Do we still need 2 kickers?

[cage]

With the new touchback rules going out to 25 yard line, teams are starting to plan their kicks to elicit a return. So why do we still need a 2nd kicker who's only goal was to kick the ball out of the end zone??

Edited August 3, 2016 by cage

[Best Player Available]

What the Bills need is a kicker that can get the PAT's on a regular basis.

IMO with the new rules even a kickoff to the goal line and making the returner

Bring it out is better than having a kickoff " specialist" give the opposition the ball

On the 25 (hopefully). No we should not have 2 kickers, waste of a roster spot.

 

if a fringe player with some potential like baby Gronk who has been mentioned as a possible

Special teams player get a visit from the turk because we need to keep two kickers. Well that's wrong IMO

[ALF]

Needing room for players at WR and RB , I would think Gay is gone unless really needed during season.

[Chandler#81]

No one complained 2seasons ago when Gay was delivering more gift footballs to endzone fans than Cam Newton. Last years M*A*S*H unit of a team saw 20 some odd players join the team after week 1. This makes it more of an issue carrying a KO specialist than new philosophy, IMO. Quick, what's a better outcome; KO sails into a fans hands and nobody gets hurt, or giving the ball to your opponents most dangerous open field player with a 10 yard running start?

[BarleyNY]

I sincerely hope not. It's such a waste of a roster spot.

[jr1]

It's embarrassing

[K D]

They didn't even give the kid from Georgia a chance. I think they need to bring in someone to shake things up. Carp isn't good enough to consume 2 roster spots (needs Gay to kick off)

[Nanker]

Somebody said something about them getting the kicker from UCLA once the Texans cut him.

[Over 29 years of fanhood]

With the new touchback rules going out to 25 yard line, teams are starting to plan their kicks to elicit a return. So why do we still need a 2nd kicker who's only goal was to kick the ball out of the end zone??

Now it's just looking like they are changing things to change things. The pattern is inexplicable..

[Blokestradamus]

Somebody said something about them getting the kicker from UCLA once the Texans cut him.

 

I will see that prophecy fulfilled. Nick Novak is an okay kicker and he's costing them vet minimum, no financial pressure for the Texans to offload him for Fairbairn. Teams tend to favour vets, some inherent distrust of young kickers.

 

Still think he makes a ton of sense for the Bills.

[KD in CA]

No, we just need one good kicker. Too bad they didn't have just a tiny bit of patience for the one they drafted a few years ago.

[DriveFor1Outta5]

No, we just need one good kicker. Too bad they didn't have just a tiny bit of patience for the one they drafted a few years ago.

Hopkins was out with a groin injury his rookie season, and Carp came in and did a great job. At the time it made sense to hold on to Carp and release Hopkins the following season. With that being said, I agree that we only need one good kicker. It would be ridiculous to keep a kickoff specialist for a place kicker that was the worst in the league on PAT's last season. I don't understand why we didn't release Gay to keep Morgan around longer. We could have at least gave him a look in preseason game action. At least we would have known if Morgan could cut it as our kicker. If not, we could have picked up a kicker when cuts happen. Keeping Gay on the roster should not even be a possibility. If Carp can't kickoff he needs to go. He doesn't have enough value as a place kicker to consume two roster spots. Edited August 3, 2016 by DriveFor1Outta5

[John from Riverside]

I think this is the year that get away from having the extra kicker......Rex HATED this last year

[Saxum]

We need 2 kickers; perpetual bashers need low hanging fruit to grab on their way to being hired as special teams coaches.

[John from Riverside]

We need 2 kickers; perpetual bashers need low hanging fruit to grab on their way to being hired as special teams coaches.

We probably do need to kickers....but were we not one of two teams in the league keeping a THIRD kicker?

[BobbyC81]

With the new touchback rules going out to 25 yard line, teams are starting to plan their kicks to elicit a return. So why do we still need a 2nd kicker who's only goal was to kick the ball out of the end zone??

I agree. A new strategy may be kickoff placement. If there are 2 returners and the better one is lined up on one side, kick it to the other side. Of course, return teams could counter that by having both returners in the middle and then they split out after the ball's in the air.

 

Keeping a 2nd kicker for kick offs was not an effective strategy last season as Gay had touch backs on just over half of his kickoffs which put him in the lower half of the league. Ironically, for the kickoffs returned the Bills led the league in lowest return average allowed.

[Big C]

I wonder if Schmidt can do kickoffs for us.

[Beerball]

We have 2 kicking coaches, so 2 kickers is a must.

[CardinalScotts]

if it takes a roster spot to guarantee we won't have a kick return for a td against us.....I'm fine with giving him that spot.

[machine gun kelly]

We had the best opposing field position from kicking in the league, but now that it's the 25 it seems like wasted money and roster spot. We also are paying carpenter a decent salary for a kicker, so combine the two salaries and we should have picked someone up better.