Yeah, it isn't like we never see the punter on the field. On another level, Greg dead leg seems to have survived so far.
And you didn't think he is declined? You thought he was great? It's a matter of when the money becomes guaranteed on their contract. Until then there is no point to cut. If they don't have to pay Greg anything they can wait until the date they do have to pay him. Tom's probably came earlier because of some guarantees in his contract that were about to kick in. But Greg's time will come too.
I just checked and we're saving 1.5 million cutting him. That's not a big cost to have a veteran safety net to at least compete for the job, or on the PS. But we aren't going anywhere this season anyways.
Now, now. Please quote me my post that said he was great? But I didn't think he had particularly declined, was he has good as the previous season, no but that was a strange season for a punter, see the stat I posted at how much he was used. Would I trust him over an untried rookie, yes. Something you just can't know for sure tbf there was a hell of a lot more people in my camp than yours in the quoted post, of course, that may have changed now as more people comment, all I mean is, my thought that he was worth keeping is hardly as outlandish as your posts proclaim. Hey, it's a punter, we'll revisit it when the young one shanks it 20 yards from the endzone
If we agree he wasn't great, and at 39, do you really want to take that chance while paying him 3 times the young replacement? I just don't think it makes sense. Punters can last longer than other positions, but they have expiration date too and he is right there. Counting on him at 39 after the decline last year, it's like going bear back with $5 whore. I did visually see him decline, and it's hard to find objectives measures of punter's performance, but for what it's worth I did see PFF giving him the lowest grade of his career (62, down from 73 a year before), which aligns loosely with what I saw as well. Again PFF is not a gospel or anything, but I just see an old expensive guy on the decline who can fall off the cliff any time, like Greg did, and whom it's time to upgrade with younger and cheaper version.
personally I would have preferred to keep him instead of trying to break in a rookie who is an unknown I am not a huge fan of creating holes in the roster where there didn’t need to be any, and to me, this was not a huge cap savings, and I’m assuming our offense will continue to be below average and so we will have to punt a lot. Again, not a HUGE crazy move here so I don’t mean to overreact about cutting a punter, but man we’ve had such shit at our K and P positions for a long time, and for a shit offense those positions are actually kind of important…we’re not the Chiefs or the Eagles here…we NEED our kickers to be good, and so the fact that we cut Morestead while Zuerlein is still around is a bit baffling to me. Not a fan of this move honestly, but who knows, maybe the rookie will be good…but as I’ve said in other threads, I am not really inclined to give these newbies we have calling the shots any real benefit of the doubt here…until I see it proven on the roster and on the field, I won’t be singing any praises for our new GM who drafted a slow corner and a receiver who can’t catch with our 3rd and 4th round picks…both of those are bad picks until they prove otherwise on the field, as is this punter switch. So while I loved Mouge’s first two draft picks, I’m not yet sold on the rest of the draft so I hope I’m wrong here and he turns out to be the genius GM we all desperately need, but I’m not going to sing praises on how the “culture has changed” and “accountability is back” or any other platitudes like that…get me a winning team on the field and THEN I’ll believe!
This happens a lot with punters and kickers though. Teams will surprisingly cut one 6 months later based on what they saw at the end of the year, in practice, etc. and a lot of times they end up being right moving on before it’s too late. Zeurlein is a good example. Imagine we made a move on that fuckface before the season where our season could’ve ended up?
Imagine we'd kept the guy who beat him in camp, granted that guy ended up injured but before that he was knocking kicks in all over the place.
At 39 years of age though, there is already a hole created. It's like Greg last year, but even older. Keeping him at triple the guaranteed replacement salary, knowing he could drop off the cliff is to me simply irresponsible and likely ensures we have a hole and pay triple for it. Having two promising young guys compete for a job for 1/3 of a price has much higher probability of plugging the hole at punter. I am skeptical of Thomas as you are. I am concerned about lack of speed, the fact he did not run at the combine and posted slow time at Pro Day. 4.58 at Pro Day means he is about 4.7, or high 4.6x at best. NFL offenses may exploit that. Which is why he dropped from what people initially thought of as late 1st/early 2nd all the way to 3d. And I don't like the opportunity cost there. We could have traded up a few spots and had WR Kyle Williams or DT Vernon Broughton or traded back and still got DT Caldwell. The point is, there seemed to be decent DT talent there and Kyle Williams within reach, which would address position of need. Instead we got Thomas, and I think he needs to be very good to justify what I consider this luxury pick, and I am a little concerned about speed. That's something in spite of his age, Thomas will not be able to improve. However, I do like Arian's pick. Would I prefer to have him in the 5th, sure, but I don't think he would last until then. Definitely not until the 6th as some are saying. #1 objective of a WR is to get open. And Arian CAN get open, because the speed he ran his 40 at is 100% translated to the field. This is not Moore's or Mims speed we are talking about. And he is not just a burner. People forget the the guy was a top weapon by far for SEC winning Georgia, #2 seed. Last couple of guys that did that for them during their SEC and National championship runs did OK in NFL: Bowers and Pickens. And Arian's numbers last year are actually similar to these guys, even better than Pickens actually and on par/slightly worse than Bowers. Unlike speed, drops could be improved. He actually did improve from jr year. From 25% drop rate went to 16%. He can make another jump there, this has been done before. Also, 16% drop rate does not mean he is a WR who can't catch. He catches at 84% rate. Which means he can't just be left open. If he beats you, there is 84% chance he will hurt you if QB does his job. It's not like who cares if he beats me, he won't catch anyway. 84% you are fucked in scenario, which is still a very high probability. Not 92% chance, as in average, but still pretty darn high to get beat. Roughly speaking in this case CB will get hurt 8 out of 10 times instead of 9 out of 10, which is still not amazing for him. He will draw good CBs and S help as well with his speed and ability if he does things right. Which is why he got Brock/Pickens like numbers for SEC winning Georgia in spite of limitations. And if he does catch better (he will not be amazing at it, but he could be average), who knows, we may be talking about WR2. Not a bad potential outlook for a 4th round guy even if I would have loved him in the 5th.
Well, that is Greg gone now as well, so that is that. I wonder who we have lined up at kicker, Carlson v Davis is hardly SB material tbh
