Panthers Need Another Kicker

by Jaxon on Dec 13, 2007 2:25 PM EST in News Comment 5 comments

In spite of a so-called off-season focus on improving the Panthers special teams they remain near the bottom in every special teams category. Most distressing for me is our inability cover kick offs. There is nothing more de-motivating than to score and then allow the other team to start their next possession at the 40 yard line. It makes me want to scream every time it happens.

Part of the problem is that K John Kasay is dead last in the league in touchbacks with...drum roll please...1. Now contrast that with the league leader Sebastian Janakowski who has 20 touchbacks. Most teams in the league have at least 10. The truth is half his kicks don’t even come close to the end zone and usually land around the 5-10 yard line. That puts your kick off coverage at a huge disadvantage.

Don’t get me wrong, I love me some John Kasay. I think he is one the better clutch field goal kickers in the league and I am by no means saying to get rid of him. I’ve even forgiven him for that out of bounds kick off in the Super Bowl. I just think the Panthers need to supplement their kicker stable with a KO specialist. The Panthers need someone who can put it in the end zone consistently and maybe even entice a few touchbacks. That would have to cut the starting position of the Panthers opponents by at least 5-10 yards. That’s huge for a team that relies on ‘bend but don’t break’ defensive game planning.

The Panthers special teams need every advantage they can get these days. A deeper kick off would be a good start.

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Comments

good post

I agree with you that we need to stop giving other teams great field position. However, since we don't score many touchdowns, we don't kick off very much. It would be nice if we had more TBs than out-of-bounds penalties on kick-offs, though.

by usana_gaines on Dec 13, 2007 2:47 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

The quest for 1000

I'm posting this here since I had trouble posting a diary:

On the Panthers.com page, there is a headline that says The Quest For 1,000. It says Foster needs just over 70 yards a game to become the third Panther to reach 1,000 yards in a season. With 2460 yards, he is 70 shy from being the Panthers all-time leading rusher. How embarrassing is that? However, my point is that I thought the quest for 1,000 was about Vinny needing 52 yards to reach 1,000 yards passing for the season. I know most starting QBs reached 1,000 in the first month of the season, but our passing has been so pathetic that Vinny leads our team in passing with less than 1,000. Our offense is absurd.

by usana_gaines on Dec 13, 2007 3:10 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

The Foster total is amazing`

12 years in the league and we don't have a single RB with over 3,500 yards rushing? That is crazy.

by Jaxon on Dec 13, 2007 4:55 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

adamj and the total

First of all, I want to say we all agree with Adamj; we do have other priorities. It's just that as we develop our holiday wishlist, a new KO specialist would be nice, too, if we can't have Adrian Peterson, Tom Brady or Mario Williams.

What's amazing about our lack of a real RB is that several players have had good seasons. Stephen Davis' 1444 yard season is a team record, and the following year he scored 12 TDs, but with about 3.4 yds a carry. When he realized Foster was better, he opted for season-ending surgery, and didn't make it to the playoffs with the rest of the team.

That year, I watched the Patriots continually start with good field position in the Superbowl, and Kasay shut the door on our season when he kicked the ball out of bounds after the Delhomme-to-Muhammad 85 yd TD bomb. What's fun is looking at the good players drafted after we made our picks. I'm not going to go into detail, but let's just say my hindsight and ability to judge history from my desk is phenomenal.

by usana_gaines on Dec 14, 2007 8:36 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

kasay's kickoffs

well given the poor performance of the rest of the team this year, i'll settle for blow average touchback total. i'd rather spend the money on a rb or a qb. when we start scoring we can worry about kickoffs

by adamj on Dec 13, 2007 11:39 PM EST reply actions 0 recs