rockaction
Footballguy
Janikowski is the only exception I can think of and he was just a different kind of dude than most college kickers.Fair. But he was having a good year to that point."Money" is strong
He wasn't that great his rookie year either. And he missed a kick in all three playoff games he appeared in. I think the pressure of being a "highly-drafted" kicker doomed him from the start. Should never have drafted him, and should've moved on long ago when the cracks started showing.
I was thinking today that when you're drafted as a kicker in the third you're kind of doomed mentally. It just must weigh on a guy to justify that kind of draft position when there's little room for error at the position and any pressure in your head and you just start missing until the yips set in. Then you can forget your career.
Seabass was different. It also helped that kickers weren't as accurate or good back then and that the Raiders of that time period were . . . well . . . not very bright. Davis had his own measures and there was no real footing that a national media or fanbase had where they could say, "Hey, that's really ****ing dumb!" In fact, the really ****ing dumb part of it was part of the point for Raiders fans.
By the time Seabass was on the Raiders, Al's innovative maverick tendencies were antiquated and self-defeating. It was sad to see it because I love the unquantifiable and untamed, but the NFL got really precise in ways that required an adjustment that Al never made.
I miss him, but it was what it was.