Anyway with the way our ST played this year I would be ok with drafting a punter in the 5th round bring Tom Hackett to NY !!!
Spot on! Look at how many big kicks the Pats kickers (first Vinateri and now Gostkowski) have made. How many games would they have lost without that reliable, consistent place kicker? Their punters have been no slouches, either. Blindly following any rule with regards to the draft makes no sense. Some posters think a team should always take the BAP with no exceptions. I disagree with that notion. In general, one should follow that rule, but there are times when it would make no sense. For example, if the BAP at the Jets pick in the draft this year is yet another DE or DT, it would make zero sense for the Jets to draft him. They've already drafted DL in the first round in 2015, 2013, 2012, and 2011, and in addition they added Kenrick Ellis with their 2nd pick in 2011. Meanwhile they've basically ignored the WR, OLBs, OL, and RB positions in the early rounds during those years. Some positions are also more valuable or important than others, and often times there may only be a fraction of a point difference between prospects, or there may be prospects who are rated more or less equally.
We currently have no punter on the roster and there has been zero talk about bringing Quigley back (thankfully).We also haven't scheduled any visits with any free agent punters so I'm assuming Macs gonna draft one somewhere between rounds 5-7?
Do you think that the new touchback rule - moving touchbacks on kick offs from the 20 yd line to the 25 yd line - will make teams value a good kicker/punter more? A good kicker/punter could kick the ball high but a shorter distance to give his team time to get up to challenge for the ball.
New England (Belichick from his NYG days of Jennings & Landetta) has always understood the value of a great kicking game. Zoltán Meskó (Michigan) was the top punting prospect in the 2010 draft and New England spent a 5th round pick on him. In 2011 and 2012 Ryan Allen won back-to-back Ray Guy Awards and Belichick seeing a possible worthwhile upgrade brought Allen into camp where he ended up taking Mesko's job.
