I'm gonna throw out the fact that Hodges was considered the best punter in his draft class. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/2005/draft/players/62411.html Iunno tf you guys expect...it's not like theres a superstar punter out there waiting for us to grab him...
I don't like inconsistency... I rather someone have an average leg but be consistent than have a powerful leg and be inconsistent. A shank at crucial time in the game can be detrimental.
What a load of crap... Graham was bad, but there's no way this guy is better. I suggest the coaching staff deal with losses by reevaluating their mind-numbingly conservative schemes rather than scapegoating the punter.
Yes, but all punters do that occasionally. That scouting report shows me that he was thought highly enough to be drafted. That's enough for me. Dragosovich, Ryan, Hodges, Prather, whoever our replacement punter was going to be, it wasn't going to be that pretty. Seriously, what are you guys expecting. Every punter we've had for the last 8 years or so has been pretty bad at times. Might as well bring in a young guy and hope for the best. I would love to see one person who says "no way this guy is better" or "this guy sucks" to show me who should have been brought in instead. I guarantee 95% of you have never even seen him play. Jeez, Graham was awful, we bring in a replacement, I don't know what you guys wanted. He was on the Patriots' practice squad earlier this month. I mean come on. I'm shocked at the huge negative reaction.
The Jets signed P Waylon Prather to the practice squad. I figure he is there to remind ol' Reggie that the leash is short. Don't screw up.
Great post. Being irrationally negative is the plight of the sport fans...but only Jets fans would flip their shit for 4 pages about how the team couldn't sign a proven and very good punter 3 weeks into the season in a league that is always looking for punters... Hodges has talent...he was good enough to be drafted...we have someone else on the PS...we got rid of a guy who wa clearly declining as a punter...cause everyone LOVED Graham when he first joined the team...like WTF more do you want? What'd you guys expect...Moorman?
I agree that there has been a lot of irrational negativity on here this week, but one of the reasons we lost that game on Sunday was that we were very poor on special teams - particularly the punting game. That's not irrational negativity, it's the truth, and it was reinforced by the fact that the punter was cut. My gripe with this is that we're replacing a guy with another one that appears to have similar, if not worse, career numbers. Granted he has had a short career so far. Personally I would have rather seen them go after a guy right out of college that wasn't picked up instead of someone who has performed at the same level as the guy we got rid of because of poor performance. I don't think that's irrational at all. Hopefully this guy works out, but just looking at the surface I wonder why the move was made. I have a high opinion of our FO and think they are pretty smart football guys so hopefully they're seeing something we're not. I credit them for trying to fix the problem. I hope we don't have to discuss the punter for the rest of the season. Kickers aren't football players anyway.
I never thought we'd be in a position to say "Our team would be awesome if it wasn't for our shitty special teams." Ugh. The Jets just can never have all the pieces together.
Not sure if anyone else posted this yet but this is obviously the ONLY reason this guy was signed. "and was signed to the Patriots practice squad Sept. 4 of this year."
I think everyone should give the new punter a chance before we throw him under the bus. Mangini isn't stupid enough to choose a new punter worse than our already shitty punter.
Yes cuz that actually serves a purpose. The PUNTER who likely knows none of the offensive or defensive formations/plays, and even if he knew any of their special teams plays/lanes whatever, those will be changed by the time the Pats roll around again... So I seriously doubt this has anything to do with Hodges being on the pats practice squad....
