Question for Mike Herman (1 Viewer)

[Raider Nation]

Martin Gramatica's career stats:

+------------------+------------+ | Field Goals | PAT |+----------+------------------+------------+--------+| Year TM | Made ATT PCT | Made ATT | Points |+----------+------------------+------------+--------+| 1999 tam | 27 32 84.4 | 25 25 | 106 || 2000 tam | 28 34 82.4 | 42 42 | 126 || 2001 tam | 23 29 79.3 | 28 28 | 97 || 2002 tam | 32 39 82.1 | 32 32 | 128 || 2003 tam | 16 26 61.5 | 33 34 | 81 || 2004 tam | 11 19 57.9 | 21 22 | 54 |+----------+------------------+------------+--------+| TOTAL | 137 179 76.5 | 181 183 | 592 |+----------+------------------+------------+--------+How do you explain a guy having a FG% of 84/82/79/82 in his first four seasons, then following that up with back-to-back brutal seasons? It's not like he was a 14-year vet when his problems started. He was still a VERY young man for a kicker. I seem to recall he had some injury issues (a hamstring maybe?), but his rapid fall from grace was amazing.Can you recall another instance of a PK who was pretty close to stud level having the same type of precipitous drop as Gramatica? His first 5 years in the league, he was always one of the first 3-4 kickers off the board in fantasy drafts. He went from booming 50+ yarders - with great accuracy - to handing Gatorade to Vanderjagt in only a couple of years.

 

[cracKer]

Ankiel'd

 

[Raider Nation]

Ankiel'd

So most of the problem was in his melon?

 

[Mike Herman]

Here was my write-up on Gramatica from last year:

"For the first four years of his career, Martin Gramatica was one of the better kickers in the NFL. His field goal average was over 80% in three of those years, and he didn’t miss any extra points. He was a very impressive from long range, going 13 of 20 on field goals 50 yards and beyond. He consistently got distance and touchbacks on kickoffs. Then on that fateful day of September 14, 2003 everything changed. The Carolina Panthers blocked two field goal and one extra point attempts by Gramatica. It may not have been his fault, but he never recovered. For the next year and a half he looked good in practice in both regular and pre-season but continued to miss kicks in games. He tried everything. He studied game films, he improved his conditioning workouts, and he even switched his jersey to his old lucky college number. Nothing worked. Tampa Bay finally gave up after 11 games into the 2004 season, when he missed all three field goal attempts in a game (against Carolina ironically). He was released several days later."

 

[Raider Nation]

Here was my write-up on Gramatica from last year:

"For the first four years of his career, Martin Gramatica was one of the better kickers in the NFL. His field goal average was over 80% in three of those years, and he didn’t miss any extra points. He was a very impressive from long range, going 13 of 20 on field goals 50 yards and beyond. He consistently got distance and touchbacks on kickoffs. Then on that fateful day of September 14, 2003 everything changed. The Carolina Panthers blocked two field goal and one extra point attempts by Gramatica. It may not have been his fault, but he never recovered. For the next year and a half he looked good in practice in both regular and pre-season but continued to miss kicks in games. He tried everything. He studied game films, he improved his conditioning workouts, and he even switched his jersey to his old lucky college number. Nothing worked. Tampa Bay finally gave up after 11 games into the 2004 season, when he missed all three field goal attempts in a game (against Carolina ironically). He was released several days later."

Very interesting. Thanks. Really unbelievable something like that could happen to a professional. I wonder if he ever tried going to see Dr. Melfi.