Kicker Consideration: Sifting through potential replacements from chenyan's blog

for Sebastian Janikowski During Week 1 against the Broncos in Denver the special teams play was quite the mixed bag. While Michael Dickson continued his MVPunter campaign in fairly convincing fashion Seahawks Germain Ifedi Jersey , Sebastian Janikowski struggled on back-to-back field goal attempts from 51 and 46 yards respectively. I am not exactly the biggest Janikowski fan, if you follow me on Twitter—which to be clear is a terrible idea—you have seen me rant loudly about signing a 40-year-old kicker who didn’t play last year coming off a back injury multiple times. Two missed kicks from beyond 45 yards is way too early to start freaking out and planning his replacement, but for a kicker whose career field goal percentage is lower than that of Blair Walsh, I’m going to start anyways.Obvious but expensiveDan Bailey has been mentioned repeatedly as an option for the Seattle Seahawks should they want to upgrade at the position and secure the second most accurate kicker in NFL history. But, Bailey reportedly has four offers and could be looking to get as close as possible to his pre-cut $3.4 million dollar Dallas Cowboys salary. According to Over the Cap Seattle is sitting at just over $5 million in cap space, a $3 million dollar kicker effectively empties the tank on acquiring any other free agents or players via trade that require extra money. Don’t get me wrong, I would love for Bailey to come to the Seahawks. I just don’t think it’s going to happen because of the money. Steven Hauschka was cut over a cap hit that was one million dollars less than what Bailey is likely to command.Other optionsOf course the organization could just gut it out and look to move on from Janikowski in the offseason, which seems most likely given how Walsh was handled. But if the organization wanted to kick some tires, who is out there?Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty ImagesKai Forbath: Former kicker for the Minnesota Vikings. Struggled the last two years with PATs. He’s 47-of-53 on field goals over the last two years, including 7-of-10 from beyond 50 yards.Matt McCrane: UDFA brought in this offseason by the Arizona Cardinals to compete with Phil Dawson. Cut by the organization during preseason despite not missing a kick. However, his sample size is very low at the pro level. College stats are good, but not great: 81% on field goals and 3-of-6 from beyond 50 yards would effectively make him a league average kicker if he directly translated. His cap hit, however, would be very low.Denny Medley-USA TODAY SportsCairo Santos: Cut from the Jets after healing from a groin injury, currently unsigned. He’s a career 84% on field goals http://www.authenticsseattleseahawks.com/cheap-bobby-wagner-jersey , but struggles a bit at long range posting a 64% at ranges beyond 50 yards. However, this is another kicker Seattle would likely be able to sign for under $1 million in cap space, as his last two contracts were in the $600k range.Both non-Bailey pro options listed above have career numbers better than Janikowski, but cutting and replacing the special teams captain would likely have an effect beyond just the numbers, even if he hasn’t been with the team long. Additionally, you’d be asking Dickson to switch his holds a few weeks into the season. All of this culminates into a situation where it seems likely the Seahawks won’t go searching for replacements. Is it way too early to start panicking about the kicker position? Probably, but with the wounds of Walsh still open, perhaps you’ll forgive a little unnecessary indulgence.Seahawks video: Jarran Reed hoping that third time really is a charm Third time’s the charm for Jarran Reed? Yes, indeed. Yes, indeed.You can book it and take it to Vegas. Reed is coming off his first full season of starting every game that he’s played in for the Seahawks and he finished the season with 45 tackles, 1.5 sacks, and one forced fumble. Almost Identical to his rookie season statistics, with the exception of 11 fewer tackles and nine fewer starts. Reed is a stout 2i: two-gapper defensive tackle who clogs up space and does it well. Reed hardly ever gets moved from his gap responsibility, which was a key reason he was drafted with the 49th pick of the 2016 NFL Draft. He has extremely long arms that helps him create separation for a bigger lineman, which also happens to be rare. Typically bigger bodies have shorter and compact arms. One of the main reasons why defensive lineman are usually the strongest on the team. Reed on the other hand uses his length to his advantage in pivotal match ups very often. His breakdown above has almost 11 plays of him doing so. In 2017 http://www.authenticsseattleseahawks.com/cheap-bradley-mcdougald-jersey , Reed didn’t have a lot of pressure on him to perform constantly with last years acquisition of Sheldon Richardson, who now plays for the Minnesota Vikings. With Richardson no longer in the mix in Seattle, most if not all offensive line coaches will draw up multiple combo blocking schemes to double team Reed, in hopes of taking him out of the A gap to free up running lanes completely. I know the Seahawks didn’t require Reed to be much of a pass rush force, but I’m excited to see how Reed has progressed in that area come preseason Week 1. Although I doubt Reed plays much until Week 3 of the preseason, in hindsight it’s still an area Seahawk hopefuls should keep an eye out on. With almost every team in the NFC West getting better at the quarterback or wide receiver position, Reed will be asked to improve on his consecutive 1.5 sack seasons. Not to beat a dead horse but just to be blunt on how important it is for Reed to improve his sack total here’s a fun fact:Dwight Freeney, Michael Bennett, and Sheldon Richardson accounted for 12.5 sacks. That’s a third of the 2017 defensive sacks gone in one offseason. Reed was never really much of a sack artist, even dating back to his days at East Mississippi Community College or at Alabama. Hence why I titled the article third time’s the charm: this is his third most recent team and also his third year in the NFL.To be fair, it’s not like Reed was ever required to do so either because he’s always had phenomenal players around him. This season I’m not so sure that will be the case. So hopefully this is the year things change.Overall I love the guy. Love is a strong word, but I do. Enjoy the breakdown and comment below what you like about Reeds game based on his film breakdown above. Until next time. Peace and light#StayDangerous.