DozOnLife
  • Blogs
    • Sports
    • Music
    • TV
    • Movies
    • Advice
    • Everything Else
  • About
  • Contact

Could Justin Reid Revolutionize the Kicking Game Forever?

9/13/2022

0 Comments

 
Picture
Image Source
​Despite how my last few blogs may make it seem, it wasn't all doom and gloom during Week 1 of the 2022 NFL season. There were tons of fantastic finishes, and we got to see what may end up being the future of special teams.

Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker tweaked his ankle early in their game against the Cardinals, forcing safety and emergency kicker Justin Reid into action. Butker would eventually return to the game.

Need me to do kickoff too? Bet. pic.twitter.com/wUUl4B9pCF

— Kansas City Chiefs (@Chiefs) September 12, 2022
​The NFL hates when fans share its content, so click on THIS to see a video of every Justin Reid kick from Sunday.

Reid went 1/2 on PATs and kicked off SEVEN times, five of which were touchbacks while filling in for Butker.

This dude's got a leg on him. He boomed it out of the end zone. Sure the accuracy might not be there, he shanked one of his PATs pretty badly, but I'm more concerned with the kickoff aspect for this blog.

Kicking specialists have only been a thing since the 1940s; even then, it was rare. It wasn't until Pete Gogolak in the mid-1960s that we saw the first "soccer-styled" kickers, and teams dedicated a roster spot to pure kickers. Before that, kickers were usually big offensive linemen who used their power to toe the ball. Your Lou Grozas and Jerry Kramers of the world. Sure some other positions kicked too, but there were a lot of guards/kickers at this time. During this era, field goal percentages were gross. 60% was fantastic. Nowadays, if you're under 85%, you're a bum.

For field goals and extra points, definitely keep the specialists. Have them focus on scoring points, but if you have a guy on your team that can boot it through the endzone or pin the ball deep, forcing a return attempt, wouldn't it be better for your kickoff coverage to have a better athlete on the field?

Sure there are some examples of kickers being athletic. Everybody loves when they end up making a tackle. McAfee had a couple of big hits in his day. Adam Vinatieri famously laid out Herschel Walker (if you vote for him, you have rocks in your head), but I think the Chiefs may be onto something here. 

I don't expect Butker to lose his kickoff role, but the game is always changing. I'm spitballing here, but I wouldn't be surprised if a team started using a Justin Reid-type player for kickoffs. An athletic safety or linebacker type gives you another solid defender on kickoff coverage. It makes the game 11 on 11 instead of 11 on 10 or sometimes 11 on 10 and a half if you've got a McAfee-type out there.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    October 2024
    September 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Blogs
    • Sports
    • Music
    • TV
    • Movies
    • Advice
    • Everything Else
  • About
  • Contact