FanPost

Pioli knows Kickers



Most of us were surprised by the move to cut Connor Barth in favor of Ryan Succop.

I, like most of you, expected them to battle it out in Training Camp to see who was the best man for the job.

UCrawford insists that FG percentage in college and the pros is the ONLY way to evaluate the two kickers.

Ravenhawk says that "you can fix accuracy, you can’t fix a whimp."

Chiefs_KC points out that Barth's numbers last year were not as favorable if you break them down by distance.. he didn't really attempt or make much of anything over 39 yds.

The point Chiefs_KC made that intrigued me, however was "Gostkowski’s kick avg was 64 yds and FG% led the league at 90% and was a Pioli draft pick. "

Let's look at Gostowski's numbers from college, and see how they compare to Succop... and see if Pioli knows how to pick a kicker. (given the fact that Gostowski is a Pro Bowler now... you know what I'm thinking)

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College Career: Made 70-of-92 field goals during his career, good for a 76.1 percent accuracy rate ... ... Over his final two seasons, made 85.7 percent of his field goal attempts (42-of-49) ...

Senior Year: Made 22 of his 25 field goal tries (88.0 percent) and all 35 extra point attempts

Junior Year: Selected first-team All-Conference USA ... Set a school single-season record with 108 points scored, connecting on 20-of-24 field goals (83.3 percent) and 48-of-49 extra point attempts ...

Sophomore Year: In his second season as Memphis' kicker, scored 101 points on 19-of-29 field goals (65.5 percent) and all 44 extra point attempts ...

Freshman Year: Lettered while appearing in all 12 games ... Made 9-of-14 field goal attempts (64.3 percent), including a 50-yarder in the season opener vs. Murray State ... Also made 32-of-37 PATs and finished with 59 points scored.

http://www.patriots.com/team/index.cfm?ac=playerbio&bio=32013

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Succop's stats

2006 16 20 80.0 37 39 85
2007 13 17 76.5 37 37 76
2008 20 30 66.7 30 30 90

http://espndb.go.com/ncf/player/profile?playerId=173684

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MY CONCLUSION:

Succop had a down year in 2008, due to injury.

Had he been healthy, he would have been just as accurate, if not more accurate than Steven Gostowski.

Gostowski has gone on to have a great first 3 years of his pro career, and is now among the best in the NFL.

  • Entering the 2009 season, and including the playoffs, Gostkowski has hit 77-of-90 career field goal attempts, and his 85.6 percent accuracy rate is the highest in Patriots history.
  • In 2008, Gostkowski was named to his first career Pro Bowl and also earned a spot on the Associated Press All- Pro First Team.
  • http://www.patriots.com/team/index.cfm?ac=playerbio&bio=32013
  • Gostkowski replaced a legend in Adam Vinatieri
  • http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-190857111.html

    FOXBORO - Stephen Gostkowski replaced a New England legend three years ago, but he never let the pressure of taking over for Adam Vinatieri get to him.

    He just performed.

    "When fans or somebody comes up to me and says, `We haven't missed that guy,' it's nice to hear," Gostkowski said yesterday. "I can't duplicate what that guy did, but to hear you're doing a good job like he did, that's pretty cool."

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    While there's no guarantee that Succop will be the next Gostowski... the success of Gostowski should bring some confidence in the ability of Pioli to select a kicker.

    there has been a good debate about the Barth for Succop move here http://www.arrowheadpride.com/2009/7/28/966900/chiefs-choose-k-succop-connor and http://www.arrowheadpride.com/2009/7/28/967039/release-came-at-a-bad-time-for

    Some of the best points made, in my opinion are:

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    Take a guess who’s stats these are
    80% in college

    These are the stats of his first 5 years in the pros.
    76.9%
    72.2%
    79.2%
    80.0%
    69.7%

    If you answered Nick Lowery then you get a gumball. If you stick with him you have:

    * most field goals all-time (384)
    * most accurate all-time (from 1984-1997 Lowery held the all-time accuracy mark for 10 of those 12 years)
    * most 50 yard field goals
    * most games with 2 or more 50 yarders
    * Lowery also held the record for best PAT % since the goal posts were moved back 10 yards and PAT’s became 20 yarders, not 10 yarders.
    * Lowery received the NFL Players Association’s most prestigious humanitarian award, the Byron Whizzer White Award, in 1993.
    * Lowery kicked more than 15 game-winners during his career, including in 2 playoff games vs. the Raiders in 1992 and Steelers in 1994, and also kicked the game-winning points in all 3 Pro Bowls in 1982, 1991 and 1993.
    * 2007 NFL Hall of Fame nominee

    So you can fix accuracy, you can’t fix a whimp.

    by ravenhawk on Jul 29, 2009 8:07 AM CDT to parent up reply reply actions actions 0 recs

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    Just for UC....

    Barths Collegiate percentage(since he loves useless stats): 76%
    Succops percentage: 73%(including injury season where he didnt practice) 78% removing injured season.

    78 > 73

    Ryan Succop- 2 time runner up for the Lou Groza Award for Best Collegiate Place Kicker.
    Connor Barth- No significant collegiate awards or nominations.

    Ryan Succop- Made all but one FG in offseason
    Connor Barth- Missed frequent attempts in offseason

    "Success is never ending, failure is never final."

    by GenericBrand on Jul 28, 2009 10:04 PM CDT reply reply actions actions 0 recs

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    Here is what Gretz

    reported during OTA’s and Mini Camp

    OTA Update 6/1
    June 1, 2009
    – The kickers were very active on field goals throughout the practice and while we couldn’t chart every kick, rookie Ryan Succop looked like he was having a good day. He was six-for-six from 43 yards away with a nice cross breeze coming from his right to left. He then hit a 51-yarder. Connor Barth hit an upright from close in on one of his FG attempts and went three of four from 43 yards, missing wide right.

    Mini-Camp Update 6/5 P.M.
    June 5, 2009
    – The Chiefs worked on field goals during their special teams work. Second-year man Connor Barth hit five of six, while rookie Ryan Succop was seven for seven. The kicks were between 28 and 36 yards.

    Mini-Camp Update 6/6 P.M.
    June 6, 2009
    – Kickers Connor Barth and Ryan Succop were both four-for-four on FGs from 32, 39, 43 and 45 yards. That was a pretty good effort given that there was a strong wind out of the southeast blowing into the practice fields. It was at the kickers back, but blowing from left to right.

    by markc on Jul 28, 2009 9:32 PM CDT reply reply actions actions 2 recs

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    Barth's numbers last year were terrible

    Barth’s FG % last year was 82% (10/12) but look at where they came from

    6/6 20-29 yds (100 %)
    3/4 30-39 yds (75 %)
    1/1 40-49 yds (100 %)
    0/1 50+ yds (0 %)

    So… 4/6 (66%) on FGs over 29 yds and not many attempts over 40 yds so that tells me that Herm wasn’t very confident in his ability to make anything over 40 yds and "give up" field position to the other team. Then look at Barth’s kick-off numbers… he was ranked 46th in the league, 58.6 yds. No one with over 3 kickoffs had a worse average, which means they were emergency kicks due to losing the primary kicker, or the HC realized they needed to bring in a kick-off specialist. John Carney’s average was 60.4 yds! Gostkowski’s kick avg was 64 yds and FG% led the league at 90% and was a Pioli draft pick. Succop’s kicks will help special teams and will be more accurate on FGs outside of 30 yds than Barth.

    As for kicker competition in training camp, I think Succop is more mentally tough than Medlock was. I had a draft magazine the year Medlock was drafted and both Folk and Crosby were ranked ahead of Medlock. The magazine even said that Medlock had character concerns so I don’t kow how Carl and Herm coudn’t have seen that.

    by Chiefs_KC on Jul 29, 2009 1:33 AM CDT reply reply actions actions 3 recs

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    This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of Arrowhead Pride's writers or editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of Arrowhead Pride writers or editors.