Gostkowski needs an extension

ctpatsfan77 said:

Why should they "pick up another guy"?

There is no fundamental reason why Gostkowski can't be kicking 10 years from now, and no reason to believe a replacement would be as good.

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Agreed. Adam Vinatieri is still kicking it good for the Colts and he is 41. Big mistake letting Vinatieri go. I don't think Belichick is going to make that same mistake again with Gostkowski.

Ghost needs to stay a patriot

FrodoBagginz said:

Agreed. Adam Vinatieri is still kicking it good for the Colts and he is 41. Big mistake letting Vinatieri go. I don't think Belichick is going to make that same mistake again with Gostkowski.

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Only one issue with Vinatieri: his kickoffs. If he were still a Patriot, the Pats would need a punter who can also do kickoffs.

Oh, one more fun bit from the Bills game:

http://bills.buffalonews.com/2014/1...en-gostkowski-good-60-plus-coaching-blunders/

Marrone explained why the Bills were playing such soft coverage Monday.

"We thought that they would still kick the field goal at 40 from what we had at pregame, meaning that we thought they were already in range," Marrone said -- even though they were at the 42, not the 40. "Our thought process was that they were going to take a shot down there, vertically down to the end zone. We played for the shot in the end zone and we didn't think the 5 yards was going to make a difference in the field-goal attempt from our information, based on how he was hitting them and where it was. We were at 42 for our field goal."

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In other words, they gave up the soft coverage on Edelman to prevent a long bomb TD, because they figured Gostkowski was already in field goal range at 59–60 yards.

ctpatsfan77 said:

Why should they "pick up another guy"?

There is no fundamental reason why Gostkowski can't be kicking 10 years from now, and no reason to believe a replacement would be as good.

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Same reason they drafted Gostkowski in the first place; they didn't want to pay Vinatieri. You can get reasonably good kickers at the end of the draft and pay them $400K/year versus $4M/yr.

He has been money all year long. I see no problem locking him up for say a 5 year contract. That should being him the kind of money that he is looking for.

He should be kept. I will be surprised if he is not. It is not hard to lock up a kicker you like. Sign him to a 7 year contract with a good amount guaranteed.

Gronkandez said:

Same reason they drafted Gostkowski in the first place; they didn't want to pay Vinatieri. You can get reasonably good kickers at the end of the draft and pay them $400K/year versus $4M/yr.

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Actually, as the story goes, the FO relented, but a little bit too late in the process.

And here's an important additional consideration: if saving money was that important, why did they give Gostkowski this big extension seemingly out of the blue in 2010 in the first place (since he had signed the tender, and therefore he couldn't have had other suitors at the time)? They had him under contract for about $1.5M for that year, and then they could have just gone out and found another rookie then instead of giving him the extension.

Gronkandez said:

Same reason they drafted Gostkowski in the first place; they didn't want to pay Vinatieri. You can get reasonably good kickers at the end of the draft and pay them $400K/year versus $4M/yr.

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Yeah, if you are lucky. There's also a big difference between reasonably good and Gostkowski. If you have that kind of kicker, hold on to him.

We've already extended him once to a large contract. So your theory of why we would do that doesn't really hold up to what we have shown.

It might be a sign of the times that we live in NFL-wise, but when I first saw this thread title I read it as "Gostkowski needs a suspension" -- which totally makes sense if you're a fan of one of the teams on our schedule. Gostkowski is easily worth 2-3 wins a year, which is extremely rare for a kicker.

Seems like kickers have been getting better and better every year. Or is it that just me? Although 2012 was a weird year for a few kickers if I remember correctly. In any event, Gost needs to stick around.

Gronkandez said:

Same reason they drafted Gostkowski in the first place; they didn't want to pay Vinatieri. You can get reasonably good kickers at the end of the draft and pay them $400K/year versus $4M/yr.

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The Pats haven't had issues paying top dollar for the best players at their position; their issue is when they're paying top dollar for someone who no longer is (thus the Mankins, Seymour, and Milloy transactions among numerous others). Even by early 2006 it was clear that Vinatieri didn't have the leg he once did - he was not getting a lot of touchbacks and his long field goal range wasn't quite what it had been. Thus the Pats deciding to play hardball with him. Ctpatsfan77 says they did eventually decide to relent, but I bet they would have been disappointed with his performance (outside of the dome) during the 2007-2009 timeframe and he may have been a cut at some point along the way.

On the other hand, Gostkowski is clearly at the top of his game (knock on wood) - accurate, can hit long ones, consistently hits touchbacks at rates near the top of NFL kickers, had success at on-sides. He seems like the type of guy that they would be willing to pay at this point.

FrodoBagginz said:

Agreed. Adam Vinatieri is still kicking it good for the Colts and he is 41. Big mistake letting Vinatieri go. I don't think Belichick is going to make that same mistake again with Gostkowski.

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Mistake? Gostkowski has been a much better kicker than Vinatieri.

JMC00 said:

Friggen Aiken.

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Aiken should give up half his salary to Ryan Allen. Dude has bailed him out multiple times. Why have we had so much trouble finding a reliable long snapper since Lonnie Paxton went West?

Kasmir said:

Mistake? Gostkowski has been a much better kicker than Vinatieri.

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Don't hate on the GOAT, he's still balling. You can say Gost is better but he definitely isn't much better. It all comes back to that long kick in SB42 that BB didn't let Gost take. But then again, it's not like Adam's never missed a kick in the Super Bowl. When the game's on the line I think Adam is still the best. To be fair Gost hasn't been put in nearly as many key situations as Adam was. I can really only think of two critical kicks he missed 09 playoffs vs Bmore that would have made it a 16pt game(would have lost anyways) and the one against AZ of course. Aside from that miss vs Baltimore he's rarely missed in the playoffs might only be 2 misses ever with the other being vs Jax in 07 I think. That kick vs San Diego in the "Class Bowl" was huge. When it's all said and done might have the two best kickers of all time who knows.

Froob said:

Don't hate on the GOAT, he's still balling. You can say Gost is better but he definitely isn't much better. It all comes back to that long kick in SB42 that BB didn't let Gost take. But then again, it's not like Adam's never missed a kick in the Super Bowl. When the game's on the line I think Adam is still the best. To be fair Gost hasn't been put in nearly as many key situations as Adam was. I can really only think of two critical kicks he missed 09 playoffs vs Bmore that would have made it a 16pt game(would have lost anyways) and the one against AZ of course. Aside from that miss vs Baltimore he's rarely missed in the playoffs might only be 2 misses ever with the other being vs Jax in 07 I think. That kick vs San Diego in the "Class Bowl" was huge. When it's all said and done might have the two best kickers of all time who knows.

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Vinatieri made the greatest kick of all time, but he's hardly the greatest kicker of all time.

Gostkowski is the 5th most accurate field goal kicker in NFL history. Vinatierei the 15th:

http://www.pro-football-reference.com/leaders/fg_perc_career.htm

And that's not even considering kickoffs, where Vinatieri is terrible.

Kasmir said:

Vinatieri made the greatest kick of all time, but he's hardly the greatest kicker of all time.

Gostkowski is the 5th most accurate field goal kicker in NFL history. Vinatierei the 15th:

http://www.pro-football-reference.com/leaders/fg_perc_career.htm

And that's not even considering kickoffs, where Vinatieri is terrible.

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To each his own I suppose. With the game on the line I'll take prime Adam every time. There's a reason the Colts dumped Vanderjagt despite him being the second most accurate kickers of all time. Gost is money not knocking him at all but Vinatierei is the most clutch kicker of all time.

ctpatsfan77 said:

Oh, one more fun bit from the Bills game:

http://bills.buffalonews.com/2014/1...en-gostkowski-good-60-plus-coaching-blunders/



In other words, they gave up the soft coverage on Edelman to prevent a long bomb TD, because they figured Gostkowski was already in field goal range at 59–60 yards.

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Yeah the announcers ALWAYS sell Gostkowski short during the game. I've never heard an announcer say our max FG range is anything longer than 53, even with his career high of 54.

Mike Reiss reports almost every week during pregame warmups that Ghost is good from 60 both directions, it's just that BB won't risk a protection breakdown at that range. Has absolutely nothing to do with the kicker.

Coaches are the limit, not the player.

http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/writer...e-tags-position-by-position-projected-numbers

projects the 2015 tag number for kickers to be $4.09 million.

strngplyr said:

Yeah the announcers ALWAYS sell Gostkowski short during the game. I've never heard an announcer say our max FG range is anything longer than 53, even with his career high of 54.

Mike Reiss reports almost every week during pregame warmups that Ghost is good from 60 both directions, it's just that BB won't risk a protection breakdown at that range. Has absolutely nothing to do with the kicker.

Coaches are the limit, not the player.

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He did make a 60 yard field goal during the pre season. I think it is as you say. BB just doesn't want to risk a really long field goal unless it is our only choice.

Yes Vinatieri had some amazing super bowl kicks. Not taking those away form him. But Gostkowski is the better kicker. I'm glad we moved on to Gostkowski. He's younger and he's even better. Yeah he had a down year in 2012(?). But since then he's done nothing to make me not trust him with the game on the line.