There were 19 missed kicks today

I still want Carlson booted from the team

Carlson missed 16% of them

Burning a 5th round pick on a Kicker should never be done.
But I'm starting to think trading a draft pick for a proven Kicker might not be such a bad idea. I hope we try to get Bailey but if we don't for some reason, I'd be more than fine with trading for a guy at the deadline.
It sounds crazy to burn a pick but if we look like a legit contender and our kicking game is still terrible, I'd be happy to go "all in" and trade a 4th rounder for a kicker. Again, I know it sounds crazy. But kicking is so important and clearly Rick is willing to spend draft capital on kickers. He's just not doing it the right way. Some team with a bad record will have a good kicker (Detroit? SF? CIN?). Do a deal.

I hope we get Bailey but if not, I'm open to options. Sick of watching shanks.

You had ONE JOB

As we saw today, having a good kicker is crucial. However, we also saw that regardless of a kicker's physical ability that they need to be mentally resilient. It's a hard job. You have a few opportunities to make an impact in a game and if something goes wrong, it's not like you get to go out there the next play and move on. You're left to linger with the mistake you made. Because of that, I felt like drafting a kicker as high as we did was a mistake. Yes, he has all the physical traits you want in a kicker, but if he can't be resilient enough to move on from mistakes, then the team needs to bring in a new kicker. He was struggling in the preseason, yet the team cut Forbath early and cost us a victory against the Packers. Hopefully, we go out and bring in a proven kicker who has shown they can handle mental side of the game. All kickers will struggle and all kickers will miss, but missing three kicks in a row all in the exact same way is not acceptable. 

Missing a 50+ yarder....I can't be too upset.  A 48 yarder...it happens.  But missing one that is in essence an extra point?  Inexcusable.

I have a difficult time buying into the mental side of kickers. It’s only one job and should be near automatic. Let’s put it in perspective. If you miss a kick you may lose a GAME. I get if a guy is in the Superbowl but other than that there should be little real pressure. There are other jobs out there with real pressure that make life and death decisions for far less pay. When I was point on a SWAT team for 3 years I couldn’t have a bad day or make a bad decision/perform poorly. People/teammates/myself die or suffer great injury as a consequence. A surgeon performing a higher risk procedure can’t mail in their performance. The decision making we put on our warriors overseas - all real pressure situations. Not to be flippant but I wanted to give some background to why I can be very harsh on kickers. Unless they think they can fix his head by next week he should be cleaning out his locker by noon tomorrow to make room for a guy with his mind right. I don’t think I’ll ever be down with drafting a kicker. It sucks that we burned another pick (in a spot that brought us Stefon Diggs) on a kicker unable to perform the simple job asked asked of them. 

See ball kick ball. That’s all it is. Like Ralph said, you’re going to miss a 48 or 52 yarder now and then because it is a challenging distance. Otherwise there really is no excuse. 

Something has gone wrong with his muscle memory of FG kicking. The question is how quickly can they figure it out and correct it.

  NFL needs to come up with a new rule to protect kickers...egos.

It's not just how many alone that is disturbing. It's how wide as well. Jeez one of them didn't even hit the netting I think. The equivalent of sticking your dart in the wall. Could even hit the freaking board let alone the bullseye.
That's a serious mental block there. We need to cut him early this week and find someone new. He's going to freeze up again.

@"muydnbejydk" said:   NFL needs to come up with a new rule to protect kickers...egos.

Put kickers on weekly contracts.  Miss either two FG's or XP's...gone!  That should help them stay focused.

@"suncoastvike" said: It's not just how many alone that is disturbing. It's how wide as well. Jeez one of them didn't even hit the netting I think. The equivalent of sticking your dart in the wall. Could even hit the freaking board let alone the bullseye. That's a serious mental block there. We need to cut him early this week and find someone new. He's going to freeze up again.

@"Mike Olson" said:

@"suncoastvike" said: It's not just how many alone that is disturbing. It's how wide as well. Jeez one of them didn't even hit the netting I think. The equivalent of sticking your dart in the wall. Could even hit the freaking board let alone the bullseye. That's a serious mental block there. We need to cut him early this week and find someone new. He's going to freeze up again.

Agreed. This is the type of mental breakdown in his game that WILL show up again. You need a kicker that isn't afraid to miss in the crucial moments. that might sound odd, but if he goes out there scared that he will miss.... It is more likely that he will miss. 

@"JimmyinSD" said:

@"Mike Olson" said:

@"suncoastvike" said: It's not just how many alone that is disturbing. It's how wide as well. Jeez one of them didn't even hit the netting I think. The equivalent of sticking your dart in the wall. Could even hit the freaking board let alone the bullseye. That's a serious mental block there. We need to cut him early this week and find someone new. He's going to freeze up again.

Agreed. This is the type of mental breakdown in his game that WILL show up again. You need a kicker that isn't afraid to miss in the crucial moments. that might sound odd, but if he goes out there scared that he will miss.... It is more likely that he will miss. 

yup.  I have always said kicking is more like golf than football.  when you are relaxed and just playing loose and good,  its easy to play good golf,  but then all of of a sudden one goes off the toe of the club or you hit one fat or what ever and you can be like "it happens"  and move on from there,  however if you are playing for money and your competition is right in your face about it... its hard to put that one shot behind you at times.  now unfortunatley for us we dont know if he can or not and we might not be able to afford a better guy.  our punter has kicking experience,  but he was worse than Carlson IIRC.

@"suncoastvike" said:

@"JimmyinSD" said:

@"Mike Olson" said:

@"suncoastvike" said: It's not just how many alone that is disturbing. It's how wide as well. Jeez one of them didn't even hit the netting I think. The equivalent of sticking your dart in the wall. Could even hit the freaking board let alone the bullseye. That's a serious mental block there. We need to cut him early this week and find someone new. He's going to freeze up again.

Agreed. This is the type of mental breakdown in his game that WILL show up again. You need a kicker that isn't afraid to miss in the crucial moments. that might sound odd, but if he goes out there scared that he will miss.... It is more likely that he will miss. 

yup.  I have always said kicking is more like golf than football.  when you are relaxed and just playing loose and good,  its easy to play good golf,  but then all of of a sudden one goes off the toe of the club or you hit one fat or what ever and you can be like "it happens"  and move on from there,  however if you are playing for money and your competition is right in your face about it... its hard to put that one shot behind you at times.  now unfortunatley for us we dont know if he can or not and we might not be able to afford a better guy.  our punter has kicking experience,  but he was worse than Carlson IIRC.

I don't know about golf. I might be the only Floridian who doesn't golf. It's like bowling, pool or darts. Three games I do enjoy. When your in the zone everything goes just like you see it in your mind. As soon as it leaves your hand, stick or in his case foot , you know it's good. When it's not working you over think it. You grip too tight. You just plain choke. We can't efford to have him choking in big games. 

Tom brought up a good point yesterday and one that we had talked about with a few packer fans in the parking lot. Mason Crosby, the longtime Packer kicker had gone through an absolutely dreadful season as well. The question is do we have patience to work through that with this kid THIS year? 

@"JimmyinSD" said:

@"suncoastvike" said:

@"JimmyinSD" said:

@"Mike Olson" said:

@"suncoastvike" said: It's not just how many alone that is disturbing. It's how wide as well. Jeez one of them didn't even hit the netting I think. The equivalent of sticking your dart in the wall. Could even hit the freaking board let alone the bullseye. That's a serious mental block there. We need to cut him early this week and find someone new. He's going to freeze up again.

Agreed. This is the type of mental breakdown in his game that WILL show up again. You need a kicker that isn't afraid to miss in the crucial moments. that might sound odd, but if he goes out there scared that he will miss.... It is more likely that he will miss. 

yup.  I have always said kicking is more like golf than football.  when you are relaxed and just playing loose and good,  its easy to play good golf,  but then all of of a sudden one goes off the toe of the club or you hit one fat or what ever and you can be like "it happens"  and move on from there,  however if you are playing for money and your competition is right in your face about it... its hard to put that one shot behind you at times.  now unfortunatley for us we dont know if he can or not and we might not be able to afford a better guy.  our punter has kicking experience,  but he was worse than Carlson IIRC.

I don't know about golf. I might be the only Floridian who doesn't golf. It's like bowling, pool or darts. Three games I do enjoy. When your in the zone everything goes just like you see it in your mind. As soon as it leaves your hand, stick or in his case foot , you know it's good. When it's not working you over think it. You grip too tight. You just plain choke. We can't efford to have him choking in big games. 

funny thing is no matter who you bring in... they all seem to go through the issue.  I am not saying Carlson will ever get it right,  but the next guy in the same environement may develop the same issue.   I am not sure that there isnt more to this story,  to have 3 straight kickers go to shit is just nuts.   I just wonder how our ST specialists are treated by the coaches and teammates, especially when they  fuck up.  I know they got to be mentally tough and soldiers have more pressure and all the other tough talk being thrown out there today,  but I am trying to look at this in a big picture way and figure out why no kicker has found any comfort with this team in 4 years.