Franchise tag on Haushka?

[Sgt. Largent]

I agree,,,we wouldn't want to pay a top 5 kicker a top 5 kickers salary would we?.

Salary cap decisions aren't this black and white. It is for the player most of the time, but it's not for the team.

If we can pay Haushka like the top 5 kicker that he is and still have cap space to keep important players like Bennett and Tate.........AND get Earle his extension? Then I'm with you.

But if that extra couple million that Haushka wants helps keep one of these guys? Then that hard decision has to be made.

No one's saying don't keep Haushka, he's as clutch as any kicker in the league. But if this comes down to an either/or decision for a player like Bennett? Can't agree with you.

 

[v1rotv2]

The thing is, though, you CAN get a kicker anywhere.

That's not to say that I don't like Hauschka. I do. I'd love to keep him on a reasonable deal (no more than $1.5m per year).

But the fact of the matter is that most decent kickers tend to fall between about 82% and 90% on their FG attempts. Occasionally, there is an outlier season where a kicker only misses one attempt or misses several. But for the most part, it's a very predictable range. And if you look at the active kickers for each team in the league, almost every team has a guy whose career shows that range.

In the end, if you're going to give a big contract out to a player, do it for a guy who sees the field for more than a handful of snaps and whose skillset isn't relatively fungible.

I have never understood this line of thinking. Yes you can get a kicker anywhere but good kickers are harder to get and money kickers like Hauschka are even tougher. He scored 143 points last year and only 3 PKs had more points. The next closest is Lynch with 84. Hausckha deserves far more consideration than what you give him.

 

[Blitzer88]

I would like to keep Steven and if this ends up being the only way for us to do it than I would be okay with it.

 

[volsunghawk]

The thing is, though, you CAN get a kicker anywhere.

That's not to say that I don't like Hauschka. I do. I'd love to keep him on a reasonable deal (no more than $1.5m per year).

But the fact of the matter is that most decent kickers tend to fall between about 82% and 90% on their FG attempts. Occasionally, there is an outlier season where a kicker only misses one attempt or misses several. But for the most part, it's a very predictable range. And if you look at the active kickers for each team in the league, almost every team has a guy whose career shows that range.

In the end, if you're going to give a big contract out to a player, do it for a guy who sees the field for more than a handful of snaps and whose skillset isn't relatively fungible.

I have never understood this line of thinking. Yes you can get a kicker anywhere but good kickers are harder to get and money kickers like Hauschka are even tougher. He scored 143 points last year and only 3 PKs had more points. The next closest is Lynch with 84. Hausckha deserves far more consideration than what you give him.

He absolutely does not. Here's the thing with kickers. The difference between the best in the league and a guy who's middle of the pack is almost always negligible.

Kicker performance varies a few percentage points between the best and the worst. Individual kickers' performances vary a few percentage points from season to season. Good kickers are NOT harder to get. We picked Hauschka up off waivers after the Broncos decided they didn't want him. We're working with another team's castoff right now. In fact, we're Hauschka's THIRD team. If he was amazing - or more to the point, if the difference in kickers was THAT huge - why isn't he still with the Ravens?

Oh, right.. because you can go find a kicker off the street who could very likely give you damn near the same performance, percentage-wise.

I'm not trying to say we should let Hauschka walk. I'm not even trying to say kickers are worthless. I am, however, arguing that people artificially inflate the value of kickers because they almost never see the field except in scoring situations. People exaggerate the importance of a kick based on when it occurs, and that carries over to the value of the kickers. But if you listen to any professional kicker, they talk about the work they do being tied mostly to routine and muscle memory. They don't have to read a defense. They almost never have to block anyone. They almost never have to catch/throw the ball. They do ONE thing, and they do it very well. So for them, a kick in a preseason game is the same as a kick in the final seconds of a playoff game. It's just a routine process.

The importance or "clutchness" we fans assign to those kicks and kickers is just that... assigned by the fans. Think about how much hype a guy like Adam Vinatieri gets (or at least GOT, back when he was kicking for the Pats). He gets that "clutch" moniker due to a 4th quarter FG against the Panthers in a SB victory won by 3 points. Did you know he missed a kick earlier in that game? No?

I like Hauschka. I'm fine with giving him a pay increase - along the lines of what Sgt. Largent suggested sounds good to me. But anything more than that is just throwing money away that we could use to retain players whose jobs involve more than a single routine.

 

[sc85sis]

During the 2013 preseason "Hauschmoney" was 8 of 9 on FGs, including 3 of 4 over 50 yards. His long was 56.

During the regular season, Hauschka missed only two kicks (one of which was blocked). Matt Prater of Denver only missed one, BUT he also attempted nine fewer kicks than Hauschka. Hauschka was 3 of 3 on kicks over 50 yards, with a long of 53. Over half of Hauschka's kickoffs were touchbacks; the average starting point for the other team was 22.4, which reflects on our kickoff coverage as much as his leg.

In the postseason he was a perfect 8 of 8 on FGs with a long of 49.

The other thing to look at is consistency. His first few years were not bad. The last three with the Hawks show an improvement every year in FG percentage. He's 28 and just entering his prime as a kicker.

Sources:
http://www.nfl.com/stats/categorystats? ... onType=PRE
http://www.nfl.com/stats/categorystats? ... &Submit=Go
http://www.sportingnews.com/nfl/statist ... er/kicking
http://espn.go.com/nfl/statistics/playe ... dGoalsMade
http://espn.go.com/nfl/player/stats/_/i ... n-hauschka

 

[Kixkahn]

Yes but his kickoff stats of getting the ball out of/deep in the end zone are way up this season.

:les:

Don't forget a barely missed 61 yd attempt. That thing hit the cross bar, a few inches farther it would have made it.

 

[RolandDeschain]

Prater making that much is a crime. Look at his kicks over time in away games. I can't believe Denver was dumb enough to give him "elite kicker" money because of their thin air.

 

[Kixkahn]

Prater making that much is a crime. Look at his kicks over time in away games. I can't believe Denver was dumb enough to give him "elite kicker" money because of their thin air.

Well maybe the thin air has effected them.

 

[Sgt. Largent]

Prater making that much is a crime. Look at his kicks over time in away games. I can't believe Denver was dumb enough to give him "elite kicker" money because of their thin air.

Especially on an offense where he's pretty much just kicking extra points.






















Or whiffing on kick returns in SB's when a dude runs by him at light speed.

 

[tom sawyer]

He has gotten better every year in most every category

 

[RolandDeschain]

Or whiffing on kick returns in SB's when a dude runs by him at light speed.

:lol:

What was the comment by Buck or Aikman when Harvin burned by him? It was something kind of insulting, like "Of course the kicker's not gonna catch him"; lmao.

 

[The Radish]

Vols,,

One thing to remember is Hauschka trained this past off season to get more strength in his leg to get longer kickoffs & FGs.. He talked about it in a couple of interviews.

He said it also made him more accurate for his FG kicks too.

I'm just gunshy of winding up with some "dog" of a kicker like we did in the 2000s. I know there are guys we all think we have to have. But again let me mention we won some close games this season that we would have maybe lost with another kicker.

:les:

 

[Tokadub]

Hmm was curious to check out how Haushka compares to other kickers throughout history the results I'm finding seem a little shocking, not sure if this could possibly be accurate but here it is:

Steven Hauschka is #8 all time FG% according to this site:

http://www.pro-football-reference.com/l ... career.htm


Another Site:
Highest Field Goal Percentage, Career (100 field goals)
86.47 Mike Vanderjagt, Indianapolis, 1998-2005; Dallas, 2006 (230-266)
85.39 Shayne Graham, Buffalo, 2001; Carolina, 2002; Cincinnati, 2003-07 (152-178)
83.82 Matt Stover, Cleveland, 1991-95; Baltimore, 1996-2007 (435-519)

http://www.nfl.com/history/randf/record ... fieldgoals

That's funny because the only thing keeping Hauschka out of that top 3 is that you need 100 Field Goals...

Hauschka has made 98 in the regular season at 85.965%

Hauschka is 100% in the Playoffs

So if Haushka made his next 2 field goals assuming they only count regular season in that NFL.com/history page he will be #2 all time highest percentage with 100 FG's

2 more consecutive makes he would be:

100/116 FG's 86.2% which would put him #2 all time behind

86.47 Mike Vanderjagt, Indianapolis, 1998-2005; Dallas, 2006 (230-266)


So it sounds like Haushchka is a bit underrated, seems he is an all time great with FG percentage, which is news to me

 

[RolandDeschain]

Pay the man, he's not a fraud like Prater.

 

[uncle fester]

Possibly not the franchise tag (if it's the deciding $$$ for a Bennett or other) but certainly pay him a healthy salary to keep him.

Texans & Bucs games came down to a FG. A crappyy kicker and the Hawks finish 11-5.

He was improving as the year went on and was nigh-on perfect by the end.

When was the last time we could lay claim to such a consistent kicker?

 

[volsunghawk]

Possibly not the franchise tag (if it's the deciding $$$ for a Bennett or other) but certainly pay him a healthy salary to keep him.

Texans & Bucs games came down to a FG. A crappyy kicker and the Hawks finish 11-5.

He was improving as the year went on and was nigh-on perfect by the end.

When was the last time we could lay claim to such a consistent kicker?

Um, Mare was consistent for us.

Before him, Brown was consistent for us (though his kickoffs weren't great).