- Messages
- 5,432
- Reaction score
- 0
Three-Legged Race?
Kicking Competition Will Be A Long One
SAN ANTONIO - A year ago the Cowboys gave David Buehler a free ride heading into his first season handling all of the kicking duties, and didn't like the results.
After he missed an extra point that helped cost the Cowboys a game at Arizona in Week 16, the team signed veteran Kris Brown to motivate Buehler in the offseason. Just a 77 percent kicker for his career and a guy who whose veteran minimum contract was more than the team wanted to carry, Brown was released before camp started.
But that was just the beginning of the competition for Buehler. Last week the Cowboys signed Oklahoma State's Dan Bailey, the 2010 Groza Award winner, as a rookie free agent. Bailey was 27-of-31 as a senior in Stillwater, good for 87 percent, and has been getting the best of Buehler thus far in camp.
On around 20 attempts for each through five practices, Buehler has missed five more kicks than Bailey, though one of them was a desperation 58-yarder after the offense stalled in a two-minute drill. It's clear to Buehler that the challenge from Bailey will be stiff.
"I'll watch what he does, but I can only control myself, so that's what I'm worried about," Buehler said. "I'm competing against myself, pretty much. That's how I feel. I didn't start on the right note. I didn't have the best last couple of days. I've missed some kicks which I would want back. But there're a lot of days left to go and a lot of competition left to be had."
Indeed, the Cowboys won't be settling on one of these two anytime soon, and probably won't make up their minds until the final cut date in a month. Even then, the winner shouldn't feel assured for the long term. The Cowboys on Tuesday signed another Groza winner, Kai Forbath of UCLA, who was college football's top kicker in 2009, nailing 90 percent of his attempts before a down season last year. He enters camp with health concerns, though, starting out on the Non-Football Injury (NFI) list because of a quad strain in his kicking leg, and is viewed as more of a future consideration than a real option to take the job right away.
The competition is shaking up as a complex one all around. Over the weekend owner Jerry Jones said he would again be open to carrying two kickers on the roster - one for field goals and one for kickoffs - but Buehler says he still wants trusted with both jobs on their own. Head coach Jason Garrett said the decision won't come down to comparing makes and misses.
"It's certainly subjective," Garrett said. "I think it would be shortsighted of us to say, 'This guy made 32-out-of-33 kicks and this guy made 30-out-of-33 kicks, so we're going to keep this guy.' There are a lot of factors that go into it. Certainly we're going to chart everything. The numbers will be very clear to us, but there're other things involved in it as well. Poise is one of those things. Experience is one of those things. Being able to make big kicks is one of those things. And certainly kickoffs will factor into it as well."
Buehler has the stronger leg, but with the kickoff line moved up to the 35, Bailey has also demonstrated the ability to drive the ball into the back of the end zone. While the Oklahoma State rookie has plenty going for him right now, he isn't going to get ahead of himself.
"It's been a good start," Bailey said. "I've just got to keep plugging away … we've still got a long ways to go."
Like every other position, the Cowboys are banking on the kickers to push one another. If Bailey or Forbath prove to be an improvement, the position will be better. If they propel
Buehler to get the most out of his big leg, the position will be better.
"We try to create competitive situations throughout our team, so I'm not quite sure we can identify that they're starting even, so to be speak," Garrett said. "David's been here, he's been a big contributor for us, he's made a couple of big kicks at the end of games to win us games last year. He's certainly been an outstanding kickoff guy, so we know the things that he brings and we're excited to see him continue to develop. But again, we're trying to create competition throughout our team, so we'll give all the guys a chance to do it."
Kicking Competition Will Be A Long One
SAN ANTONIO - A year ago the Cowboys gave David Buehler a free ride heading into his first season handling all of the kicking duties, and didn't like the results.
After he missed an extra point that helped cost the Cowboys a game at Arizona in Week 16, the team signed veteran Kris Brown to motivate Buehler in the offseason. Just a 77 percent kicker for his career and a guy who whose veteran minimum contract was more than the team wanted to carry, Brown was released before camp started.
But that was just the beginning of the competition for Buehler. Last week the Cowboys signed Oklahoma State's Dan Bailey, the 2010 Groza Award winner, as a rookie free agent. Bailey was 27-of-31 as a senior in Stillwater, good for 87 percent, and has been getting the best of Buehler thus far in camp.
On around 20 attempts for each through five practices, Buehler has missed five more kicks than Bailey, though one of them was a desperation 58-yarder after the offense stalled in a two-minute drill. It's clear to Buehler that the challenge from Bailey will be stiff.
"I'll watch what he does, but I can only control myself, so that's what I'm worried about," Buehler said. "I'm competing against myself, pretty much. That's how I feel. I didn't start on the right note. I didn't have the best last couple of days. I've missed some kicks which I would want back. But there're a lot of days left to go and a lot of competition left to be had."
Indeed, the Cowboys won't be settling on one of these two anytime soon, and probably won't make up their minds until the final cut date in a month. Even then, the winner shouldn't feel assured for the long term. The Cowboys on Tuesday signed another Groza winner, Kai Forbath of UCLA, who was college football's top kicker in 2009, nailing 90 percent of his attempts before a down season last year. He enters camp with health concerns, though, starting out on the Non-Football Injury (NFI) list because of a quad strain in his kicking leg, and is viewed as more of a future consideration than a real option to take the job right away.
The competition is shaking up as a complex one all around. Over the weekend owner Jerry Jones said he would again be open to carrying two kickers on the roster - one for field goals and one for kickoffs - but Buehler says he still wants trusted with both jobs on their own. Head coach Jason Garrett said the decision won't come down to comparing makes and misses.
"It's certainly subjective," Garrett said. "I think it would be shortsighted of us to say, 'This guy made 32-out-of-33 kicks and this guy made 30-out-of-33 kicks, so we're going to keep this guy.' There are a lot of factors that go into it. Certainly we're going to chart everything. The numbers will be very clear to us, but there're other things involved in it as well. Poise is one of those things. Experience is one of those things. Being able to make big kicks is one of those things. And certainly kickoffs will factor into it as well."
Buehler has the stronger leg, but with the kickoff line moved up to the 35, Bailey has also demonstrated the ability to drive the ball into the back of the end zone. While the Oklahoma State rookie has plenty going for him right now, he isn't going to get ahead of himself.
"It's been a good start," Bailey said. "I've just got to keep plugging away … we've still got a long ways to go."
Like every other position, the Cowboys are banking on the kickers to push one another. If Bailey or Forbath prove to be an improvement, the position will be better. If they propel
Buehler to get the most out of his big leg, the position will be better.
"We try to create competitive situations throughout our team, so I'm not quite sure we can identify that they're starting even, so to be speak," Garrett said. "David's been here, he's been a big contributor for us, he's made a couple of big kicks at the end of games to win us games last year. He's certainly been an outstanding kickoff guy, so we know the things that he brings and we're excited to see him continue to develop. But again, we're trying to create competition throughout our team, so we'll give all the guys a chance to do it."