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Patriots Player Departure Bye Bye Slye

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If he wants to play this year I don’t see why not at least bring him in to compete
Folk was great for us.
We're going to need FGs longer than 45 yards this year.
 
6th to 7th Round Kicker Territory not Fourth Round on a Trade up BB.
 
On the one hand I'd like them to just ****ing find someone for that spot long term. On the other hand, as long as we continue to be one of the worst teams in the NFL (which IMO we still are, even with some progress this offseason), I'd almost rather a bad kicker because a guy who ****s up a game or two for you is actually a good thing for draft slot.
 
Last year was actually one of his better years (21/22 95%). He is 40 yo now though yeah. Haven’t looked much at romo yet but guessing hes unlikely to be worse than slye
Thanks, must have misremembered. That's really good despite his age, I guess even if he lost a little juice suddenly, he'd still be solid. But also have a hard time expecting him to be great at 39 but then just fall off a cliff at 40 simply because it's a 4 instead of a 3. Vrabel had Folk in 2023 so maybe he likes him.
 
Thanks, must have misremembered. That's really good despite his age, I guess even if he lost a little juice suddenly, he'd still be solid. But also have a hard time expecting him to be great at 39 but then just fall off a cliff at 40 simply because it's a 4 instead of a 3. Vrabel had Folk in 2023 so maybe he likes him.

Right, wouldn’t be my sole plan but a plan if hes open to playing this year. A couple titans fans on their board also mentioned him showing signs of age last year so maybe there’s something not seen in the raw numbers.
 
Agree I would have kept ryland, as tie goes to the rookie. Water over the bridge. Slye seemed ok. I was surprised we let him go.
 
Here we go again… they will draft a kicker in the late rounds and some deep thinkers here will call it a waste of a draft pick.

Many think a kicker is unimportant or easily found, until you’re staring at a long game deciding kick with no time left on the clock… then all of a sudden kicker is important.
The basic argument against drafting a kicker is basically "Vinatieri and BAL's sex pest were UDFAs, so why waste a draft pick?" [Ironically, this is also the argument some of us make about Belichick's infatuation with overdrafting DBs in the second round. . . .]

The way I see it is this: the odds of getting a long-term player on day 3 are not high. Drafting a kicker (or punter, for that matter) is a risk, but if they get a second contract, it was worth it. (Ditto for punters and ST guys like Slater and Ebner.)
 
Agree I would have kept ryland, as tie goes to the rookie. Water over the bridge. Slye seemed ok. I was surprised we let him go.
I'm not sure who made the decision, but it felt like they didn't want to give Ryland a chance, with Slye doing all the FGs in preseason.
 
We got Folk originally because others thought he was aging out. We let him go because we thought he was aging out. I don't know, do we figure he can foil that assessment again at this stage?
Old Man Folk worked well here because NE had a punter who boomed kick offs
 
The basic argument against drafting a kicker is basically "Vinatieri and BAL's sex pest were UDFAs, so why waste a draft pick?" [Ironically, this is also the argument some of us make about Belichick's infatuation with overdrafting DBs in the second round. . . .]

The way I see it is this: the odds of getting a long-term player on day 3 are not high. Drafting a kicker (or punter, for that matter) is a risk, but if they get a second contract, it was worth it. (Ditto for punters and ST guys like Slater and Ebner.)
You draft a kicker when you know the entire draft class only has a couple legit pro kickers.

People lost their minds when the Pat’s moved up in the 4th to take Ryland the year before last at pick 112. What they fail to understand is Jake Moody was taken at pick 99 and the number of viable rookie kickers was limited.

If you need a kicker and there are two, and one gets taken ten picks earlier… you draft a kicker in the 4th. Kickers are crucial, they are scoring and field position.
 
The Rohrwasser pick was a clear example of how the media can influence the team on your fate. He was not liked from day 1 by the media. The Pats hid him from everyone and when he was seen, he wore sleeves. Not sure why the Pats held onto him for as long as they did. He was a major distraction for the organization. After his release, he was cancelled by the rest of the NFL.
 
You draft a kicker when you know the entire draft class only has a couple legit pro kickers.
While that is a perfectly logical argument, you'd be surprised at how many football fans believe "Never draft a kicker/punter. Ever."

Also, a historical point: for a good number of years around 2010, for reasons I don't understand, punters started being drafted higher, on average, than kickers.
 
6th to 7th Round Kicker Territory not Fourth Round on a Trade up BB.
John Smith was a walk-on try-out. Surely there's an out of work soccer-playing [edit*]tailor teacher somewhere whom we can find.

[*not even auto-correct, just my brain misfiring]
 
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I don’t know anything about college place kickers but doing a quick read it looks like there’s four kids coming out who are legit. Hopefully we don’t take the guys who’s ranked #4 and trade up into the fourth round
 
And they had Ryland for another 10 years, 5th round pick.
As bad as the Ryland pick was, he still wasn’t the worst Kicker the Pats selected in a fifth round.
 
Just looked up his stats. His 2nd season was night and day over his first. We’ll see if he keeps that up.
Kicking in Arizona and not for a coach not named Belichick could only improve your stats. Plus, Slye barely beat him out in camp. I bet Mayo just flipped a coin.
 
As bad as the Ryland pick was, he still wasn’t the worst Kicker the Pats selected in a fifth round.
Ryland was actually selected in the 4th round (my mistake), and he is not bad at all. Ryland was a NFC backup All Pro in his 2nd year. One of our better draft picks over the last two years, but we released him. Go figure why we give up on talented draft picks. @State and @captain stone hated on the Ryland draft pick with lots of posts, but that is simply a couple of posters with no patience to develop athleticism.
 
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