I like the kid. I'd take him over Cortez any day. If FOX never showed his pregame kicking, would there even be talk about questioning his FGs? He didn't show much of anything from that. All of his kicks were right down the middle, but the distance was too short to go off. I don't see a reason to dump him because of that.
The only complaint should be his kickoffs. He started off fairly well, but progressively got worse.
Someone posted these stats a while back...
Billy Cundiff 2004
Kick Off Distance Average
61.7 yards
Return Yard Average
17.5
Difference
44.2
Average start line
20.8 yard line
Jose Cortez 2005
Kick Off Distance Average
65.5 yards
Return Yard Average
21.7
Difference
43.8
Average start line
21.2 yard line
Todd France 2005
Kick Off Distance Average
60.6 yards
Return Yard Average
25.1
Difference
35.5
Average start line
29.5 yard line
So I calculated them for Shaun...
7 kick offs
61.4 yards per kick
26.7 avg start
18.1 yards per return
Here is the breakdown by kick:
formated as so...
Distance
Start Pos.
Return Distance
---First Quarter---
65 yards
23 yard line
18 yard return
63 yards
19 yard line
12 yard return
67 yards
23 yard line
20 yard return
---Second Quarter---
56 yards
29 yard line
15 yard return
58 yards
33 yard line
21 yard return
---Third Quarter---
56 yards
27 yard line
13 yards
---Fourth Quarter---
65 yards
33 yard line
28 yards
I'll wait 3 or 4 games (if he's still here, of course) before I make a judgement on him. Heck, 8 weeks into the season, I still don't know which team will show up. I'm not sure I'll know what kind of kicking game will show up either.