Re: Value of a Kicker
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The most important skill for a kicker is how good their kickoffs are, not their accuracy on field goals. Outsiders did an interesting study that more or less proved that field goal accuracy is complete bs and all variance. There is almost no correlation from year to year in field goal accuracy. But there is a lot of correlation from year to year in the length of kickoffs.
So that's what JOA means when he says find a guy who can kick it far and let him go crazy. Teams should pick kickers that can kick the ball very far, not kickers who seem to make field goals, which is all luck.
Naturally, the Pats got it correct when they dropped Vinatieri and added Gostkowski, who is actually the superior kicker.
Oh, to answer the OP's question, the difference between a good NFL kicker and an average NFL kicker isn't that great. The best kickers add something like a touchdown a year in terms of value in their kickoffs.
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I was actually going to post the same thing about the importance of long kickoffs, so I totally agree with you there.
However regarding FGs...I don't doubt the study that FO did. But doesn't it seem foolish to say theres no skill in something like kicking a FG and that its all luck? I mean, I dunno....it just seems totally obvious to me that there has to be skill in it.
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