Rookie kicker on target, but is it good for Cowboys?
by Jean-Jacques Taylor
MINNEAPOLIS – Jerry Jones hasn't employed a quality kicker since Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith and Michael Irvin starred on Sundays.
So you shouldn't really be surprised the Cowboys have used nine kickers since the start of the 1998 season.
You should expect Nick Folk, a sixth-round pick, to be No. 10. That's not necessarily a positive.
Folk continued his perfect preseason Thursday with a couple of extra points and three solid kickoffs in Minnesota's 23-14 win over Dallas in the final exhibition game of the season. (What else can you call it when 16 of 22 Cowboys' starters don't even play?)
Folk made each of his six extra points and all three of his field goal attempts, including a 52-yard kick against Denver two weeks ago that intensified the competition, to go along with solid kickoffs. Still, when you have a team that's supposed to contend for a spot in the Super Bowl, it should make Jones and every player, coach and scout nervous to have a rookie kicker.
It's not that Martin Gramatica is flawless. After all, he's with his third team since 2004 – he didn't even play in 2005 – but he has kicked in a Super Bowl and he has made important kicks to win games in his eight-year career.
Last season, he made a 46-yard kick on the road with six seconds left to beat the New York Giants in his first game with the Cowboys.
He has demonstrated the ability to win a game; Folk has not. At least not yet.
It's really that simple.
In today's NFL, you have to play rookies because they represent cheap labor in this era of salary-cap constraints, but most teams don't play rookie quarterbacks because they tend to struggle. Most championship-caliber teams don't have rookie kickers because at some point they're going to need a field goal to win a game and they feel more comfortable having a player on the roster who has done it before.
Don't talk to me about Lin Elliott being a rookie kicker for the 1992 Cowboys, because that was one of the best teams in NFL history, a club that could overcome him making only 24 of 35 attempts.
And don't tell me about New England using a rookie kicker last year. The Patriots spent a fourth-round pick on Stephen Gostkowski, considered one of college football's top kickers in 2006.
Maybe, Folk will do the job this year and it will be the catalyst for a marvelous 10-year career. We don't know. Neither does he. No one does.
Thus, the uncomfortable feeling.
This would not represent a new approach for the Cowboys. For years, Jones took the frugal route when it came to signing kickers. For the first few years of his ownership tenure, it worked. The last decade, though, has been dreadful.
It bottomed out last season, when Jones spent a king's ransom by his standard to sign free agent Mike Vanderjagt, the most accurate kicker in NFL history. He was supposed to solve all of the Cowboys' kicking woes.
Instead, he was awful. Actually, he was worse than that.
The result: Dallas made just 71.4 percent of its field goal attempts last season, worst in the NFL. Playoff teams made 84.3 percent of their field goal attempts.
It represented the fifth time since 1998 the Cowboys ranked among the league's bottom five in field goal percentage. Four times, the Cowboys have used two or more kickers in a season.
Ridiculous.
No good team operates that way. Not when you hear coaches talk about how important a good kicking game is to winning. Of course, Dallas hasn't been an elite team in a long time.
Perhaps, Folk will be the player to end this vicious cycle of worthless kickers.
He entered training camp as an underdog, in part, because Gramatica signed a two-year deal worth $2.05 million in the off-season that included a $200,000 signing bonus and an $800,000 base salary that's guaranteed if he plays against the Giants.
"I've had a pretty good preseason. I've kicked well and we'll see what happens," Folk said. "You do what you do, try to stay consistent and don't change your approach because of anything the person you're competing against is doing."
If he makes the team, as expected, Folk will earn $285,000. More important, Dallas will control him at a bargain price through 2010.
Gramatica missed an extra point last week and struggled with his kickoffs after playing through a strained hamstring he sustained before the game. He did not play against Minnesota.
"We're going to go with the kicker I think can make the most extra points and the most field goals," Jones said. "whether he's a rookie is not going to be a factor."
Sounds like Jones already has made up his mind.
MINNEAPOLIS – Jerry Jones hasn't employed a quality kicker since Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith and Michael Irvin starred on Sundays.
So you shouldn't really be surprised the Cowboys have used nine kickers since the start of the 1998 season.
You should expect Nick Folk, a sixth-round pick, to be No. 10. That's not necessarily a positive.
Folk continued his perfect preseason Thursday with a couple of extra points and three solid kickoffs in Minnesota's 23-14 win over Dallas in the final exhibition game of the season. (What else can you call it when 16 of 22 Cowboys' starters don't even play?)
Folk made each of his six extra points and all three of his field goal attempts, including a 52-yard kick against Denver two weeks ago that intensified the competition, to go along with solid kickoffs. Still, when you have a team that's supposed to contend for a spot in the Super Bowl, it should make Jones and every player, coach and scout nervous to have a rookie kicker.
It's not that Martin Gramatica is flawless. After all, he's with his third team since 2004 – he didn't even play in 2005 – but he has kicked in a Super Bowl and he has made important kicks to win games in his eight-year career.
Last season, he made a 46-yard kick on the road with six seconds left to beat the New York Giants in his first game with the Cowboys.
He has demonstrated the ability to win a game; Folk has not. At least not yet.
It's really that simple.
In today's NFL, you have to play rookies because they represent cheap labor in this era of salary-cap constraints, but most teams don't play rookie quarterbacks because they tend to struggle. Most championship-caliber teams don't have rookie kickers because at some point they're going to need a field goal to win a game and they feel more comfortable having a player on the roster who has done it before.
Don't talk to me about Lin Elliott being a rookie kicker for the 1992 Cowboys, because that was one of the best teams in NFL history, a club that could overcome him making only 24 of 35 attempts.
And don't tell me about New England using a rookie kicker last year. The Patriots spent a fourth-round pick on Stephen Gostkowski, considered one of college football's top kickers in 2006.
Maybe, Folk will do the job this year and it will be the catalyst for a marvelous 10-year career. We don't know. Neither does he. No one does.
Thus, the uncomfortable feeling.
This would not represent a new approach for the Cowboys. For years, Jones took the frugal route when it came to signing kickers. For the first few years of his ownership tenure, it worked. The last decade, though, has been dreadful.
It bottomed out last season, when Jones spent a king's ransom by his standard to sign free agent Mike Vanderjagt, the most accurate kicker in NFL history. He was supposed to solve all of the Cowboys' kicking woes.
Instead, he was awful. Actually, he was worse than that.
The result: Dallas made just 71.4 percent of its field goal attempts last season, worst in the NFL. Playoff teams made 84.3 percent of their field goal attempts.
It represented the fifth time since 1998 the Cowboys ranked among the league's bottom five in field goal percentage. Four times, the Cowboys have used two or more kickers in a season.
Ridiculous.
No good team operates that way. Not when you hear coaches talk about how important a good kicking game is to winning. Of course, Dallas hasn't been an elite team in a long time.
Perhaps, Folk will be the player to end this vicious cycle of worthless kickers.
He entered training camp as an underdog, in part, because Gramatica signed a two-year deal worth $2.05 million in the off-season that included a $200,000 signing bonus and an $800,000 base salary that's guaranteed if he plays against the Giants.
"I've had a pretty good preseason. I've kicked well and we'll see what happens," Folk said. "You do what you do, try to stay consistent and don't change your approach because of anything the person you're competing against is doing."
If he makes the team, as expected, Folk will earn $285,000. More important, Dallas will control him at a bargain price through 2010.
Gramatica missed an extra point last week and struggled with his kickoffs after playing through a strained hamstring he sustained before the game. He did not play against Minnesota.
"We're going to go with the kicker I think can make the most extra points and the most field goals," Jones said. "whether he's a rookie is not going to be a factor."
Sounds like Jones already has made up his mind.
posted by The Gryphon at 11:21 AM
<< Home