2020-21 NFL thread

I think the risk of conserving time is that it gives the Titans more chance to score a TD?

 

But if they score a TD with 20 seconds left, you have to match in kind in 20 seconds. I'd rather have 1 minute and change to get into field goal range than have 20 seconds to do the same or more.

Like I said, I'd rather be running out the clock with my offense on the field. Trying to run out the clock when I don't control the ball is just asking for trouble.

 

I'd slow down quite a bit on the Gotkowski is a HOFer talk. That's a position where you can never talk about locks and the only one of recent vintage is his predecessor.

 

He was a wonderful HOF level kicker for the Pats for a long time. But he had a hip injury, which is as awful for a kicker as it is for a golfer for the same biomechanical reasons.

 

Pump the brakes on HOF for Gostkowski. Jan Stenerud and Morten Andersen are. Adam Vinatieri probably will be in 5-6 years. Not so with Gostkowski.

 

Over the long haul, he was as good or better than Vinatieri, until he got hurt and fell off the shelf. But as I have posted before, there have been four game-winning kicks with a minute or less to go in NFL Championship, forget Super Bowl, history, and Adam has two of 'em. That's what kickers get paid for, and that's why if Adam isn't first ballot I will lose a lot of respect for the Hall electorate, most of whom I know and like.

 

Gostowski is not a Hall of Famer. He has been All-Pro twice and he made the Pro Bowl four times. That's not going to get it done for a kicker. Right now, the top nine in career field goal percentage in NFL history are active. Gostowski is No. 8, behind guys like Robbie Gould, Dan Bailey, and Kris Boswell. If there is an active kicker headed for the Hall of Fame, it is Justin Tucker.

 

The iron law of the Hall of Fame is that Super Bowl wins = installment. That's why Stenerud is in. That's why Vinatieri is gonna be in. And that's why Gostkowski has a case. Don't yell at me, take it up with the electorate. Gostkowski was the league's best kicker in the second iteration of the Patriots dynasty. That's a serious credential, whether we like it or not.

 

OK ... stipulated. But - based on those parameters - how do you explain Morten Andersen's induction? And Stenerud was part of merely one title team.

Understand ... I think Andersen should have been in. Accurate, unparalleled leg strength for the first half of his career ... but didn't play on what the HOF committee would consider powerhouses (hint: their linebackers were second-to-none for a few years of Andersen's time with the Saints).

Stenerud was a soccer-style kicker back when only Pete Gogolak was a pioneer only a few years earlier. John Madden once described the ball Stenerud kicked as having a different sound than others.

None of the Steelers' kickers during their run in the '70s are in. None of the Niners' kickers during their run are in. Neither Efren Herrera nor Rafael Septien from the Cowboys are in.

Something's amiss here. I hear your bigger point, MG, but I smell an entirely different set of criteria for punters and kickers.

 

Exactly. The "iron law" doesn't seem to apply. There are only three kicking specialists in the NFL Hall of Fame who didn't play another position and one of them, Andersen, did not win a Super Bowl. The only other placekicker was Stenerud, who had credentials far beyond any of his contemporaries. That simply isn't true of Gostowski. He had some truly great seasons, but not that many in the context of the long career of a kicker. The rest of the time he was very good, but not at the top of the game.

Tucker has a better case. He has arguably been the best kicker in the league since he arrived in 2012. As a rookie, he made 30 of 33 field goals and he was perfect on extra points for the Super Bowl champions. He has a better field goal and extra point percentages than Gostowski and puts a much higher percentage of his kickoffs into the end zone. Given the committee's history of not respecting kickers, I doubt both guys get in. If that is the case, it's going to be Tucker.

 

Gostowski has an outside shot, but he seems more of a Hall of Very Good who happened to be a member of the Patriots Dynasty Part II. But unlike Vinatieri, he doesn’t really have any iconic kicks that are memorable years later. Vinatieri has his Snow Bowl kicks, and his two game-winners in the Super Bowl.

Tucker may have a good shot if he can keep it going. He’s only 30 and is going into his ninth season, and not only has he been excellent, but at the pace he’s going, he could compile enough field goals and points to surpass Vinatieri if he stays healthy and kicks into his 40s.

 

They’re not gonna put fuckin Gostkowski in the hall. And I’d wager not Vinatieri either, although perhaps he’s in for making timely kicks.

Justin Tucker is probably the best placekicker in NFL history. He’s close to a lock. Anyone else, eh.