Gost is back: Two-year deal

[PatsWickedPissah]

No, I can't say his replacement will be more reliable. That is the question right? : P

The way I see it there are 4 options.

1 - He is more reliable and we save money.
2 - He is equally reliable and we save money.
3 - He is less reliable but the money we can use elsewhere is a value add.
4 - He is less reliable and the money we can use elsewhere is a value loss.

I am not saying all options are equally likely but I am okay rolling the dice here. Now if Gost wants to come back at a pay cut that could work too. But if someone tells me we need to bring Gost back AND make him one of the highest paid kickers in the NFL then I am totally against it.

No way. He simply doesn't deserve to be paid top market. His performance hasn't demonstrated that IMO.

And it seems 31 other GMs agree as well seeing as no one has jumped on him yet.

Deserve has nothing to do with it.

I think BB looks at 3 & 4 and thinks if a guy is worse in the playoffs, Game Over. The cost of playoff loss >> couple million saved to afford to add some random FA player.
Not worth the risk just to save low single digit millions. He won't simply "roll the dice".
That could change if there's some college kicker scouted that he falls in love with.

 

[1960Pats]

The Bears learned a lesson when they “moved on” from Robbie Gould, who’s been lights out ever since. Meanwhile, the Bears’ kicking game tumbled.

IIRC, the Pats moved on from Gould so they could keep AV, who later dumped us for the great indoors of Indy. We were lucky to land a kicker as good as Gostkowski when AV left. He's a keeper.

 

[Bruins29]

We were lucky to land a kicker as good as Gostkowski

Better than

 

[scout]

He won't simply "roll the dice".

There it is! It is an understatement to say BB is detail orientated.

 

[Kontradiction]

He’s missed in some pretty big moments, and it’s hurt. Nobody can deny that. He’s hit in some pretty big moments and it’s helped us win. Nobody can deny that. Start from there then work your way to a logical conclusion. There are many, MANY kickers in the league worse than Gost. Kicking has not been a problem with him through his entire body of work. If they can bring him back at a reasonable price, they definitely should.

 

[Patriot Missile]

There are only about 5 reliable kickers in this league and Ghost is one of them. None of them are perfect by any means but still head and shoulders above the rest. Get it done. I don’t wanna know what its like to have a ****ty kicker.

 

[Richard Camembert]

 

[Vatahala]

PFT reporting the Pats are making progress in contract talks with Ghost.

 

[SHOWTIME15]

PFT reporting the Pats are making progress in contract talks with Ghost.

Patriots, Gostkowski making progress in contract talks

 

[FreeTedWilliams]

1 minute left in the Super Bowl, he kicked a FG to seal the win.

 

[rochrist]

Ghost lifetime pct: 87.4 Vinatieri lifetime pct: 84.3

 

[SBLIII]

Ghost lifetime pct: 87.4 Vinatieri lifetime pct: 84.3

I think it's fair to say he has been more consistent over his first 12,13 years just missing the signature kicks although that 13-3 kick was big. Still an all-time great kicker that we have to keep.

 

[tasmlab]

You are shocked that BB thinks through all possibilities and considers the odds of making less than a 1 yard to end the game vs. a 42 yard kick ?

Lets say the chances are around 80% -- Ghost was 3-for-4 from 40-49 in the postseason but this kick is on the lower end of the range -- you have a discussion about the biggest snap of your season every time. Whats are the odds to sneak it the few inches with the greatest QB sneak guy ever behind centre ?

Your mistake here is to attribute them talking it through solely to Ghost and trust when in reality this situation would play itself out exactly the same with ANY kicker in history. Now if there were 2-3 yards more to go and they consider going for it vs. a 45 yard field goal this would be a totally different ball game.

You are just seeing what you want to see and not whats there.

And, all of this calculation was to take place within 20 seconds time spent. I'd hope that BB would take a few seconds to get everything straight.

 

[Jimke]

It takes the Raiders 9 minutes to come up with a mega deal for Trent Brown, while
the Patriots are spending mega days working on a contract for Gostkowski.

 

[luuked]

It takes the Raiders 9 minutes to come up with a mega deal for Trent Brown, while
the Patriots are spending mega days working on a contract for Gostkowski.

Yeah they are cutting it close with the next game being in 167 days.

 

[jah]

It takes the Raiders 9 minutes to come up with a mega deal for Trent Brown, while
the Patriots are spending mega days working on a contract for Gostkowski.

It's much easier when you have more cap space than you can use.

 

[BradyFTW!]

There is a 5th option you aren't considering: we end up in field goal hell!!

No rolling the die!

Come on man, you can't get any more accurate than this vvvvv

View attachment 22833

That image could alternately be read as "there are 13 active kickers who are in the ballpark of his accuracy". More importantly though, I really don't like using accuracy percentage as a singular measure of a kicker's quality, because by that measure making/missing a 25 yard kick is equivalent to making/missing a 60 yard kick. There are so many other factors that would have to be evaluated, like how playing on a team with a good offense and an efficient QB means you're generally more likely to attempting a lot of short kicks.

Which isn't to say this is a criticism of Gostkowski or anything. Personally, I think the longer that he remains unsigned the more likely it is that the comes back, so the fact that he's still out there is encouraging IMO. I guess this is becoming more of a general word dump on FG% as a way of measuring kickers, and how I'd really like to see something better used in its place. Maybe this already exists and I just haven't seen it, but I'd be really interested to see some kind of chart or metric that shows/weighs kickers' percentages at various yardage ranges. Could be a really cool, visual way to show kickers' strengths and weaknesses and compare them against each other.

 

[italian pat patriot]

Considering the average of all kickers in the league i am very satisfied to have Ghost with us and i hope he is back...

 

[Hammer of Thor]

It takes the Raiders 9 minutes to come up with a mega deal for Trent Brown, while
the Patriots are spending mega days working on a contract for Gostkowski.

Tells you everything you need to know about the organizations, actually:

Most successful American sports franchise of the 21at century: carefully works out details of contract arrangement for a secondary but useful part.

A 21st century NFL buffoon franchise in the Raiders: hands out $65 million contract in 9 minutes to a Patriot reclamation project, like a drunken sailor on leave with a fistful of cash at a strip club. Like the sailor, I expect the Raiders to come down with herpes.

 

[Deus Irae]

1 minute left in the Super Bowl, he kicked a FG to seal the win.

Sure, but what has he done for the Patriots LATELY?