what do ya think?

http://www.steelersdepot.com/2012/06/fo ... er-chance/

what do you all think about this?

 

I would have no problem bringing Skippy back to compete with Suisham, or to replace him.
He was pretty darn reliable for us, in a stadium that is not the easiest to kick in.
He would probably be cheaper than Suisham, and I personally don`t care about the off field issues.
They made for some good jokes, here, anyhow.
The comments about the fans, irritated me a bit, at the time, but I can understand saying things you regret, when you are frustrated with yourself, and take it out on someone else, so it`s water under the bridge to me now.
Mostly, I am hoping our re-vamped offense will actually get in the endzone at a high enough percentage, that we rarely need a fieldgoal kicker! :-D raying: (Oh yeah, that would also mean we need to rely on him for more kickoffs, which was his weakpoint, but since they moved those up 10 yards, it should help with that. )
GO STEELERS!

 

when he has his head in it he's pretty acurate. when he was released, his head wasen't in his game. not sure what happened. yea i agree kickoff's were terrible. i'm not sure 10 yds. helps him enough. we can definately do without the extra ciricular activities from him. i just wish we could find a good young kicker coming out of college. with the way we are getting stacked on both sides of the ball and losing gay and memo, we may get a couple of extra picks to play with next year.

 

I guess Im a homer because if I was one of the best kickers in the NFL there is only a handful of teams I would choose to play for. At some point, if your good enough you can almost go where want at some point. I'm speaking of how often they are free agents compared to other positions.

I don't know why we can't attract a good veteran kicker.

 

He was money 45 and short! So when the game depended on it and no matter where all we had to do was get there and we win.

That's an awfully good insurance policy to have and @ his rates.

 

No thanks!

 

Definitely bring him in. He seems to have the right attitude and understands he pretty much blew it. I don't see him taking things for granted (which i kind of think he did) this time around. Stop all the heavy partying and drinking (my "theory" on some of his issues) and he may be what we need. I don't think Suisham is our answer, that's for sure.

 

The kickoffs would be an issue, I don't know if weight training would make his leg any stronger because as you age you loose some of your Mo-Jo. It would be nice to free up another Million in cap if he would agree to a vet min.to sign some of vets.

 

I'd pass. He's not worth all the drama with the alcohol and other off the field issues. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice...

 

Well, he wasn't. Latterly at least. My memory is, as always, bad on the specifics, but I seem to remember losing to Chicago through some makeable missed FGs, and a few other games that season as well before he was let go. Granted, he was often getting put in bad positions by the stuttering offense, but his form dipped considerably the season he was released, and I wasn't particularly sorry to see him go, except for the entertainment value he brought.

I'm not sold on Suisham, and Hrapmann doesn't look like the answer either. But at the moment I can't see what Reed would bring that we don't have with Suisham. Both have shown spells of consistency and inconsistency. In the long run, of course Reed was a better kicker, but that was then - and he doesn't seem to have held on to a job anywhere else (unless I misread that part).

I actually thought we might address this area a bit more this off-season... I suppose what with all the other areas that have been addressed, I can't complain.

 

What I would say is bring him in for a competition with Suisham. Heck, we all know that Suisham is not the answer. His kickoffs are short and he is not that accurate. So, why not bring Reed back. He knows how to kick at Heinz. In the article he states that he has been trainng hard, even made a 60 yarder with no wind. He might have his head back in the game, not tomention that he knows he messed up with the organization last time. What he did was make an opportunity to go to some other organizations for himself by messing up in the Burgh. Now he understands and appreciates playing in Pittsburgh. Thats why he wants another chance. I bet he won't mess up again if he gets another chance.

I bet he beats out Suisham hands down if he gets another chance. I'm tired of seeing all the returns on Suishams kickoffs an his inaccuracies. If they don't bring Reed back , I hope the guy they brought in beats Suisham out. I also agree that the Steelers should have been looking for a good veteran talent to bring in to compete with Suisham. Reed could be that veteran!

 

while i disagree about 33 being too old to get stronger and better, i do agree , i'd rather get fresh legs in here. way too many kickers older than reed still active in the league. i want one of them accurate big leg, young guys. or roy gerela.

 

while i disagree about 33 being too old to get stronger and better, i do agree , i'd rather get fresh legs in here. way too many kickers older than reed still active in the league. i want one of them accurate big leg, young guys. or roy gerela. [/quote:3hjzutjv]

I guess that's open to interpretation but at what age do you think athletes skills begin to decline then? Roger Clemens was just one year older then skippy when he reinvented his career at age 34, went on to win 2 consecutive Cy Young awards and a tripple crown. He continued to dominate into his 40's. In light of everything that happened with him, I think it's pretty obvious he started juicing in 96, his first year in Toronto and 34 years of age. You're not getting better naturally at that point of your life IMO.[/quote:3hjzutjv]

I think a kicker could absolutely get better and stronger at 33. It's not like we're talking about a running back here; all he has to do is swing his leg. Maturity could go a long way towards improving a kicker... Better diet, training, focus, etc. Who knows? Maybe Reed has turned things around and the 'light' has gone on for him.

 

http://search.yahoo.com/r/_ylt=A0oG7iTo ... score.html

 

For me, age isn't the issue. The issue is reliability. We can sit back and think of Reed's glory days, but in the final season he simply wasn't as good as he used to be. And he wasn't good enough to hang in with other teams, either (at least not for the money he was after).

We can talk about him learning from his mistakes, but it's not like he was 21 when he made them...

I don't want to sound like I hate Reed or something, as I don't - I just don't see that he's an upgrade on Suisham.

 

I'm okay with bringing him in for a tryout, assuming he's cleaned up his act and will not be a distraction. Well, he'll be a distraction no matter what just because of circumstances, but that's okay with me as long as he's not doing anything to be a distraction. Reed was a problem off the field, but we all know he was really cut because of his performance. He was an outstanding kicker here for a long time, like 7 or 8 years. Definitely one of the best in the league over that stretch. He was super clutch. Then one year out of the blue, he turned into complete crap. We had to cut him because he was kicking like crap.

It's a mental job. It's not like his foot changed shape and so he couldn't make kicks anymore. Something went wrong upstairs. If it's fixed and he can kick again, 33 is definitely not too old to get a job. He already wasn't good on kickoffs and we never really tried FGs from beyond 55 or so, and I doubt his leg is any weaker than it was when he left us, considering the training he's been doing.

The real reason is who we already have: Suisham. The bottom line is that between Suisham and Reed, neither man is the solution for the future. Reed is too old to be the long term answer, and Suisham isn't good enough to be more than a band-aid until we get someone younger and better. So whoever it is will just be here for a year or two. Shaun provides good kickoffs, and Reed would probably have me asking the punter to do it. But if Reed can make a higher percentage of field goals -- which if he can get his head straight, he absolutely can, possibly by a wide margin -- then you have to go with that. That's what's most important.

 

Yep. The complaints about Suisham's kick offs were much the same for Reed.

However - on a slightly different note - I do believe that kickers were often trying for somewhere around the 5 or the goal-line last season - they wanted a return, when there was a stronger chance of tackling the returner behind the 20, or even causing a fumble. If a unit is good enough to do that, then you don't automatically want to kick it through the endzone.

As always, though, this is based more on my sense from watching the games rather than in-depth analysis.

 

I have zero complaints about Suisham's kickoffs. I thought they were plenty good enough, even by old standards, and he's also an above average tackler and not afraid of contact.

 

Interesting article, thanks Mac. You didn't answer my question though, what age do you believe athletes skills begin to slip? You can give 2 separate answers, one for kickers and one for athletes in general. Back to that article, it's a little misleading in regards to our topic, it was from 4 years ago based on that season. It also went onto list some of the best kickers to ever play the game as people who enjoyed successful careers into their late 30's to 40's. Reed was a good kicker but I would not put him on par with Gary Anderson, Matt Stover, Morten Andersen, George Blanda and Stenerud. Those were some iconic kickers, I might even put Jason Elam ahead of him.[/quote:3ju5nfxa]


i just think it depends on the athlete. everyone is different in their longevity. it depends on what sport, what position and how well they have kept themselves in shape over the years. i don't think theres a set age to go by. you say how successful these guys were is not on par with reed but these guys got better as they aged. blanda even played qb late into his career. i see no reason reed couldn't. not that i want him back, but it is possible for him to get stronger and better. being 53, i'd love to be in the shape i was at 33.