In 2011: Charlie Sheen, Jersey Shore (the show, not the place), Angry Birds and many other things became trendy. Now in 2012, franchising kickers has become trendy.
With the franchise deadline coming to an end today at 4pm, looking back at some players that got slapped with a tag there is a usually high amount of kickers who received tags this year.
This year 4 kickers have been franchised and will be paid the average of the top 5 kickers in the league.
|
Bengals |
K |
86.8 FG% (33/38). Long: 49 |
|
|
Browns |
K |
82.8 FG% (24/29). Long: 54 |
|
|
Jaguars |
K |
92.0 FG% (23/25). Long: 55 |
|
|
Broncos |
K |
76.0 FG% (19/25). Long: 59 |
The most surprising name on this list is 37 year old Browns kicker Phil Dawson, who now will be paid as elite kicker despite the fact that he was born during the Big Bang. The player on this list that you can rationalize tagging, despite a low overall FG%, is Denver’s Matt Prater who might have won the Bronco’s as many games as Timmy Tebow. Prater tied a career long this year hitting a 59 yard field goal. Prater also went 3-4 in field goals over 50 yards this season.
Are these four of the best five kickers in the NFL? Or this this just a bit of roster gamesmanship by a quartet of GMs? I’m taking the latter.
Regardless, while NFL players around the league have made kickers a laughing stock, it appears the kickers can now laugh all the way to the bank.
