Fencer
Pro Bowl Player
- Joined
- Oct 2, 2006
- Messages
- 14,293
- Reaction score
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I was originally in the camp who hoped that, with some luxury picks, the Pats would take the best available punter. As I write this, we're late in the sixth, and I wouldn't mind one here.
However, I checked, and punters are worth a LOT less than placekickers. Here's what I mean.
1) Most people would agree that the scoring part of a placekicker's job is more important than the kicking off part.
2) I suspect a punter's quality has no more of an effect on net return average than a kick-off guy's quality. (If I'm wrong, it's because punters are more differentiated inside the 20 than I think.)
3) Hanson seems to punt about half as often as Gost kicks off.
So unless I'm terribly mistaken, a punter's average impact on the game (holding for kicks aside) is less than 1/4 of a placekicker's, perhaps much less.
However, I checked, and punters are worth a LOT less than placekickers. Here's what I mean.
1) Most people would agree that the scoring part of a placekicker's job is more important than the kicking off part.
2) I suspect a punter's quality has no more of an effect on net return average than a kick-off guy's quality. (If I'm wrong, it's because punters are more differentiated inside the 20 than I think.)
3) Hanson seems to punt about half as often as Gost kicks off.
So unless I'm terribly mistaken, a punter's average impact on the game (holding for kicks aside) is less than 1/4 of a placekicker's, perhaps much less.