Hauschka is definitely the superior kicker. They saved roughly $1.5 million per season by going with Blair Walsh and Janikowski, instead of matching Hauschka’s contract. Janikowski has not been the disaster that Walsh was.
I tend to think it is better to use a few more assets on lowly paid positions than the NFL average because you can get so much value for a little bit more money/draft capital. Lowly paid positions include punter, kicker, fullback, to a lesser extent safety, interior offensive linemen, blocking TE, NT, OLB in a 4-3, etc.
They drafted Michael Dickson slightly higher than other teams would draft a punter, and they ended up with the best punter in the league. They also kept the cap hit low because he’s on a rookie salary, which kind of undermines my point.