JoeSixPat said:
I don't doubt that Adam might not have felt "loved" by BB enough, but clearly the Colts offer blew away the money that the Pats were willing to pay
Like other deals, $3 mil a year for 3 years guaranteed represented value to the Colts. Adam's value to the Pats was slightly less and Adam went with the short term money (rather than the long term payoff of finishing his career with the Pats)
One interesting tidbit in the discussion of this today on WEEI was the fact that as you might recall, the Patriots would often "go for it" rather than kick long field goals at Gillette quite often this past season.
that suggests that Adam's range, at least in the swirling winds of the home field, was growing shorter
Indeed, when you also consider that Adam hasn't kicked a field goal over 50 yards since the year 2002, you get the feeling that the Pats might have been wise not to over extend themselves to keep Adam
One can also think back and recall that Owen Poochman and Phil Dawson - both of whom are starting kickers in the NFL right now - were all UFAs for the Patriots during the Vinateri years. (I think there may be one other NFL starting K who also was a UFA for the Pats)
This suggests that not once, not twice, but three times during the Adam V. years we've had starting caliber Kickers in our midst obtained as undrafted rookie free agents (which is what Adam V. himself was)
So I'm confident we'll have a decent kicker on the team - but still - if we wind up with a kicker who misses a crucial playoff FG, that $1-$2 million we saved is going to look awful insignficant.
For the most part we agree. But for the record, sinc Curren couldn't get it right either, Adam's deal is not for $3M a year for 3 years. It's $2.3M a year for 5 years, or $2.4M a year 4 years (with a dead cap hit of $700K), or $2.5M a year for 3 years (with a dead cap hit of $1.4M). The only real difference between what the Patriots offered and what the Colts offered was guaranteeing a portion of the contract via signing a signing bonus of $3.5M. But it was a significant difference because that essentially assured Adam he would actually see at least 3 years of continuous employment going forward.
In the NFL there is no such thing as a multi year deal absent a signing bonus. We all know this on some level, folks have just chosen to downplay it because Adam actually left us. Couldn't be because the offer we made a HOF kicker was actually a carefully crafted insult. I know it's hard for most of us to imagine someone being insulted by a multimillion dollar offer, but if it comes with no guarantee you ever see a dime of the money, you're essentially offering nothing. If I were in Adam's shoes, I'd be pissed.
That the Patriots via Jonathan Kraft tried to spin this as a deal designed to keep him the highest paid kicker in the league smacks of the PR spin masters on Yawkey Way. And for some reason this organization adopting that tactic really bothers me. As does the attitude of some who say we paid him plenty already. If you're not going to pay them based on past performance, you can't very well credit past earnings to pay for future performance.
And as for the other kickers "we" found, Dawson is now 31 and has been with Cleveland his entire 8 year career, since 1999, so the we who found him must have been Bobby Greer.
Pochman has bounced around with little success over the last 5 seasons - 2 with the Giants where he handled KO only (shorter ave than AV '05) in 10 games in 2001 and didn't kick at all in 2002, 2 seasons with the 49ers where in 6 games in 2003 he made 53% of his FG's and did not kick in 2004. He was on the Ravens roster in 2005 but did not kick.
At 23 Robbie Gould has shown less leg out of the gate than Adam did as a rookie or as a 10 year veteran. He has yet to make a FG in excess of 45 yards (AV's long was 50 in 1997 and 49 in 2005) and as a rookie his KO's averaged 3 yards less than Adams did at 23, and a hair less than Adams at 33. Robbie had only 1 touchback all season (compared to 8 in Adam's rookie year and 10 last season).
Not saying we won't find someone to handle the job. Just not sure we'll find someone who handles it nearly as well. And given our current financial position why we chose to create a void where none existed remains a head scratcher. Maybe they know something we don't, or maybe they misjudged both the market and this players resolve. I guess we'll find out eventually - I just hope we don't find out the hard way.
when we play them.
