What are we going to do about our K this year?

[NottinghamForest_UK]

The Pittsburgh Steelers have brought in veteran kicker Dave Rayner, sources with knowledge of the situation said Wednesday.
The NFL journeyman kicker has played with eight teams in as many years where he has racked up 65 field goals on 90 attempts and has made 77 of 78 extra points.
Rayner will be another leg in Steelers camp and could serve as some competition for Shaun Suisham.
Rayner was with the Buffalo Bills last season.

[Crash]

IMO Jeff Reed burned his bridges here

No he didn't. If he did they would have never allowed him back into the complex to visit his former teammates, and use their facilities to work out and train during the 2011 season when he was out of work.

[Oviedo]

No he didn't. If he did they would have never allowed him back into the complex to visit his former teammates, and use their facilities to work out and train during the 2011 season when he was out of work.

I believe otherwise when they resign him as a FA and not "the great" Dave Rayner. IMO Jeff Reed is not in their plans and won't be. The could prove me wrong. All it takes is signing him which I still say is very unlikely.

[Crash]

I believe otherwise when they resign him as a FA and not "the great" Dave Rayner. IMO Jeff Reed is not in their plans and won't be. The could prove me wrong. All it takes is signing him which I still say is very unlikely.

They may feel he can't kick for them, that doesn't mean he burned his bridges. If he did they would not allow him to use their facilities.

Tom Donahoe when he left, burned his bridges. They didn't even allow him the courtesy of cleaning out his desk. They boxed his stuff up and sent it to him.

[RuthlessBurgher]

The Pittsburgh Steelers have brought in veteran kicker Dave Rayner, sources with knowledge of the situation said Wednesday.
The NFL journeyman kicker has played with eight teams in as many years where he has racked up 65 field goals on 90 attempts and has made 77 of 78 extra points.
Rayner will be another leg in Steelers camp and could serve as some competition for Shaun Suisham.
Rayner was with the Buffalo Bills last season.

A career 72.2% FG kicker? Wow...they managed to actually find somebody substantially worse than the 79.5% career FG percentage for Shaun Suisham. Congrats...that's not easy.

Both are significantly worse than Jeff Reed's 82.2% career FG percentage. As for burning bridges, I don't care if Jeff Reed comes out to kick at Heinz Field in January shirtless and wearing a beauty queen sash, a bib, and a tiara...if he's got a more reliable leg when we absolutely, positively need 3 points to win a playoff game, then I'd sign him (or even better, Ryan Longwell with his 83.2% career FG percentage and zero damage to Sheetz paper towel dispensers).

With the OL (hopefully) fixed, the next-in-line for weakest link on the team is our kicker. Time to do something about that.

[SteelCrazy]

A career 72.2% FG kicker? Wow...they managed to actually find somebody substantially worse than the 79.5% career FG percentage for Shaun Suisham. Congrats...that's not easy.

Both are significantly worse than Jeff Reed's 82.2% career FG percentage. As for burning bridges, I don't care if Jeff Reed comes out to kick at Heinz Field in January shirtless and wearing a beauty queen sash, a bib, and a tiara...if he's got a more reliable leg when we absolutely, positively need 3 points to win a playoff game, then I'd sign him (or even better, Ryan Longwell with his 83.2% career FG percentage and zero damage to Sheetz paper towel dispensers).

With the OL (hopefully) fixed, the next-in-line for weakest link on the team is our kicker. Time to do something about that.

Total agreement here except for one thing....Longwell's numbers from last year were worse than Suishams. We need to find a young kicker to develope and then keep him for 20 years.

[RuthlessBurgher]

Total agreement here except for one thing....Longwell's numbers from last year were worse than Suishams. We need to find a young kicker to develope and then keep him for 20 years.

Longwell's numbers last year were the worst of his career (22 for 28 is 78.6%), but they were still better than Suisham (23 for 31 is 74.2%). Since the previous 2 seasons before that were Longwell's best (94.4% and 92.9%), I'm willing to concede that 2011 may have been one of those fluke years for him. Suisham is not a fluke...the only thing consistent about him is his mediocrity (and calling him mediocre is kind).

[SteelCrazy]

Longwell's numbers last year were the worst of his career (22 for 28 is 78.6%), but they were still better than Suisham (23 for 31 is 74.2%). Since the previous 2 seasons before that were Longwell's best (94.4% and 92.9%), I'm willing to concede that 2011 may have been one of those fluke years for him. Suisham is not a fluke...the only thing consistent about him is his mediocrity (and calling him mediocre is kind).

Fine Mr. Know It All, you run this team and I'll just watch in silence. Seriously though, I'd love it if they brought the guy in for a look, but weren't Longwell's outside numbers horrible along with 4th worst in touchbacks, 19 I believe. Im all for a change at kicker, but I dont think I want it to be Longwell unless he is the only option.

[RuthlessBurgher]

I already addressed the touchback situation earlier in this thread (that was the only advantage that I gave Suisham other than age, which isn't a huge deal for kickers).

Mr. Know It All can break it down further and look at outside numbers though, if you'd like.

From 20-29 yards, Longwell was 7-7 (100%) and Suisham was 8-8 (100%). Push.
From 30-39 yards, Longwell was 7-8 (87.5%) and Suisham was 6-8 (75%). Advantage: Longwell.
From 40-49 yards, Longwell was 6-10 (60%) and Suisham was 6-11 (54.5%). Advantage: Longwell.
From 50+ yards, Longwell was 2-3 (66.7%) and Suisham was 1-2 (50%). Advantage: Longwell.
Longwell's longest made FG in 2011 was from 53 yards and Suisham's was from 51 yards. Advantage: Longwell.


Sure, it may only be a one kick difference at each level, but those kicks add up over the course of an NFL season where one kick may be the difference in a crucial win or loss.

In 2010, Longwell was 7-7 from 20's, 8-9 from the 30's, 2-2 from the 40's, and did not attempt any 50+ FG's that year.

In 2009, Longwell was 10-10 from 20's, 5-6 from the 30's, 8-9 from the 40's, and 2-2 from 50+.

So in those 2 seasons combined, he had 3 missed FG's total (and 1 of those was missed because it was blocked).

There is a reason that Longwell has had a steady career kicking in all 16 games for 15 straight years with only 2 teams, while Suisham has been a journeyman bouncing around from team-to-team on a tryout basis (in 7 seasons, he has only kicked in all 16 games for the same team 3 times).

Longwell has had bad seasons before in 2001 and 2005 and bounced back both times. He's been a solid kicker for the other dozen seasons he's played (and was excellent as recently as 2009 and 2010). Suisham's best efforts were in partial seasons (going 14-15 in 7 games in 2010, 18-21 in 12 games in 2009, and 8-9 in 5 games in 2006) but every time he was the kicker for a full season, he left a lot to be desired (29-35 in 2007, 26-36 in 2008, and 23-31 in 2011). And, of course, after his only good season with us in 2010, he then faltered in those playoffs, missing twice in 5 attempts.

Survey says that Longwell is better than Suisham (and significantly better than Rayner, who is truly putrid). I hope Rayner was only in for a tryout and not signed, because I'd rather have the rookie UDFA in there instead of Rayner. All I want is a guy who I can be reasonably confident in when he trots out to the field for an important FG (and I think most of us feel the exact opposite of that when Suisham is attempting a big kick), and currently Longwell is the best available guy on the market who fits that criteria for me (I probably could have just said this from the beginning instead of breaking down all of these numbers).

[Oviedo]

I already addressed the touchback situation earlier in this thread (that was the only advantage that I gave Suisham other than age, which isn't a huge deal for kickers).

Mr. Know It All can break it down further and look at outside numbers though, if you'd like.

From 20-29 yards, Longwell was 7-7 (100%) and Suisham was 8-8 (100%). Push.
From 30-39 yards, Longwell was 7-8 (87.5%) and Suisham was 6-8 (75%). Advantage: Longwell.
From 40-49 yards, Longwell was 6-10 (60%) and Suisham was 6-11 (54.5%). Advantage: Longwell.
From 50+ yards, Longwell was 2-3 (66.7%) and Suisham was 1-2 (50%). Advantage: Longwell.
Longwell's longest made FG in 2011 was from 53 yards and Suisham's was from 51 yards. Advantage: Longwell.


Sure, it may only be a one kick difference at each level, but those kicks add up over the course of an NFL season where one kick may be the difference in a crucial win or loss.

In 2010, Longwell was 7-7 from 20's, 8-9 from the 30's, 2-2 from the 40's, and did not attempt any 50+ FG's that year.

In 2009, Longwell was 10-10 from 20's, 5-6 from the 30's, 8-9 from the 40's, and 2-2 from 50+.

So in those 2 seasons combined, he had 3 missed FG's total (and 1 of those was missed because it was blocked).

There is a reason that Longwell has had a steady career kicking in all 16 games for 15 straight years with only 2 teams, while Suisham has been a journeyman bouncing around from team-to-team on a tryout basis (in 7 seasons, he has only kicked in all 16 games for the same team 3 times).

Longwell has had bad seasons before in 2001 and 2005 and bounced back both times. He's been a solid kicker for the other dozen seasons he's played (and was excellent as recently as 2009 and 2010). Suisham's had only one half of a good season (going 14-15 for us in the 7 games he played for us in the 2010 season after replacing Jeff Reed), but then he faltered in those playoffs, missing twice in 5 attempts. Going 18-21 in 12 games in 2009 and 8-9 in 5 games in 2006 were solid efforts, but every time he was the kicker for a full season, he left a lot to be desired (29-35 in 2007, 26-36 in 2008, and 23-31 in 2011).

Survey says that Longwell is better than Suisham (and significantly better than Rayner, who is truly putrid). I hope Rayner was only in for a tryout and not signed, because I'd rather have the rookie UDFA in there instead of Rayner. All I want is a guy who I can be reasonably confident in when he trots out to the field for an important FG (and I think most of us feel the exact opposite of that when Suisham is attempting a big kick), and currently Longwell is the best available guy on the market who fits that criteria for me (I probably could have just said this from the beginning instead of breaking down all of these numbers).

I agree that Longwell is a better choice than Suisham. My slight reservation is the amount of time he kicked in a dome off a good surface.

[RuthlessBurgher]

I agree that Longwell is a better choice than Suisham. My slight reservation is the amount of time he kicked in a dome off a good surface.

His 9 years in Lambeau prior to the 6 years in the Metrodome satisfy that for me. Plus, he's also had to kick at Lambeau and Soldier Field every year while a Viking.

[Discipline of Steel]

With the OL (hopefully) fixed, the next-in-line for weakest link on the team is our kicking game. Time to do something about that.

Dont leave Krapinos out of this conversation.

[Sugar]

Maybe we could get GUS? GUS.jpg

He could make 'em from anywhere on the field!

[RuthlessBurgher]

Dont leave Krapinos out of this conversation.

I think Drew Butler will be our punter this year. Even though he wasn't drafted, most draft sites ranked him the 2nd best punter available (one site even had him ranked first over the guy the Jags drafted in round 3).