MatthewT

I am sure the Saints will be looking at kickers again. The one advantage Hocker still has is his kickoffs. I doubt Morstead will be able to kickoff anytime soon. Question is who is available that would represent an upgrade? Bring Shayne Graham back, another rookie, or bring someone out of retirement? Might be best if the Saints continue to stick with and work with Hocker. I am not certain there are better options at this point.

nutria

We should have a new kicker next week.

spkb25

Don't think Focker survives the carnage at Great Benefit.

SloMotion

Talent pool is thin, kickers all over the league have been screwing up for a few seasons now, just sayin'.

Beastmode

Even Atlanta's kicker missed a couple last week and he's about as good as it gets. I think Hoyer will be alright, bringing in anyone likely won't improve anything unless we find some golden Swedish kicker by chance who has been kicking frozen bags of meatballs at work for fun into trucks.

Budsdrinker

The kicking problems is more than just the kicker. The snaps are high which is throwing the timing off. Just try kicking one time with a long snapper and holder, it's not as easy as you think if your timing gets knocked off.

SaintsBro

Budsdrinker beat me to it while I was posting.

I am not even convinced that Hocker is the real problem here. I know everybody always wants to boo and yell at the kicker but it takes THREE guys to make a kick work.

I remember Dustin Hopkins was also kinda spotty when he was here, he definitely missed a few. That's why they cut him, right? He leaves and goes to Washington and improves to near PERFECT including clutch kicks in crucial situations.

Whatever we think of him now, Hartley was more-or-less a solid guy during 2008 and 2009. He was 13-13 in 2008, he famously sent us to the Super Bowl in OT, and he holds a Super Bowl record (!) for kicking. To me the real erratic, hooky, nail-biting stuff with Garrett Hartley's kicking, it really only started in 2010, and progressed from there. A lot of people blamed the misses on the Adderal or on Hartley being too emo or whatever, but we also lost veteran long snapper Jason Kyle that same year.

Now obviously I know that not every snap is going to be laser-accurate right into the palms of the holder's hands. But it kinda looks to me like, the snaps are coming in all over the place -- some high, some left, some right. A few of them are perfect right into his hands, but a lot of them are out to the side, or waaaay up there at the top of McCown's reach...

Seems to me like that split micro-second of the holder getting it down to the turf and setting it right, could probably make a difference in the kicker's set and his stride. Also notice how when Hocker is kicking off, he booms it right down the middle, or aims it pretty much where ever he wants to.

Regardless of whether it's solely Hocker or someone else's fault, it's basically McMahon at the root of it. Still, I keep watching those long snaps to McCown occasionally go here, there, up, down and everywhere, and I keep wondering if maybe there is some connection there.

spkb25

Have to be honest, wondering about the idea that it is more than the kicker, but didn't graham do pretty good within 50 for us? Let me double check real quick.

Yeah he was 19-22 in '14 and 18-20 under 50. IDK, this kicker **** needs to get fixed.

RailBoss

Well we all know how SP feels about Kickers pretty much the same as Mike Tomlin. Can guarantee the Coach is addressing it this morning. If the game was close we would have choked on those 6 points.

Cruize

When you can't hit the non-pressure kicks, as last nights were, I have no confidence in him moving forward. Payton picked the wrong kicker again.