Reconsidering replacing Lindell

[Fake-Fat Sunny]

I tuned into TSW tonight pretty set on the concept of the Bills looking to replace Lindell, however two things gave me some pause. First, Jerry Suliivan led his column today with a rant against Lindell, Normally, when folks who are paid to keep track of this stuff have an opinion I don't accept it outright, but I do take it seriously unless the writer is so wrong so often or takes positions because he seems to be a legend in his own mind rather than based on reporting on the game I consider carefully journalistic views.

 

Sullivan however is such a bad columnist generally that he has the opposite of the desired effect of most columnists. From his weird self-focused golfing sojourn to several simply wrong-headed articles where his primary goal seems to be create controversy where none exists, an opinion from Sullivan creates a good basis for the opposite view actually being true.

 

Second, was a post by Simon which came to Lindell's defense. Though Simon like all of us can be wrong about some things (his belief in whathisname being starting safety material for the Bills replacing the cut cut Henry Jones was consistent, generally well-argued but really was wrong), his opinions are usually pretty good and really need to be taken seriously.

 

Driven by Simon's endorsement and Sullivan;s condemnation I tried to take a second look at the Lindell situation and reached the following conclusion:

 

1. There are some good things about his game which are not readily apparent on TV which is where I watched Sunday's game on tape after a trip to see my family participate in a church service on Sunday. The height of his kicks are not visible on TV. Folks like Simon who watched him say quite forcefully that he is striking the ball better this year and getting more height on his kicks. A review of where the kicks landed and the results of the returns indicate this is true. The Bills got effective coverage of his kicks (except when Jax cheated and got a penalty) and this is a good indicator of height and good directional kicking.

 

2. I think Lindell actually suffered in comparison to the Jax strong legged Scobee who routinely kicked it into the endzone (unlike most NFL kickers) and probably all his kicks would have been touchbacks except McHee stupidly stutter stepped and tried to return a couple). Scobee is really a Jankowski like talent and should not define normal expectations for kickoffs.

 

3. Upon further consideration, the failure to go for the FG at the end of the game may well be more of an edorsement for the strength of the D and expression of faith in Moorman's skills (endorsements which unfortunately turned out to be misplaced in goth cases) rather than a lack of faith in Lindell. This cuts a lot of ways so who knows. Perhaps a true expression of overwhelming faith in your D is to go for the FG because you think so much of them you can risk giving Jax a drive-start from where the FG is missed from because you have so much faith in your D to stop them. It cuts a lot of ways so really no conclusion can be drawn here by us fans what was on MMs mind.

 

All in all I think that views that he is goner should be moderated, however, i think the situation does merit the Bills looking about at kickers while outwardly maintaining the endorsement of Lindell that the fragile kicker's psyche seems to need.

 

Despite deeper thinking leading to contiuing an edorsment of Lindell, the facts remain:

 

1. Lindell by his own admission last year simply sucked. Judgments like he is striking the ball better are enough to give him tons of room if he was coming off a record of success, but given his failures last year he is deservedly on a short leash and can really only maintain his position by producing.

 

2. Simon makes a point of saying that MM and April are professional football judgment and endorsements should be trusted. Yes, true. However, Lindell is a product from the last year of GW and his contract made him a fait accompl for MM and April. They may well have not kicked the FG because of faith in the D and Moorman, but there has not really been any endorsement of Lindell by MM and April yet.

 

3. I made a point of calling for looking for alternatives but have not yet taken the stance of some on this board or idiots like Sullivan and called for him to be cut. If you call for him to be cut then one must also name a replacement for him to be credible at all. Most don't even bother with this rationality and even those who do have yet to make a compelling case for their replacement being much better and more just change for change sake.

 

A lot of this I really blame on TD for being so cavalier in his comments after he cut Christie that a replacement kicker is easily found in the NFL. This is not true and if it were then fine TD, replace Lindell then.

 

The bottom-line is that I think Lindell gets another shot and probably two at trying to redeem himself.

[Typical TBD Guy]

It's a catch-22, folks. We all know Choker is going to cost us anywhere between 4 to 8 more close games this season (that's a given), but unfortunately there's no one better to replace him at this time. While our arseclown of a kicker lies somewhere between #31-32 in a ranking of employed NFL kickers, he's probably very close to #1 in a ranking of unemployed ones.

 

BTW, in Jerry Stevestojan's article this morning, I think his opinion was actually right on target for a change. He backed up his normal doom and gloom perspective with some pretty powerful facts concerning Choker.