Can the Lions staff evaluate kicking talent?

The War Room Detroit Lions — The Den
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This article really makes me question if this crew can evaluate kickers. It really makes me question our ST coaching as well.

I am not a big fan of 97.1 but this article brings up some excellent points.

From the article:

Like Randy Bullock, who wasn’t good enough for the Lions in training camp but was good enough to win AFC Special Teams Player of the Week for the Titans in Week 8 – when he drilled four field goals, including a 46-yard game-winner in OT.

Like Matthew Wright, who wasn’t good enough for the Lions to replace Bullock, but was good enough for the Jaguars to win AFC Special Teams Player of the Week in Week 6 – when he drilled two 50-plus yard field goals in the final four minutes, including the game winner as time expired.

Like Zane Gonzalez, who wasn’t good enough for the Lions to replace Wright, but was good enough for the Panthers to win NFC Special Teams Player of the Week in Week 8 and again in Week 10 – during a stretch in which he’s hit 16 field goals in a row.

Wouldn’t you know it, Bullock and Gonzalez are two of the top kickers in the NFL this season.

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I love having a good kicker (and punter, obviously).

I think we’ll get someone much more solid in here, next year. We’d have 2 more wins, if Prater was here.

Hoping for better

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Evaluating kickers midseason is challenging because you can have them compete against each other in practice and then decide on one guy because he out kicked the other dudes. But, when there is 80,000 fans yelling and screaming and the pressure is on in a real game situation, everything changes.

The kickers that can handle the pressure and the bright lights are the guys you want. Hard to figure that out in practice. Gotta have ice water in your veins to be a kicker.

When and if we ever have a roster capable of winning, I’d expect us to bring in an established veteran again. Just like Stafford, Prater didn’t want to kick for a terrible team, he wanted to win and get paid, and he is in 1st place. Good for Prater!

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Austin Siebert will do just fine. He’s no Justin Tucker. But he has 3 years experience after being drafted in the 5th round in 2019. He’s made all 24 FGs less than 40 yards and 15 of 21 between 40 and 50 yards. He should get better with time at his tender age. He’s good enough for our 1st Super Bowl appearance.

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Siebert was fine. And doing well. When a starter kicker goes down it’s not uncommon to struggle to have a dependable replacement.

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Come on man , were in a total rebuild we don’t need a good kicker for at least 2 more years. Its all part of the master plan.

Frankly I think he has trouble judging more the just kickers. But thats just me

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Sounds to me they are excellent at evaluating talent. I mean, how many other teams brought in 4 solid performers this off-season? They were bit by the injury bug and lost a good starter. Their ST are ranked 7 overall on DVOA.

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Yep, they need a kicker. Next man on deck is Riley Patterson

I like Fipps. I appreciate what he has done this season. I actually think he may be the first consistently good special team coach we have had in a long time.It seems to me we get a guy,they have a great year…the next year or so later…total disaster. Fired.

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I’d like to know, who exactly makes the decision on which kicker to stick with or cut?
I’d think that’s mostly on the Special Teams coach or am I wrong?

Does the Head Coach or GM watch every kick in practice to see who is most accurate or has the better leg?..I honestly would like to know who really makes these decisions.
People want to put everything on the GM or Head Coach but I wonder how much they just listen to their positional coach and let them make those decisions?!?!

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I’m watching MACtion tonight, and University at Buffalo K Alex McNulty just kicked a game-tying, 55-yard field goal with 1:20 or so to go in the game, that looks like it would have been good from 65.

I think he just made himself some money.

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People don’t acknowledge that the guy they hate is actually the backup.

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Fox and the coverage units have been quite strong. Special teams is the strength of the team when compared to the offense and defense. Pretty sad, but true.

And when you factor in the fakes and the onside kicks, they might be more productive than the offense, lol

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But we had someone much more solid and we let them go for a less solid player. That’s my point.

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Especially when he looks a bit too much like ray finkle with his helmet on. Lol

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short answer: no
long answer: obviously not

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…he was injured.

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I am pretty sure he was referring to 37yo Matt Prater… who chose to leave in UFA for over $3 million per season from a playoff contender.

This was talked about in the spring… some here wanted to keep Prater despite the higher price tag… while some of us preferred to let him move elsewhere to save some money.

The good news… is Prater signed a 2 year deal… so he will be a UFA arou d the time the Lions may have had enough time to build a decent roster worthy of spending over $3 million per year on a kicker.

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Are we sure that those other guys were much more solid when they were here than Siebert or these other guys just haven’t gotten hurt?

Amazing how many teams needing a kicker this year that we can bring in 3 of them and all of them are quality kickers and able to find a spot on rosters.

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You might say we have an eye for ST talent.

We will have coached 6 more ST player of the week winners by then.

The bad news, they’ll all have played for other teams, LOL.

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I will say I am not overly concerned with the kicker position at this moment… but I do wonder how Josh Lambo was not signed over Santoso.

Santoso looked like he was gonna crap his pants against the Ravens when he was prepping for a short FG… so that really should have been a sign to replace him.