, ranking the teams according to field goal percentage since Crosby entered the league in 2007. I wasn't aware that it was actually that bad before looking it up. Please note that there are several cold weather teams among the top 10 as well.
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and looking at everything involved when making such a decision is an even better thing.The FG% of opponents in Lambeau is a really good stat I never thought of. Thanks for bringing that out HRE.
Problem is, he probably would only have an 80.4% success rate at making the leap and some would notice the 19.6%This is mere conjecture.. but I firmly believe if Crosby did the Lambeau leap after each score....he’d get far more fan support
I've pretty much stayed out of the kicker debate until now and I really should be fixing the brakes on my truck but I have 2 whole days to do that and I suspect this post won't take me much more than half that to write so I have time.
First off is Crosby overpaid? Probably. Could we find someone cheaper? Certainly. Could we find someone better? Eventually. I'm sure we could but its that eventually part that scares me.
Second is FG% a truly accurate way to measure a Kickers worth? IMO not at all. As others have pointed out a small number of misses can drastically affect a kickers percentage. If Crosby had made 2 more FGs per year over his career he would be sitting at #2 on the all time FG% list. 1 more FG per year and he is at #16. There are more factors that go into evaluating a kickers worth and I think some people are ignoring them. Just like a dropped pass occasionally I think people grossly over react to a missed FG here and there.
As far as I am concerned Crosby and the Packers kicking game is a non issue. I do not think it sucks balls as some would have us believe but I do think it could be better. I don't think making it better is as easy as simply signing anyone who is cheaper as some would also have us believe. I'm am fine with moving on as Crosby as our kicker but I would also be fine if they brought in some competition and if he gets beat out great. In fact I would like them to bring in competition. I would just hope that camp and preseason results carry over in to the regular season.
In his defense I don't think Captain is saying cut Crosby and sign anyone because they couldn't be much worse (they could be) he is saying don't just hand him the job and I agree with that and I think most would also agree with that. I don't think anyone who is supporting Crosby is saying we couldn't be better just that being better is not as easy as it sounds.
I also don't think comparing a 3 year guy (Lutz) with a 12 year veteran is fair either. Lets see where Lutz is 10 years from now. He may be near the top or he may be selling used cars. I think one factor that makes replacing him appealing is that kickers are getting stronger and more accurate on average so finding a young guy to be better than a 12 year vet may be easier than it was 10 or 12 years ago. That doesn't mean every younger kicker will be stronger or more accurate.
Crosby has been kicking in the NFL for 12 years and you don't do that if you are a below average kicker overall and when I consider above or below average I take into consideration more than just regular season FG%.
There have certainly been better kickers than Crosby but there have certainly been worse ones. People clamoring for Crosby's replacement point to the good young kickers and say it isn't that hard to find one but they seem to ignore the plethora of young kickers who don't make it.
Bottom line for me is that while we would be able to find someone cheaper than Crosby I'm not so sure that the first, or second or third guy we try out would be better. I'm not opposed to trying but I am not going to be as confident the first time that kicker trots onto the field lining up a 51 yard game winner as I would be with Crosby. If the new guy goes 34/35 but his 1 miss keeps us out of the playoffs in week 17 I'd rather have Crosby's 29/35 if he makes that kick.
I think eventually we would find a guy cheaper and better than Mason Crosby and I think we should be looking but like I said from the start that "eventually" is what scares me. Especially when I don't think what we have is as bad as some people think.
I'm going to go fix my brakes now so if you never hear from me again you know I waited too long.
You have to break that down. It's kinda the opposite of FG kicking. With a running start from 50 yards out he'd make it 98% of the time. From 25 yards out it would drop to 50%. You also have to account for whether there's a swirling cross wind that day.Problem is, he probably would only have an 80.4% success rate at making the leap and some would notice the 19.6%
I don't care, whatever fits your narrative best. I don't have access to the same information or the ability to work out kickers to make a decision on who should replace Crosby. It has been proven on numerous occasions that an undrafted free agent could do better than Mason though and it's the Packers front office job to find one capable of.
Just because Tracy didn't handle kickoffs at LSU doesn't mean he can't get the job done in the NFL. Tracy hit three of five field goals from 50+ yards last season, leg strength didn't appear to be an issue there.
You have to break that down. It's kinda the opposite of FG kicking. With a running start from 50 yards out he'd make it 98% of the time. From 25 yards out it would drop to 50%. You also have to account for whether there's a swirling cross wind that day.
and eventually, if any of those young guys are worth a ****, they'll be making more soon enough.
In his one year of FBS play last season (previously at Assumption College), he hit 3 of 5 from 50+ with a long of 54. That's not bad, typical of Crosby's numbers. However, LSU had a kickoff specialist last season, a freshman named Avery Atkins. Now, Atkins is something of kickoff savant, with LSU leading the NCAA in touchback percentage, who on at least one occasion put the ball in the stands on the fly.I'm not going to pretend to be a kicking expert, but every single scouting report mentions leg strength as a weakness of his.
In his one year of FBS play last season (previously at Assumption College), he hit 3 of 5 from 50+ with a long of 54. That's not bad, typical of Crosby's numbers. However, LSU had a kickoff specialist last season, a freshman named Avery Atkins. Now, Atkins is something of kickoff savant, with LSU leading the NCAA in touchback percentage, who on at least one occasion put the ball in the stands on the fly.
It might be that Tracy isn't so bad on KOs. I just might be that Atkins was so good at it. It's not like Crosby's touchback % is all that great, actually well below average among NFL kickers last season:
http://www.nfl.com/stats/categoryst...archive=false&conference=null&qualified=false
That's assuming touchbacks are optimal. 3 yards deep, tempting the guy to try to take it out to the 26 without fumbling, could be another approach.
In any case, the rookie tryouts came and went with Tracy unsigned. Note that Ficken had 11 touchbacks on 13 KOs, the highest percentage in the league on a limited sample. Evidently he has the leg strength. Whether he can consistently split the uprights remains to be seen. Given this will be his 5th. season since graduating college, with only two brief stints with the Rams, I wouldn't hold my breath.
"At the Bears’ end-of-season news conference, coach Matt Nagy makes it clear he is not pleased with Parkey’s “Today” show appearance. “We always talk about a ‘we’ and not a ‘me’ thing, and we always talk as a team (that) we win as a team, we lose as a team,” Nagy says. “I didn’t necessarily think that was too much of a ‘we’ thing.”If you want to follow a real kicking circus, read what the Bears have been doing. Now I realize we all want the same thing, a reliable kicker at a fair price, but man the Bears and this timeline is mind blowing. Fans are going to need a spreadsheet to keep track of it all.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/spor...-viz-chicago-bears-kicker-saga-htmlstory.html
geesh...77 in a row huh. those are telling stats. worse than i thought. that's not to say he hasn't had his good moments.Crosby would have to make 77 field goals in a row to get the Packers in the top half in field goal percentage since 2012. He hasn't been any good with the game being close either as he has made only 75.6% of his field goals in the fourth quarter with the Packers either trailing by three or less or leading by a maximum of four points.
"At the Bears’ end-of-season news conference, coach Matt Nagy makes it clear he is not pleased with Parkey’s “Today” show appearance. “We always talk about a ‘we’ and not a ‘me’ thing, and we always talk as a team (that) we win as a team, we lose as a team,” Nagy says. “I didn’t necessarily think that was too much of a ‘we’ thing.”
LOL. Then it became a "he" thing.
"The Bears bring eight kickers — four under contract and four on a tryout basis — to rookie minicamp. The first day’s festivities end with each kicker trying “The Cody Parkey” — a 43-yarder. “That was on purpose,” Nagy said, referring to the distance and what it symbolizes. “They know. … They know loud and clear why.”
And what was it that they knew, Mr. Nagy? Don't miss 43 yard FGs, I presume.
Place kicking is NOT a team sport, and I think he knows it.
I hope the Bears trade more draft picks for a kicker after rifling thru at least 8 trying to find one. They were idiots to get rid of Gould in the first place.