Sam Ficken has been cut
We can finally put this discussion to bed!
@TomPelissero
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1m
The
#Packers cut kicker Sam Ficken, source said.
The devil you know....
Some closing words on the matter.
There are 100 or more kickers coming out of college every year. On top of that there are lots of guys from prior years still training, still trying to land a job. Ficken is one of those guys back in that haystack, and the haystack is many years deep. Take Tavecchio for example, a guy who came out in 2012 who some may remember from the Packer 2013 training camp. He didn't land a steady job until 2017 in Oakland when Janakowski went on IR. He couldn't stick there. Then he kicked for a few games in Atlanta last year when Bryant was injured. Now, in 2019, he was competing with Blair Walsh for the Atlanta job. Evidently, Atlanta didn't like either and are bringing Matt Bryant back at the 11th. hour. Bryant will cost them more than those sub-$1 mil guys. Those two released Atlanta guys, and Ficken as well, go back into the haystack and maybe they get on some GM's lists of possible injury or performance failure (e.g., Carlson) replacements if needed.
The point being, the haystack is at least 8 years deep as evidenced by Tavecchio. Now go find the needle. Atlanta tried and went back to the their 44 year old stalwart who had a hamstring injury last season.
It's easy to say that Crosby has been overpaid, he's streaky and inconsistent, does not have a strong leg by today's standards, and statistically does not rank in the current top 20. It is easy because it is true. On the other hand, out of the haystack comes maybe two or three guys per year who have developed a reliable track record over several years whereby you can say with some confidence he'll do a good job in the upcoming season. Big hastack, few needles.
Finding a reliable kicker out of the haystack is about as hard as finding a decent, reliable starting QB. At the same time, kickers present unique problems in evaluation. Kicking is a head game, they don't get a lot of reps in preseason, and there are not many special teams coaches who are kicking experts; most learn by osmosis if they learn at all. It's a position where the trial-and-errors come in money games.
So, when it comes down to replacing Crosby or any other veteran, the question becomes, "do you feel lucky?" It's probably the hardest positon to answer the question, "who else ya got?"
Look on the bright side. Tavecchio was the last guy in camp to compete with Crosby. Crosby followed with his best season.
