New Orleans Saints have difficult decision to make at kicker Nola.com (1 Viewer)

[St.Dan]

Last night left my mind a tie as well. Barth's FG looked strong and so did Forbath's. The hope is that the one we keep doesn't go into the tank the moment the season starts. We could have just kept Hartley instead of go through all this foolishness the past few seasons.

 

[cutter11]

Have a field goal competition. Five kicks each from 45yds, 50 yards, 55 yards. Whoever misses most gets cut.

 

[los226]

We'll never have a reliable kicker under Payton. The most consistent kicker we had was Kasay, but he was old and lacked the strength for anything past 50yds. Everyone else has been inconsistent. I expect whichever of these two we keep will be the same thing.

 

[AARPSaint]

Really disappointed that we didn't get a better look at these two kickers in game situations.

It started in New England when we decided to be like the Patriots and go for two every time instead of giving these two kickers FG opportunities. Yeah, they're just extra points, but what if we would have learned that one of these guys were inconsistent in that area?

Then there were a few times where we went for it on 4th down.

Just seemed like odd behavior for a team that's legitimately trying to figure out which kicker to keep. Yeah, yeah...they see these guys at practice every day, I know; but game time situations are where jobs are won and lost.

Still mad that we let Dustin Hopkins go.

It really annoyed me that NE goaded us into that 2 point conversion exchange. You can't really experience a successful 2 point conversion and answer it with a PAT. The answer is to stop the 2 pointer, but that didn't happen.

 

[Cincy Saint]

It's actually an easy choice if the Saints use the right criteria. Football Outsiders has studied kickers in depth and here's the main conclusion.

There is effectively no correlation between a kicker’s field-goal percentage one season and his field-goal percentage the next. But average kickoff distance shows more consistency from season to season than almost any other individual statistic in the N.F.L.

NFL KICKERS ARE JUDGED ON WRONG CRITERIA

So let's look at their career numbers.

FG
Barth 84.8%
Forbath 84.1%

Basically identical although Barth has done a little better on long FGs.

TOUCHBACKS
Barth 18.1%
Forbath 31%

Using the FO criteria on the assumption that year to year FG % may vary but KO work doesn't, Forbath is the clear choice.

 

[JackT.]

very hard to pick between the two when they didn't have many chances to kick. The kickoff is not that important, in my opinion, because of the new kickoff rules. Maybe we can get Negan in here with Lucille to go eeny meny miney moe.

 

[WhoDat_SB44]

I hope we go with Barth, but last year I wanted to keep Hopkins too lol. I couldn't believe it when we kept Hocker over Hopkins last year. So who knows what this coach will do it at kicker. He may cut them both and pick up some dude off the street for all I know with Payton..

 

[MatthewV]

It's actually an easy choice if the Saints use the right criteria. Football Outsiders has studied kickers in depth and here's the main conclusion.



NFL KICKERS ARE JUDGED ON WRONG CRITERIA

So let's look at their career numbers.

FG
Barth 84.8%
Forbath 84.1%

Basically identical although Barth has done a little better on long FGs.

TOUCHBACKS
Barth 18.1%
Forbath 31%

Using the FO criteria on the assumption that year to year FG % may vary but KO work doesn't, Forbath is the clear choice.

The interesting thing is, with the rule change on where the ball is placed after touchbacks, the Saints have discussed actively trying to avoid touchbacks ... which means the weaker kickoff kicker might actually be preferable now.

 

[Cincy Saint]

The interesting thing is, with the rule change on where the ball is placed after touchbacks, the Saints have discussed actively trying to avoid touchbacks ... which means the weaker kickoff kicker might actually be preferable now.

You are right on both counts -- it is interesting and it might mean a different choice for kicker.

But I'm betting coaches will be risk adverse during the regular season and opt for touchbacks to avoid runbacks.