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Lindell struggling in practice..


Dan III

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Its Wednesday... are they going to make a move or not? Might they let Lindell play this one game, and then release him, or does that do something with the cap? Season is approaching TD, put down that crackpipe and let us know whats up.

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How are France or Novack at kickoffs. KO is an incredibly important and essential part pf pur kicker's duties. While the other essential element for a quality kicker, placekicking often gets treated as the only important work a kicker does, given the importance of our coverage working to this team putting up Ws, a replacement kicker for Lindell MUST be able to consistently kick it to the location and with the timing that the rest of the ST expects or big returns will happen.

 

Lindell has sucked so bad at long kicks that clearly MM and the braintrust have little or no confidence in this part of his game and also has missed some chip shots that he certainly should be replaced with a better kicker.

 

However, a kicker who does well with the placelkicks and has more distance is simply not a better kicker than even the inadequate Lindell if he cannot handle the tricky winds of the Ralph snf kick off with the same consistency which allowed the Bills coverage team to give up 0 returns for TDs and even few long returns last year.

 

Certainly having a good (or even adequate kicker is going to get you a W or two a year from clutch kicks. But in every game the ability to kickoff as ordered is going to be done and often plays a critical role in the field position battle.

 

Many fans also mistake quality at kickoffs as the ability to boom them consistely like Janakowsi or the the number of TBs to his credit.

 

Now that the NFL has moved the kickoff from the 40 where it used to be to way back toward our endzone, getting a player with the leg to assure TBs is doubtful and the ability to directional kick and also get the appripriate hang time is a far better strategy.

 

In pre-season the coverage game (led by a Lindell kickoff) looked phenomenal and far more often than the norm seemed to even make the tackle so the opposing team ended up with a drive start inside their 20 which is even better than a TB.

 

So bring in France, Novack or whoever, but I am far less interested in them inless there is some tangible evidence that they can handle the critical kickoff duty.

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Now that the NFL has moved the kickoff from the 40 where it used to be to way back toward our endzone, getting a player with the leg to assure TBs is doubtful and the ability to directional kick and also get the appripriate hang time is a far better strategy.

 

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Also, don't forget about the field advantage lost by a kick-off out of bounds... :doh:

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So bring in France, Novack or whoever, but I am far less interested in them inless there is some tangible evidence that they can handle the critical kickoff duty.

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I read an article on France in another thread that had several Jon Gruden quotes. From what I saw Gruden thought he could make every kick in the game, and that he was also capable of handling different weather and playing surfaces. I guess the battle between him a Brein was extremely close, with Briens experience giving him the edge. Gruden also went onto say that he will become a very good NFL kicker.

 

His NFL Europe statistics indicate power, as he attempted and made a couple 50+ yarders. He recently hit a 46 yarder in preseason, and showed no dramatic drop of from his NFL Europe stats when kicking from 40-49 as compared to 30-39. That combined with what Gruden had to say leads me to believe this kid will land somewhere. Hopefully we give him a shot as many of the good younger kickers seem to bounce round for awhile before getting settled (Shayne Graham comes to mind :doh: ).

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I read an article on France in another thread that had several Jon Gruden quotes. From what I saw Gruden thought he could make every kick in the game, and that he was also capable of handling different weather and playing surfaces. I guess the battle between him a Brein was extremely close, with Briens experience giving him the edge. Gruden also went onto say that he will become a very good NFL kicker.

 

His NFL Europe statistics indicate power, as he attempted and made a couple 50+ yarders. He recently hit a 46 yarder in preseason, and showed no dramatic drop of from his NFL Europe stats when kicking from 40-49 as compared to 30-39. That combined with what Gruden had to say leads me to believe this kid will land somewhere. Hopefully we give him a shot as many of the good younger kickers seem to bounce round for awhile before getting settled (Shayne Graham comes to mind  ).

 

ya know where we got our "unheard of" punter that now is prob top 3 in the league.....yup NFL E

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http://buffalobills.com/blog/?topic_id=11

 

"Lindell was doing well in the preseason until he hooked a 32-yarder in the preseason finale and then had a rough few days of practice after that."

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Lindell knows he's going to have to bring his A game every week if he wants to stay here. The key for him is to get off to a good start very early. I think he'll be tested a lot during the first week against the Texans.

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Due to a nagging groin injury to Shayne Graham, the B'gals signed an Arena football player named Carter Worley - he was a classmate of Graham's at Virginia Tech. He was IIRC 3 of 4 in the pre-season, with two 43 yarders.

 

Nothing to note about his kickoff distances, though. He's been cut, which was expected.

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