POLL: Would you rather have #1 Kicker or Punter

[kiingspadee]

I think some people are failing to think - they see that OT thing and think automatically KICKER. If you have the #1 punter and the opponents offense is consistently having to make 80-90 yard drives and even hell having to punt from inside the 20 it assures your offense is having shorter field position. You will not need the #1 kicker in OT when you won field position all game long....of course your offense as well as defense needs to do their job....but give me that #1 punter

[MLSKINS]

I think some people are failing to think - they see that OT thing and think automatically KICKER. If you have the #1 punter and the opponents offense is consistently having to make 80-90 yard drives and even hell having to punt from inside the 20 it assures your offense is having shorter field position. You will not need the #1 kicker in OT when you won field position all game long....of course your offense as well as defense needs to do their job....but give me that #1 punter

I understand the logic, but I have seen this team lose games too many times due to a kicker missing a late FG.

[kiingspadee]

I understand the logic, but I have seen this team lose games too many times due to a kicker missing a late FG.

I will give you that - but you need to look at it from an unbiased stand point. Say you had an offense like the Saints and a defense like the Steelers or Ravens. Tell me that teams can constantly drive 80-90+ on you almost every drive. Tell me your offense won't be able to put up points when they are starting at the opponents 45ish.

[S.T.real,lights,out]

Kicker, i can safely say we have lost several games b/c of our kicker...cant really say we have lost many b/c of the punter.

[GhostofSparta]

Say you had an offense like the Saints and a defense like the Steelers or Ravens.

Then the entire debate is moot. If you have the #1 offense and the #1 defense in the league, it really doesn't make any difference if you have the worst punter/kicker combo in the league, you'll still in almost every game. The exception of course being last year's Chargers, who had the worst ST ranking in the league. But at that point neither a punter or kicker would have helped them much, as they lost at least 3 games because of blocked punts/kicks and giving up return TDs. I mean you can have the best punter in the league, but if you have a bad enough punt line that there are 3 punts blocked, he's rendered pretty useless.

Besides, for a team like the Steelers, it's not always about field position. They have an attacking D. And with Roethlisberger at QB they can afford to gamble and make big plays because they know the offense can bail them out if needed. For an attacking/blitzing D, points are even more important than 5 yards of field position. And if your D makes a turnover at your opponent's 30, I'm sure they much rather you get 3 points out of it than pin them on the 2 from that drive.

[Forehead]

I'm going contrarian to the majority of the votes and voting punter. You say we'd be saddled with a bottom 25% kicker? Well hell, we already had the worst kicker in the league (by percentage, minimum attempts, etc) last season, so it's possible he could still improve seven spots and qualify for this exercise. A bottom 25% kicker still hits somewhere around 75-77% of his field goals, three out of four. I will quickly take that in return for a Shane Lechler type who can pin opponents all day, and even better, if we're stuck in our own end, blast it over the head of their returner who was expecting to catch the ball at midfield and make headway into our territory.

Best punter in the league and bottom 25% kicker for me.

[Reaper 21]

heres my argument that is a little out of date but thought might be relevent to this thread back when the pats were winning superbowls, adam vinaterri was the best kicker in the game. shane lechler of the raiders was the best punter.

[tiger187126]

btw, dallas is still going with a kicker and a kick off specialist even with the ball moved up.

but it's fine, they don't need a fullback anyway. who needs to power run in the NFC East?

[GhostofSparta]

With our D this year, I'm even more sure of my vote for a kicker.

[Botched]

Kicker of course. It's not like upper echelon punters are pinning their opponents inside the 10 all game long. The best in the league will put maybe two kicks inside the 20 per game. We're talking about a player whose success or failure depends almost entirely on the speed of a coverage unit or the random bounce of a ball. The only position I would put less effort into filling, is running back.

[Bonez3]

It's still punter. The best punter in the league is well above the bottom 25%. Even the best kicker vs the bottom 10% is a competition. End of story. So much more of the game hinges on punting. Every team is going to punbt more than once in a game. There are plenty of games where teams don't even attempt a FG.

This is a debate I take to the grave. PUNTER ALL DAY

[sportjunkie07]

kicker and i dont think it's close.

[pjfootballer]

As Redskin fans, we've all seen what happens when you leave poiints off the board. Kicker and it's not close. Punting has become an integral part of the field position game, but how many times is he asked to pin it inside the 20 in one game? Sorry, I'll take 2 or 3 FGs worth 6-9 points any day.