Redskins sign Billy Cundiff

It's also possible the coaching staff expects Cundiff to be doing more kickoffs after TDs than "We can't get near the endzone" FG attempts which, with his ability to boom touchbacks, could come in handy. Along a similar vein and also plausible is the idea that 50+ yard FG attempts may be seen as becoming less necessary with a more productive offense.

I'm just trying to come with reasonable possible explanations rather then knee-jerking into an immediate panic mode.
 
i actually think touchbacks are bad.

with the new rule, if you put the ball right on at at the goal line, you'll force the guy to come out. when he comes out you can stop him at the 10 or 15. it happens on a regular basis. just booming it through the endzone is weak in my opinion.
 
Lanky Livingston said:
Cundiff has played for 9 different teams in 9 seasons...yeah, that's the sign of a FANTASTIC kicker!
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Really?

http://espn.go.com/nfl/player/stats/_/id/4245/billy-cundiff

Regular Season Kicking Stats

SEASON TEAM GP FGM FGA PCT 1-19 20-29 30-39 40-49 50+ LNG XPM XPA PTS
2002 DAL 16 12 19 63.2 0 3 7 8 1 48 25 25 61
2003 DAL 15 23 29 79.3 0 11 6 7 5 52 30 31 99
2004 DAL 16 20 26 76.9 1 6 4 13 2 49 31 31 91
2005 DAL 6 5 8 62.5 1 1 5 0 1 56 14 14 29
2006 NO 5 0 1 0.0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0
2009 CLE 5 6 6 100.0 1 4 1 0 0 31 4 4 22
2009 BAL 7 12 17 70.6 0 5 7 3 2 46 19 19 55
2010 BAL 16 26 29 89.7 0 11 9 8 1 49 39 39 117
2011 BAL 15 28 37 75.7 1 9 12 9 6 51 38 38 122
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All hyperventilation aside....what I DO recall is that prior to missing the kick against NE in the AFC title game last year, my Ravens fans friends were high as hell on Cundiff. 2010 Pro Bowler. 26 of 29 (89.7%). No, not a good 50+ kicker last year, but if my math is right, 27 of 31 in < 49 yarders ( 87%) in 2011. Plus consistently getting touchbacks on kickoffs.

Can we not make this like we just replaced Jan Stenerud in his prime with Ali Haji-Sheik?

*

Edit to add....hasn't had a FG blocked since 2003. :cool:
 
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One aspect of the kickoff that is being over looked is that Gano was asked to drop the ball near the sideline at about the goal line to the 5 yard line to pin the returner into the corner. He did this well in the beginning but then a poorly timed kick out of bounds and it was never the same.

I am not going to speculate on why the Cundiff signing happened. Shanahan will give us the diplomatic answer so we'll probably never know for sure, but it's obviously not for his ability to make FG's beyond 50 yards.
 
Cundiff is 5-for-19 in his career on 50+ FGs. Gano was 4-for-6 last season, tying single-season Redskins record for made 50+FGs
 
Well, I'm not panicking. And I know full well that coaches have their reasons, and they do NOT owe an explanation to anyone.

But on the surface, I keep going back, to the crack.

Unless they were on the phone two seconds after Cundiff got cut, again, trying to sign him, this looks like a monkey ****ing a bowling ball.

Cerrato's house would be on fire by now.

Just sayin'.
 
Are you guys looking at the big picture at all? Gano was hardly an established kicker here...just the latest in a very long line of "maybe" guys that stretches back to when Jess Atkinson got cheap-shotted by Andre Waters.

FG kickers aren't measured by their % from 50+. In Cundiff they're getting a guy who, before missing against NE last January, was establishing himself as one of the more consistent veteran kickers in football. Baltimore released him because of that kick...he makes that kick and we are NOT talking him today because he is locked in as the kicker of a championship contender up the road.

He's also money in touchbacks, which, for MY money, is money. I'll take giving the other guy an 80 yard field over the course of a game every damn time.

Is he Adam Vinatieri? No. Then again, only one guy is. The rest of them, Gano included, are "only as good as their last kick."

I won't lose any sleep over Graham Gano. And I'll give Billy Cundiff every benefit of the doubt until he proves otherwise.
 
Well, you won't have to look hard to find my support for running Gano out of town in tar and feathers.

Just seems like the guy we're replacing him with, is riding into town in, tar and feathers.

I'll pull for the guy like I do every man wearing the uniform. But my already non existent comfort with our kicking game has not been improved by the signing itself. It's an even bigger question mark.
 
I mean, of course with every acquisition you take a "wait and see" approach, especially kicker...but come on, Om. The guy JUST cost his team a superbowl bid by shanking a gimme 32-yarder! You're only as good as your last kick....well his last kick was AWFUL.
 
LL,

Do you recall the lay of the land in each of those occasions he had a cup of coffee with a team, and where he was in his career at the time? Otherwise it just seems like a convenient stat to bolster a negative reaction to a new signing.

Kickers go from town to town to start their careers all the time, you know that. Some of them, eventually, find the light switch and stick somewhere. Cundiff seemed to have done that in Baltimore.

I'm far more interested in the details of the last few years of his career, and why the Ravens let a guy apparently reaching the peak of his career go. Again, he makes that kick in NE last year, we're not having this conversation. Do you disagree?
 
Lanky Livingston said:
I mean, of course with every acquisition you take a "wait and see" approach, especially kicker...but come on, Om. The guy JUST cost his team a superbowl bid by shanking a gimme 32-yarder! You're only as good as your last kick....well his last kick was AWFUL.
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Jeez, Lanky. Does the term reductio ad absurdum mean anything to you? :scholar:
 
It's not (for me) that I love Gano so much. It's that Cundiff just crapped the bed in Baltimore, and that can stick with a guy for a LONG time. Don't I remember Mike Vanderjagt being an all time kicker until he missed one (hence the Idiot Liquored Up Kicker comment, iirc), and then it was all downhill from there?

Kickers psyches appear to be rather fragile; not sure I wanna bet on a guy that just missed a crucial short kick.
 
Om said:
LL,

Do you recall the lay of the land in each of those occasions he had a cup of coffee with a team, and where he was in his career at the time? Otherwise it just seems like a convenient stat to bolster a negative reaction to a new signing.
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Admittedly, no. If I remembered the circumstances going back 10 years for a non-Redskins kicker, I would admit myself to some sort of pysch-ward for football addicts, lol.

Kickers go from town to town to start their careers all the time, you know that. Some of them, eventually, find the light switch and stick somewhere. Cundiff seemed to have done that in Baltimore.

I'm far more interested in the details of the last few years of his career, and why the Ravens let a guy apparently reaching the peak of his career go. Again, he makes that kick in NE last year, we're not having this conversation. Do you disagree?
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Of course not...no reason to cut him if he makes that kick. But that sort of silliness is irrelevant, no? He missed the kick, and here we sit. My point about kickers' confidence was not addressed either...remember Vanderjagt? He missed a kick and was never the same. Drank himself out of the NFL after a brief stint with Dallas.
 
I remember VanderIdiot, yes. That's one. And HE was an idiot BEFORE he missed. :cool:

Point is what? That sometimes one missed kick can mess with a guy's head? Okay, I'll grant that. I wonder what having 4-5 blocked in a season, consistently missing makeable kicks and not really being all that good overall can do to a guy?
 
Fear The Spear said:
You can maybe rationalize a case or theory for Cundiff over Gano......
but Cundiff over Rackers ?? No-way does that make any sense !
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I'm still looking at that too, Fear. I initially thought, based on his career, that Rackers was going to blow Gano away and be our guy. Going to try to dig a little deeper into why that didn't translate here.

If anyone has any intel on that, do share.
 
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