Measuring kickers, stats adjusted for difficulty

[nobody]

Too bad you can't contract them to "The percentage of kicks you make is the percentage of agreed upon salary you make."

We agreed to 3 million and you made 90% of the kicks? You get paid 2.7 million.

 

[_sturt_]

Bears have to be a little miffed to have once employed the #1 for so many years, and now enjoy the services of #29.

 

[Pantone282C]

I actually mentioned the issues with Maher in another thread a few days ago ..

When choosing a kicker before a season I would focus on mechanics and of course accuracy history. If the kicker has solid mechanics, you can tweak accuracy if they are a little off.

Maher seems quite accurate when his mechanics are solid, but like a lot of athletes do, he alters his mechanics sometimes when power is not needed. It's just like some baseball players will drop their shoulder to hit of the opposite field or quarterbacks will not set their feet sometimes when throwing a short pass. Its just more noticeable for a kicker since they get so few opportunities each game and their field goals usually have a bigger impact.

At this point, I think Maher has been a good kicker and they should stick with him. I think the special teams coach just needs to harp on using the same mechanics every kick no matter the distance.

Maher looks like he worked on his mechanics. In the Tampa Bay game, he focused on the medium length kicks and the ball trajectory was more in the middle of the goal posts instead of the fade we saw on the misses.This last game, he reverted back to the fade. I think if he corrected it once, he can do it again. But, he doesn't have any margin of error now. He has to start making them. I don't think we jettison him. If you audition other kickers, you may as well cut him.

 

[_sturt_]

Every stadium every day is potentially a different environment for kicking an oblong ball, and potentially even different on one end compared to the other end. We all know that a kicker has to be prepared to make adjustments accordingly from game to game, and sometimes even from one half to the next half.

The numbers say we are in an enviable position compared to all but New Orleans of our NFC counterparts, and the reality is us fans should look around and see the bigger picture and appreciate what we have.