The Colts are officially working out kickers

[Pacergeek]

Working out Cody Parkey is a fireable offense IMO. WTH is Ballard thinking?

[BigQungus]

12 hours ago, jvan1973 said:

Broncos went to two superbowls.  Won one,   set multiple offensive records.    Andrew Luck retired at 29

 

You're missing the whole point. Andrew Luck retired cause we couldn't protect him. Who says the same thing, or actually probably worse, wouldn't have happened to Peyton if we let him take the hits Andrew took?

[BigQungus]

9 minutes ago, Pacergeek said:

Working out Cody Parkey is a fireable offense IMO. WTH is Ballard thinking?

 

Do you know what the word fireable means? I will give you a second chance to edit or redact this statement, because surely you don't think Ballard should be fired for working out a kicker......

[BigQungus]

7 hours ago, zibby43 said:

Give me Koo.

 

Dude was a Groza award finalist and was scapegoated in San Diego.

 

No.

 

He had like 3 kicks blocked with the Chargers cause apparently he has way too much of a wind up or something like that

[Fanatic]

Chase McLaughlin is the best pick out of the bunch. 

[Coffeedrinker]

12 hours ago, jvan1973 said:

Not really.   We ended up up with very little in teens of success.   We could have had 3 extra first rounders.   It's impossible to know who they would have been,   but we would have been better off now

While that would have been nice, in hindsight we know that Grigs would have wasted those picks.

 

Plus, I don't think it was Irsay's decision to release Manning.  I think it was Manning's decision to be released.  New GM, new coaches all screamed rebuilding and Manning was too far along to be part of another rebuilding.  He probably heard Grigs' philosophy on building an oline and figured he'd get creamed and knew he was too old for that.

[BigQungus]

Alright, I'm gonna go ahead and say it. This won't be popular at all.

 

I think we should keep Vinny for another week at least.

 

I thought we should cut him/he should retire after that Titans game, but after seeing these kickers, I changed my mind. None of these kickers excite me at all. None of these guys seem like they can hit 50 or even 40 yarders on a regular basis. 

 

Now obviously the retort is well Vinny can't hit PATs on a regular basis, or at least it seems like. But just last week it was reported that he hit a 60 and 64 yard field goals. His decline isn't physical, it's mental, which means it can be reversed. And Adam Vinatieri is one of the strongest mental players I know. I think it's worth it to see if he can snap out of this before we move on.

 

It's a very risky decision, but I think it's the right one. At the very least, it's better than going to a kicker that can hit PATs but not much else.

[Coffeedrinker]

27 minutes ago, BigQungus said:

 

Do you know what the word fireable means? I will give you a second chance to edit or redact this statement, because surely you don't think Ballard should be fired for working out a kicker......

Since you are fairly new to the forum and have already proven to be a good poster I will say... Do Not feed the troll that is Pacergeek.

[Myles]

58 minutes ago, Pacergeek said:

Working out Cody Parkey is a fireable offense IMO. WTH is Ballard thinking?

The guy has had a pretty solid career.   

 

[Fanatic]

Chase McLaughlin over Cody Parkey. He's ready.

[coltsva]

I just went back and watched every pre season kick. Hedlund looked solid, but his range seems limited. Although his kickoffs made the end zone, his long field goals that went wide did not hit very high into the netting like you see from most NFL kickers (51 yarder that would have been good from 60, etc). With Hedlund, it was 51 yarder that if straight, would have been good from 53-54. But I think he would be a very consistent short-mid range option.

 

Vinatieri in the Bears game had a nice 49 yarder, and then a low line drive, poorly struck extra point. It was good, but it was not a good kick. His 2nd extra point was another low line drive. This is exactly what I have mentioned here for the past year and a half. His past two seasons he's kicked a lot of these.

 

Something to note: Sanchez senior year he was 49-50 on XP's (understand it's not the same) and 13-13 on field goals, including a 55 yarder. Is it easier to find a replacement kicker or replacement punter? LOL.

[ColtStrong2013]

4 hours ago, csmopar said:

Yep. Plus one thing everyone forgets too, we were in salary cap hell that year, even with cutting Manning, we had very little room, we would have had to cut those guys with or without Manning.

Freeney's cap hit the last two years here were unbelievable. 15% of total capspace for a defensive end is incredible, combined with the fact that the capspace was so lopsided towards the offense even with that hit. It shows how little was geared toward the defense those years. 

[Steamboat_Shaun]

15 hours ago, Chloe6124 said:

Would just Reich the chance to go for it more often on fourth down if he thinks it is out of the kickers range lol.

 

Maybe, but to piggyback on your point even further, would he consider going for 2 after TDs now instead of PAT? If you convert, it's 2 points, if not, it's no different than Vinny doinking the XP.

[ColtStrong2013]

25 minutes ago, Steamboat_Shaun said:

 

Maybe, but to piggyback on your point even further, would he consider going for 2 after TDs now instead of PAT? If you convert, it's 2 points, if not, it's no different than Vinny doinking the XP.

 

I thought we'd see a lot moore 2 point conversion attempts when they moved the xp back several years ago than we have... I don't know if we'll go that route soon or not, but you can bet they will test the waters and study the analytics of that. 

 

I have always been in favor of 2 point in certain scenarios. One being when you are up 1, regardless of time of the game, and you score a touchdown. Why would you kick the extra point to go up 8, when you can convert a 2 point conversion to make it a two score game. The risk is low, as failing results in you up 7 points. It just doesn't make much sense to me. 

 

To touch more on us going for 2 more. Extra point sucess was 93.8% last year and we were aligned pretty much perfectly under AV.(93.6). This year our extra point sucess is 40%. If the average is 93.8, then you would need to have a success rate of 46.9 on two point conversions to make it worthwhile. Right now we would need to hit on 20% of our two point conversions to be better off... that is dumbfounding. Last year we were 80% on 2 pt conversions. 

[CanuckColtsFan]

13 hours ago, GoColts8818 said:

I hope he does too to be honest but I don’t expect it.

Nor do I. But he's a professional.  He's been amazing. The guy gets to say when he's done.

[John Waylon]

 

 

 

 

 

 

There seems to me to be maybe a little bit of contention going on here. Frank seems to pay Vinny’s struggles no mind and has faith that he’ll get back to normal, but seems, to me, to take some offense to Ballard browsing through the bargain bin....

[coltsva]

Reich is right, it is Ballard's concern. As head coach, Reich has to show confidence in every player he puts out there, whether he has confidence in them or not. He's going all in on Vinny, because at the moment that's his only option. If Joe Schmoe was kicking he'd say the say thing.

 

For the record, I don't want us to sign Joe Schmoe.

[ColtsBlueFL]

33 minutes ago, John Waylon said:

 

 

 

 

 

 

There seems to me to be maybe a little bit of contention going on here. Frank seems to pay Vinny’s struggles no mind and has faith that he’ll get back to normal, but seems, to me, to take some offense to Ballard browsing through the bargain bin....

 

See Below

 

22 minutes ago, coltsva said:

Reich is right, it is Ballard's concern. As head coach, Reich has to show confidence in every player he puts out there, whether he has confidence in them or not. He's going all in on Vinny, because at the moment that's his only option. If Joe Schmoe was kicking he'd say the say thing.

 

Exactly. Every coaches (including coordinators and assistants) job is to get the most out of every player (whether the have confidence or like them or do not), and place them in the best chances to succeed until the GM replaces the guy with another (hopefully better) one.

 

Quote

For the record, I don't want us to sign Joe Schmoe.

 

Neither do I. AV has been the most 'clutch' guy ever at kicking.  He's been there/done that.  That's the mental part of the game. He can get back there again and play well until injury or his leg power drops dramatically.

 

If they find someone better, then maybe it's time to discuss things with AV at that point. Not until then.  I'd be beside myself if AV is sent packing and Joe Schmoe comes in with 3 ticks left in a game and pushes a 41 yarder wide right because of nerves.

[coltsva]

But I wouldn’t mind them signing Hedlund

[jvan1973]

4 hours ago, coltsva said:

Reich is right, it is Ballard's concern. As head coach, Reich has to show confidence in every player he puts out there, whether he has confidence in them or not. He's going all in on Vinny, because at the moment that's his only option. If Joe Schmoe was kicking he'd say the say thing.

 

For the record, I don't want us to sign Joe Schmoe.

Joe Schmoe looked terrible in the arena league.   No way we sign that guy

[Myles]

4 hours ago, ColtsBlueFL said:

 

S

 

Neither do I. AV has been the most 'clutch' guy ever at kicking.  He's been there/done that.  That's the mental part of the game. He can get back there again and play well until injury or his leg power drops dramatically.

 

If they find someone better, then maybe it's time to discuss things with AV at that point. Not until then.  I'd be beside myself if AV is sent packing and Joe Schmoe comes in with 3 ticks left in a game and pushes a 41 yarder wide right because of nerves.

Not me.  I like AV allot, but it's time to look elsewhere.  I hope Adam rights the ship, but I'm not confident in it.  It'd be different if he was 28.  Then maybe you muddle through and he gets going and you have him for another 10 years.  Whats the upside with Adam?   Maybe getting through this season.  

 

I have no problem giving him this week to prove himself, but kicking the tires on other guys is the right thing to do.  

[coltsva]

2 hours ago, jvan1973 said:

Joe Schmoe looked terrible in the arena league.   No way we sign that guy

He’s a local guy, from Kokomo 

[jvan1973]

Just now, coltsva said:

He’s a local guy, from Kokomo 

Makes sense.   I'm rooting for him 

[chrisfarley]

14 hours ago, coltsva said:

I just went back and watched every pre season kick. Hedlund looked solid, but his range seems limited. Although his kickoffs made the end zone, his long field goals that went wide did not hit very high into the netting like you see from most NFL kickers (51 yarder that would have been good from 60, etc). With Hedlund, it was 51 yarder that if straight, would have been good from 53-54. But I think he would be a very consistent short-mid range option.

 

Vinatieri in the Bears game had a nice 49 yarder, and then a low line drive, poorly struck extra point. It was good, but it was not a good kick. His 2nd extra point was another low line drive. This is exactly what I have mentioned here for the past year and a half. His past two seasons he's kicked a lot of these.

 

Something to note: Sanchez senior year he was 49-50 on XP's (understand it's not the same) and 13-13 on field goals, including a 55 yarder. Is it easier to find a replacement kicker or replacement punter? LOL.

nice analysis.  I think he's got the yips.  I'm sure he'll be honest with everyone if he truly does have them.  They have retired some of the best athletes to every play golf mainly, but other sports are affected by them as well.  I wish him only the best if he truly has them.

[coltsva]

7 hours ago, chrisfarley said:

nice analysis.  I think he's got the yips.  I'm sure he'll be honest with everyone if he truly does have them.  They have retired some of the best athletes to every play golf mainly, but other sports are affected by them as well.  I wish him only the best if he truly has them.

And when you get the yips, you start trying to steer of "jab" the ball in, instead of relying on your natural putting or kicking motion.

[Valpo2004]

On 9/17/2019 at 8:11 PM, ColtStrong2013 said:

 

The problem with sentimentality is that it runs deep in Indiana. New England, aside from Tom Brady (who is performing as good as ever in his old age,) can move on from anybody and their fanbase doesn't bat an eye because they value winning over everything. Indiana fans lose their minds (look at the fallout from the Manning ordeal.) So Ballard has that up against him as a manager. He has to balance the fanbase loving certain players and making the proper decisions. Although I think most organizations would be in a tough bind with Vinny's situation. It's just hard to cut that guy with all he has brought and currently brings as a teammate. 

 

I don't think that's contained to Indiana.  There are a lot of other fan bases that have a hard time letting go of their greats.  

[ColtStrong2013]

15 minutes ago, Valpo2004 said:

 

I don't think that's contained to Indiana.  There are a lot of other fan bases that have a hard time letting go of their greats.  

 

I agree. But Indiana is up there on the sentiment with sports, at every level. College especially. Go spend some time in Bloomington and you'll realize real quick that former IU athletes are everywhere. Many stay in the area because they are so loved... even well into their older years. 

 

"Greats" is subjective when you are including half the team. Manning made a lot of those players "greats" which led to sentiment for the entire team. It's impossible to keep that much of a team together for a long period of time. 

 

We will see that in the next 5-8 years here. Several of our guys that were drafted here won't be here for their entire careers. Only some of them will, and that's to be seen yet anyways. 

[Valpo2004]

22 minutes ago, ColtStrong2013 said:

 

I agree. But Indiana is up there on the sentiment with sports, at every level. College especially. Go spend some time in Bloomington and you'll realize real quick that former IU athletes are everywhere. Many stay in the area because they are so loved... even well into their older years. 

 

"Greats" is subjective when you are including half the team. Manning made a lot of those players "greats" which led to sentiment for the entire team. It's impossible to keep that much of a team together for a long period of time. 

 

We will see that in the next 5-8 years here. Several of our guys that were drafted here won't be here for their entire careers. Only some of them will, and that's to be seen yet anyways. 

 

IU doesn't hold a candle to Iowa.  

 

2 head football coaches in the last 40 years.  

[ColtStrong2013]

17 minutes ago, Valpo2004 said:

 

IU doesn't hold a candle to Iowa.  

 

2 head football coaches in the last 40 years.  

 

The sentiment isn't there for coaches at IU, outside of Bob Knight. I was referring to players, and I can assure you they hold up next to any college program with how the community and alumni take care of their own... 

[Coffeedrinker]

You know though, if the game was on the line and the Colts needed a FG to win I would still believe AV is the best kicker for the job.  It's the other 59+ minutes that I'm not too sure about anymore.

[compuls1v3]

1 hour ago, Coffeedrinker said:

You know though, if the game was on the line and the Colts needed a FG to win I would still believe AV is the best kicker for the job.  It's the other 59+ minutes that I'm not too sure about anymore.

Until AV misses a game winner, I'm with you on this front.  Here's to hoping 100% FG made this week against the Falcons.