FWST Blog: David Buehler on his first game

[FLcowboy]

True, but worth the roster spot and 45 man gameday spot? I'd like to see at least 2 out of every 3 kicks be at least 3 yards deep. That would justify taking two kickers on gameday.

I agree with you. A gameday roster spot is pretty valuable, and simply kicking off is quite a luxury for a team with some major issues. And, if he gets hurt tackling a runner, then he becomes a big liability.

 

[tomson75]

I think a lot of people in this thread are underestimating the importance field position.

He's going to be taking the roster spot from a player that is marginally qualified to be on the field anyway, a special teamer more than likely, and he himself adds another dimension to our special teams with his ability to play on both the kick return and kick coverage units (if he indeed proves that he can). I don't see a problem here.

His positives far outweigh any negatives we'd likely suffer from not having some other Jag out there IMO.

 

[links18]

I'll be happy if he just doesn't kick it out of bounds.

 

[LarryCanadian]

Fair enough links. If we don't care about field goals and don't mind the other team starting at the 40 yard line every possession we can just get McBriar to kick off out of bounds each time, and then we free up TWO roster spots, hehe.

It is an interesting debate. I like the idea though. I agree that the field position is bigger than one roster spot at this time. Having 9 oline like we did last year but never playing Free or McQuistan even when Flo couldn't use his arm didn't really help either.

We are going long at QB this year too though, and just aren't sure about db's and lbers, so could mean we cut a guy that might have something later on down the road, but that is the nature of the business these days.

LarryCanadian

 

[MapleLeaf]

It is an interesting debate. I like the idea though. I agree that the field position is bigger than one roster spot at this time. Having 9 oline like we did last year but never playing Free or McQuistan even when Flo couldn't use his arm didn't really help either.
LarryCanadian

....

1. Special teams plays can be some of the most devastating and game changing plays in all of football. Coaches hate big run backs or returners taking it to the house. (Insert your favourite name here - Devin Hester, Dante Hall, Deion Sanders, Brian Mitchell or SB MVP Desmond Howard)

Not having to defend 30% of your kickoffs is a fabulous problem in relation to giving up that extra roster spot.

2. Even kickers and kicking legs succumb to fatigue or injury. I would consider Buehler as insurance against an injury to Folk and vice versa. If Folk gets injured Buehler can still kick FGs. Let's not get into a scramble to find the Jose Cortez(es) of the world please.

There's no harder and more violent kick in football than the kickoff. It wouldn't surprise me to see a stat that shows most kicker's distances in kickoffs fall off as they get to the end of a 16 game season. Imagine combining that with FG kicking. Many kickers do it, but few do both with excellence.

3. Is there a bigger waste in football than to see a player fall to injury in the return game? Everyone hates seeing your team's nickel linebacker laying on the ground after making a tackle in the return game.

One bad luck play and you lose him for his other (15-20) assigned plays. Less run backs, less likelihood of injured players short of a running injury.

4. Old saying, but field position is part of the special teams sphere. A coach always wants to get 2 out of the 3. (Off., Def. and STs.)

5. Last, but not least, you can look at him as another weapon in the coaching staff's arsenal. That's part of building up a football team - under what certain game conditions do you have specialized weapons to bring out?

I would hazard a guess that many NFL teams do not consider their (53) man to be a specialized weapon. Think of a kickoff specialist as one of those weapons.

I think many know that I have a particular bend for the kicking game being a kicker once, but I for one have enjoyed watching his kickoffs in the first game.

 

[67CowboysFan]

I wonder how many of Buehler's kicks were into the wind? They were playing in the Bay Area. Maybe kicking off from the edge of infield dirt had some effect?

 

[aquavita]

....

1. Special teams plays can be some of the most devastating and game changing plays in all of football. Coaches hate big run backs or returners taking it to the house. (Insert your favourite name here - Devin Hester, Dante Hall, Deion Sanders, Brian Mitchell or SB MVP Desmond Howard)

Not having to defend 30% of your kickoffs is a fabulous problem in relation to giving up that extra roster spot.

2. Even kickers and kicking legs succumb to fatigue or injury. I would consider Buehler as insurance against an injury to Folk and vice versa. If Folk gets injured Buehler can still kick FGs. Let's not get into a scramble to find the Jose Cortez(es) of the world please.

There's no harder and more violent kick in football than the kickoff. It wouldn't surprise me to see a stat that shows most kicker's distances in kickoffs fall off as they get to the end of a 16 game season. Imagine combining that with FG kicking. Many kickers do it, but few do both with excellence.

3. Is there a bigger waste in football than to see a player fall to injury in the return game? Everyone hates seeing your team's nickel linebacker laying on the ground after making a tackle in the return game.

One bad luck play and you lose him for his other (15-20) assigned plays. Less run backs, less likelihood of injured players short of a running injury.

4. Old saying, but field position is part of the special teams sphere. A coach always wants to get 2 out of the 3. (Off., Def. and STs.)

5. Last, but not least, you can look at him as another weapon in the coaching staff's arsenal. That's part of building up a football team - under what certain game conditions do you have specialized weapons to bring out?

I would hazard a guess that many NFL teams do not consider their (53) man to be a specialized weapon. Think of a kickoff specialist as one of those weapons.

I think many know that I have a particular bend for the kicking game being a kicker once, but I for one have enjoyed watching his kickoffs in the first game.

this is 100% the best description of why this is a good move that i've seen

 

[RoadRunner]

I think a lot of people in this thread are underestimating the importance field position.

He's going to be taking the roster spot from a player that is marginally qualified to be on the field anyway, a special teamer more than likely, and he himself adds another dimension to our special teams with his ability to play on both the kick return and kick coverage units (if he indeed proves that he can). I don't see a problem here.

His positives far outweigh any negatives we'd likely suffer from not having some other Jag out there IMO.

There is a lot of upside to Buehler. He may surpass what people expect on touchbacks and overall field position. His being able to contribute as a tackler on kick and punt coverage means that this won't be just another kicker. I have even heard whispers that the team may work him out at holder as well, which would be yet more upside if he can do that job well.

 

[jobberone]

I see no benefit to his holding for PATs. But adding one tackler to the STs should help. Or to go down on punts. That could allow us to keep an extra DL or OL on the 45 roster.

 

[RoadRunner]

I see no benefit to his holding for PATs.

I see no logical reason why you would come to this conclusion.

 

[SDogo]

I'm starting to like the pick more and more

 

[Jay]

No one has brought up the fact that distance isn't everything on kickoffs. You need to take into account the hangtime as well, which has a big influence on starting field position. Even his short kickoff to start the game had good hangtime and they didn't get a good return from it. Folk's kickoffs lacked hangtime, so you can't look at them both kicking to the 4 yard line as being equal.

 

[Four]

I see no benefit to his holding for PATs. But adding one tackler to the STs should help. Or to go down on punts. That could allow us to keep an extra DL or OL on the 45 roster.

I think short gimme field goals and PATs buehler should kick instead of folk, Buehler wouldn't pull a gramatica on a bobbled snap, he might get a piece of the guy.

actually I love folk, but if buehler gets close to folk's accuracy it may make Folk expendable, or I don't know, Folk has ice water in his veins, not sure if buehler has that in him.

 

[links18]

I think short gimme field goals and PATs buehler should kick instead of folk, Buehler wouldn't pull a gramatica on a bobbled snap, he might get a piece of the guy.

actually I love folk, but if buehler gets close to folk's accuracy it may make Folk expendable, or I don't know, Folk has ice water in his veins, not sure if buehler has that in him.

The ice must have melted on his 36 yard off the infield dirt shank.

 

[MapleLeaf]

No one has brought up the fact that distance isn't everything on kickoffs. You need to take into account the hangtime as well, which has a big influence on starting field position. Even his short kickoff to start the game had good hangtime and they didn't get a good return from it. Folk's kickoffs lacked hangtime, so you can't look at them both kicking to the 4 yard line as being equal.

...the poor sister to distance in kick offs. Coaches talk about hang time because Buehler like distance is rare.

If you have true end zone distance who cares if it hangs up another 4/10ths of a second. If it's 7 yards deep only a fool of a returner would take it out. Likely a returner who won't have a job very long.

Another consideration to hang time. Up here in Canada, October the coach always wanted me to kick low driving balls into the colder weather wind in outdoor venues.

Couple of advantages with this.

Ball didn't get hung up in the wind and shorten the kick. Returner more often than not had to deal with a knuckle ball which is harder to handle. Especially if your fingers are cold.

It's not a problem in a place like Green Bay to put the ball on the ground on the kickoff in December and force the kick returner to bend down to play a bouncing football. As the kickoff team you take the odds of a kick that is harder to handle than pure distance. Unless you have that elite kicking leg late in the season.

I wouldn't worry about Buehler's hang time unless he begins to exhibit an alarming tendency to mi**** his kickoffs. Then I would probably begin to think about altering his kicking style to make him a more traditional kickoff kicker with a high kick.

If Beuhler can do both that's great. But I wouldn't chase both elements and fatigue his leg.

 

[TNCowboy]

Well, he sure got a lot closer to the ball carrier than others on kick coverage. He was in on one tackle I thought, and was in the right spot on another. I guess he doesn't have a set guy that blocks him, but he gets down field to help cover in a hurry, so that is good.

I think it is kind of fun. He was brought in to put ball in endzone for touchbacks though, so 1 for 3 ain't gonna cut it over a full season! That is priority 1, and something that can help us with 15-30 yards of field position average a game, which is nothing to sneeze at!

LarryCanadian

So you're asking him to be exponentially better than the best in the league? That's like expecting your QB to throw for 75 TDs and 7,000 yards, or your RB to run for 3,000.

If he puts one out of three in the endzone, he's likely done far more for the team than the 53rd player on the roster or 45th guy on the active roster could ever do.

 

[DallasEast]

He's here for the duration and he hasn't demonstrated anything yet to indicate that he will perform
below his projected draft status. If this is a concern right now, you may as well stock up while the going's good.​

 

[CanadianCowboysFan]

It's "Beeler"

So he pronounces his name incorrectly just like Favre who pronounces what should Favre as Farve.

 

[Angus]

Buehler is sore and needs to rest? That's laughable. Soreness and sleep are the bane of average men, not Supermen like Buehler.

Either Buehler was joking or the journalist is misquoting him. No matter, this journalist will rue the day he ever misrepresented David Buehler.

Scipio, I'm surprised at you. I didn't think you were the kind to fall in with the 'make fun of Buehler' crowd of little men.

 

[Angus]

I agree with you. A gameday roster spot is pretty valuable, and simply kicking off is quite a luxury for a team with some major issues. And, if he gets hurt tackling a runner, then he becomes a big liability.

And if Folk gets hurt he becomes a godsend.