re: The truth about Garrett Hartley

No I'm saying his 81% average over the last 3 is still solid.

No it's not. The yearly average is around 83-84%. He's been at 81% the last 3. That's far from "well below". The top kickers are usually around 90% and the bottom ones around 75%. Some years the top 5 are slightly higher and the bottom 5 are slightly lower, But Hartley at 81% is not "far below" average(83-84%).

This is one year to the next and that's why it's important to look at career %s as some guy that hit 93% one year will go and hit 78% the next.

The last 3 years Hartley has been right around 80-82%. That's consistent and not "well below" average. He's been slightly below and if we can find someone better than great. But most of those guys are already signed on other teams.

Name a damn replacement.

Anything else you want to make up or skew?

I'm not saying he's great. I'm saying name me a replacement. You want him gone but who the frick do we replace him with that's better?

There's no one out there. You bring in a young unknown in camp and cross your fingers but that's what we've been doing(as do most teams) and it rarely happens.

Hartley is going to be here for a while barring some lucky(and unlikely) find on a young kid. You'll just have to get used to it.

Again, never said he was great. Not once. I said name a replacement. You guys want to bitch about him but offer no solution.

Plenty of kickers will become available by start of year

I'm sure there's a UDFA out there just like how hartley was, right? It doesn't hurt to bring some into camp to compete with him. He's not GREAT, he's not horrible, but he's costed us an adequate amount of games with "gimme's" you can't really defend a 82% <40yrd kicker for the last 3 years.

even kickers like olindo mare have a higher <40yrd% and he's not even THAT great of a kicker.

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Yeah MAYBE there's an udfa, but that's rare.

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JJ

adam vinatieri - undrafted 89.9% under 40 (82.6% career) 3.4mil cap hit
justin tucker - undrafted (rookie) 100% under 40 (90.9% career) 570k cap hit
kai forbath - undrafted (rookie) 83.3% under 40 (94.4% career) 570k cap hit
phil dawson - undrafted 90.6% under 40 (84% career) 2.35m cap hit
dan bailey - undrafted (2 years) 97.5% under 40 (89.7% career) 555k cap hit
shaun suisham - undrafted 89.4% under 40 (81.3% career) 1.76m cap hit
nick novak - undrafted 85% under 40 (76.2% career) 1.125m cap hit
garrett hartley - undrafted 86% under 40 (84.5% career) 2.67m cap hit
jay feely - undrafted 90.3% under 40 (82.6% career) 1.75m cap hit
matt bryant - undrafted 92.7% under 40 (84.4% career) 2.96m cap hit


one thing they all have in common is they're better than him under 40 yards, minus novak.
Hartley has a better accuracy from longer than 40, but wouldn't you feel safer with a guy that can hit under 40yards 90% of the time?

We can find UDFA kickers. I'm pretty confident we can find one within the next year or two

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adam vinatieri - 1996(worse career %)
justin tucker - 2012
kai forbath - 2011(worse under 40 %)
phil dawson - 1998(worse career %)
dan bailey - 2011
shaun suisham - 2005(worse career %)
nick novak - 2005(worse under 40 and career %)
jay feely - 2001(worse career %)
matt bryant - 2002

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First that tells me 3 of those guys don't have enough years to judge how good they are(not saying they are bad, but 1 or 2 years is nothing for an NFL kicker; guys have flamed quickly after looking bright before).

Second, in 17 years that's only 10 guys. As I said, 3 of them are too early to call.

Like I said, you don't find UDFA kickers that are good too often. Looks like 3 teams the last 2 years may have lucked out, but it was after a 6 year drought.

Just gonna say good luck with that.