The kickoff does not have a right to exist. Rules in sports never have rights, they simply indicate wrongs. And right and wrong are governed not by the laws of nature, physics, or the cosmos, but by the capricious nature of the people entrusted as stewards of our games. It is their judgment, derived from…
“For those reasons, I give Aguayo a third-round grade as my top-rated kicker in the 2015 draft class.” That was the sentence that ended my scouting profile of Roberto Aguayo just under a year ago. Aguayo was coming off a slightly-disappointing senior season in which his accuracy dropped to 80.8% on field goals after being…
2016 has been a challenging year for the Los Angeles Rams in their first year back on the West Coast. Currently standing at 4-10, the Rams have faced significant challenges on offense and defense; however, their special teams have been above-average due to the outstanding play of punter Johnny Hekker, the improved consistency of kicker…
Now that we are over halfway finished with the 2016 NFL season, it is good time to look back at the first half of the year and see which rookies have excelled in their first taste of NFL action. We asked our team of writers and analysts to put together a team of rookies at each…
Stephen Gostkowski has been one of the most consistent kickers in the NFL throughout his career. In his first ten seasons, only twice did he post below 80% accuracy on field goals, with one of those seasons being his rookie campaign in 2006. Yet Gostkowski enters Week 7 of the 2016 season just 9-for-12 on…
Punters are masters in retreat. Tasked with giving the ball to the opposing team in the hopes of a defensive stop and living to fight another day, they occupy a unique niche on a football team. While punting statistics are often misunderstood, there are statistics that can help to measure the impact of punters more…
Punting statistics are one of the most misunderstood in football. The terms “gross punting average” and “net punting average” are thrown around as measures of punters’ abilities, when in reality, the picture is much more complicated. Both of those statistics are significantly impacted by field position, and also fail to take into account hang time…
The start of the 2016 NFL season was as entertaining as anyone could have expected, with the Denver Broncos clawing their way to a 21-20 victory over the Carolina Panthers. While there were a number of plays that shifted the course of the game, the final-minute missed 50-yard field goal stands out due to…well, being the…
The end of the preseason is always full of surprising cuts in the NFL, with 2016 being no different. This year, one of the most surprising firings was that of Robbie Gould, who made the Pro Bowl in 2006 and was also named first-team All-Pro that season and spent all 11 seasons of his career…
Punters have one of the weirder jobs in professional sports: While in possession of the ball on offense, they voluntarily give it to the other team in order to avoid potentially negative consequences. In no other sport does a team willfully give up possession of the ball / puck / quaffle when holding it. While…
When the Tampa Bay Buccaneers drafted Roberto Aguayo in the second round of the 2016 NFL Draft after trading up to the 59th pick, the football world melted down. With Aguayo now struggling in his first NFL preseason, far more eyes are now focused on him than any rookie kicker in recent memory. Not even…
The 2015 NFL season was a challenging one for the Dallas Cowboys. With injuries to key contributors, the Cowboys finished 4-12 and struggled on both offense and defense. Special teams, though, and in particular, the work done by kicker Cowboys kicker Dan Bailey, was a different story. Bailey tied New York Giants kicker Josh Brown for…
NFL teams have very different philosophies on how to spend their money to make the best team possible. Dave Archibald joins Chuck Zodda and Mark Schofield on the August 15 Kick Quicks Podcast to look at one area, special teams, and how much teams invest in it. While special teams sees the field for the…
The 33-yard extra point was one of the big stories of the 2015-16 season, as players, fans, coaches, and announcers enjoyed griping about kickers missing chip shots at a higher rate than before despite concern that they are too good. In particular, Buffalo Bills fans directed their ire towards kicker Dan Carpenter, who missed six extra…
Greg Zuerlein had a difficult season for the then-St. Louis Rams in 2015. With the Rams on the move to Los Angeles for 2016, many fans wonder whether a change of scenery will be beneficial to Zuerlein, or if kicking outdoors for eight home games a year will cause his disappointing 2015 numbers to fall…
Many NFL fans are familiar with big NFL kicks in the postseason – Jim O’Brien in Super Bowl V, Adam Vinatieri in the Snow Bowl, Vinatieri in Super Bowl XXXVI, Vinatieri in Super Bowl XXXVIII. We have even seen a number of big misses in recent history – Blair Walsh missing a 27-yard field goal…