The Bengals signed kicker Dave Rayner to a one year contract. The significance of the signing is that it likely means the end for Sugar Shayne Graham in a Bengals uniform. Now, Shayne was a good guy in the community and had beautiful tightly cut red locks. Also, he was always among the league leader in field goal accuracy. (If you recall, the pre-eminent Doug Pelfrey was briefly the all time leader in this category.)
Sadly, in the world of kicking, all that matters is to make the important ones. On this count, Shayne, with help from Brad St. Louis, were able to botch nearly every kick that truly mattered in Bengals history. The most recent of these misses, were two in the home playoff game against the Jets - both from under 40 yards.
Now, in my opinion, no kicker is worth a million dollars, and Cincinnati chose to pay him over 2 million bucks last year to be an okay kicker with zero history of performing in pressure spots. (We all remember Denver and Pittsburgh at the end of 2007). This was nearly as stupid as keeping Brad St. Louis around, when he was a bad longsnapper AND they had to keep paying him a higher and higher league minimum as he became a longer tenured NFL player.
The thing about long snappers and kickers is that there are always ten on the waiver wire pickups that can do an adequate job, and, unless you are "perfect" (Criteria for being perfect: Long Snapper: 1 bad snap a season at a time of low import; Kicker: one miss under 40 yards at a time of low import.) there is no real use of getting an extended contract, and certainly no use in paying a ton of money for one.
But, at the risk of being too glum on the team for two consecutive articles. I will applaud Chigurh Shayne for nailing the 45 yard game winner at Cleveland in overtime this year. And Brad St. Louis was absolutely hilarious in a piece with Kenny Mayne in the Mayne Event.
Thanks to both of you for that.
-Jim Lippincott's Shorts.
http://www.bengals.com/news/article-1/Bengals-to-talk-to-Graham-Smith-begins-rehab/987966ad-eb59-437f-9070-78bf2c70e7d1
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you regarding Shayne Graham. Kickers are a specialized position, but they are also a dime a dozen. That we are STILL talking with him is infuriating. There seems to be a three year delay between what I feel the Bengals should do and them realizing that I am right. Call it Marv Ball.
Hahahaha. Call it Marv Ball. By the way. This post is by fellow blogger, Huevos of Huevos Blogcheros. He is also a fine Bengals fans with award winning quips such as:
ReplyDeleteHazen: The only thing I can say with mild confidence is that Carson is better than today's Phil Simms.